Funke Akindele Exclusive: ‘The Story Of Jenifa

The superstar actress has risen, in such short time, from just one of the numerous actresses around, to become ‘the’ actress – thanks to her movie Jenifa, which catapulted her from obscurity into mainstream prominence.
Now a Globacom ambassador, and a multi award-winning actress-producer, the UNILAG alumnus is back with a new project The Return of Jenifa (TROJ). And, one week after a star-studded premier in Lagos, the star actress sat down with our correspondent for a quikie
How do you cope with so much work?
It’s by the grace of God. I sleep like seven hours in the night and crash like one hour in the car.
Six, seven hours?
I have to because of the stress of my job. We’re always on set acting. The light is really hot. And it won’t be good if you don’t eat and sleep. So I try my best to eat and sleep well. I need that energy to keep pushing on.
Let’s go way back, probably to the time you were born. Give me a brief description of your family. Where you grew up?
I grew up in Lagos, I come from Lagos. I have three siblings. Two girls and a boy.
Where in Lagos did you grow up?
Somolu, Surulere. My mum is a gynaecologist, my father, an educationist. Growing up was fun, I was more of a tom boy, playful. I had fun.
How much did television at that point in time influenced you, your mum being a gynaecologist and dad educationist, were they strict? Did you have access to TV, comics?
Yeah, definitely I was given access to watch TV and read comics. We were given access to it. Just make sure you’re silent. You read your books. You do the right thing at the right time.
So from primary school to secondary school; Which secondary school?
Lagos state model college, Igbo-okuta.
Let’s fast forward to when you were featured in the very popular ‘I Need To Know’ series. How did that come about?
Well my first experience for the camera was on Opa Williams set, ‘Naked Wire’. I featured in a film.
How did you get the role?
I just attended the audition and Opa Williams is such a gentle man. I heard about the audition then, I was given a role. After then, I was on I.T at APCON I just told my boss, ‘oga I want to go for this audition’. He was like, ‘go, go, go’.
How old were you then?
I was past teenage years. I went, and I got a role.
So in the series you had to play down your age, the character in the script was quite younger than you were. How did you manage it?
At first I found it a bit difficult. My director was always complaining on set. You’re not talking like a teenager. You need to talk like a teenager. I got home a bit sad. And my younger sister said ‘why are you worried?’. ‘They’re going to take the role from me o’, I would answer. Then she would take a look at my script. ‘What are you supposed to say?’ ‘No mummy, yes mummy’. Just say it like that, and I went back and I did it like that, and I got the role. So she taught me how to play like a teenager.
Read the rest of the interview here