Nigerian Nollywood screen goddess, Genevieve Nnaji known and respected by all has opened up on the instances in her life which shaped her into the woman she has become.
The actress in an interview with Venture Africa, revealed the vital role her childhood played in shaping her adding that she learnt to be humble and appreciative from selling for her mother.
On her childhood, she said ““I was a tomboy. I had three brothers right behind me. My sisters were too busy with themselves – you know how elder sisters are. I played football on the street,” Genevieve told me. She also used to engage in fistfights with the boys who lived in her compound. “I got into a fight with a neighbor of mine who was a boy and I beat him up… I was six years old. We were mates and he was fat. He definitely asked for it and he got it,”
Revealing how helping her mother while growing up helped shape her life, the Actress said: “She traded, she sold stuff, she got her children to sell stuff for her and we had to. We had no choice. We were living in her house. We cried. She did things you needed to do at that time. Your friends are not doing it. Why should you be the one to be doing it? You’re embarrassed about it, but I’m grateful for that because I think if I wasn’t even given that chance to be humble, I probably wouldn’t appreciate what I have today and understand that it doesn’t make me better than the next person. And I just know that everyone is equal and everyone is entitled to love and respect.”
When asked about her career, especially her first movie role, she said: “My role was to interview Regina Askia, a former beauty queen turned actress who was a goddess at that time. That was major. I had to pull it off as a pro and I did it, and the producers asked me if I had done it before and I said no. They were amazed at my confidence—probably I had some training in church or something— but I remember I enjoyed doing it,”