NIGERIA: Award winning Nigerian actress, Rita Dominic on producing and her most memorable roles

Record ID: 236125

  • Title: NIGERIA: Award winning Nigerian actress, Rita Dominic on producing and her most memorable roles
  • Date: 28th June 2013
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) RITA DOMINIC, NOLLYWOOD ACTRESS AND FILM PRODUCER SAYING: "It was such a deep film, I'd never played anything like that before in my life, and it's a true story sort of you know so it was very challenging, very very challenging."
  • Embargoed: 13th July 2013 13:00
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  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Reuters ID: LVA70QBPOG8RX2Z9PRM2M0QSSXZD
  • Story Text: Having featured in over 100 films in her 15-year career, award winning Nigerian actress Rita Dominic, recently debuted in her first role as co-producer in a comedy titled "The Meeting".
    The actress, known for her dramatic roles, says she has evolved since she started acting in school plays and children television shows.

    "I have been doing this since I was five and all I remember is I will come back from school, do my home work, and then after homework we'll start preparing for the Saturday show, you know, it was called children's variety at the time so I could do.... I used to do different things you know, choreography, drama sketches, you know so I had the full support of my parents you know," said Dominic.
    Weaned on Nigeria's prolific Nollywood movie industry - the third largest in the world after Bollywood and Hollywood, Dominic is now one of Africa's best known actresses.
    She says she is constantly looking for roles that test her as an actress, one of the reasons that drove her to try her hand at production.

    "The challenge came where I wanted to do certain kinds of film, I wanted to be seen as a serious actor, I think that's where the challenge was because you know, I think at a point there were not so many scripts out there that will stretch you as an actor and make you step outside your comfort zone," she said in an interview with Reuters.
    Dominic says her most memorable role to date was the character of a woman whose traumatic childhood in a seemingly ideal middle class family resulted in a life of turmoil, depression, and self destruction in the emotional Kenyan film, 'Shattered'.
    She won the African Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for best actress in a leading role for her portrayal of the multi-layered character - one she says she had never been more challenged to play.

    "It was such a deep film, I'd never played anything like that before in my life, and it's a true story sort of you know so it was very challenging, very very challenging," she said.
    Dominic hopes to play even more intense roles and create films that break the stereotype earned by Nollywood's "microwave" industry - where movie makers take just a few days on a shoestring budget to churn out poorly produced but popular films.
    But the 38-year-old doesn't regret her journey through Nollywood. She says every role she has played to date has contributed to the actress she has become.

    "Every character I play means something to me, you know, I..... they are very challenging and they are very dear to me because I get to play characters that I am not, characters that are very different from me. However, there are some of those roles that you know, maybe like I have soft spot for," Dominic says.

    "People see the character she plays and they often think she's those people, she's completely different obviously because she's a good actress, so she is a laid back person, she likes..... loves watching movies, I mean obsessively watching movies, she loves hanging out with her close friends and just chilling out and she has a really good sense of humour," said Dominic's friend and television personality, Michelle Dede.
    'The Meeting', a story that follows the trials of a Lagos based corporate executive who finds himself at the mercy of political patronage while he tries to secure a meeting for a government contract, showed in 12 cinemas across the West African country for four months and has made a profit of 20 million naira (127,389 US dollars).
    It may not be the seven-figures seen in Hollywood, but it is the sort of return on investment that Dominic hopes will encourage more of Nigeria's movie makers to improve the quality of Nollywood productions.
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