Story of aYoung Actress Venturing into Movie Production
Arguably,gy ‘The Last ThreeD igits’g star ranks amongstg the ggrowth category of new actors cum producers in Nollywood, who are makingg a difference with their talents and worth at the moment. Since her return to the industryy in 2015, Shirleyy has moved
The actress jjust a couplep of weeks agog celebrated her birthday,y reportedp to be a score and half. Prior to her politicalp stint, she left the industryy to train as cabin executive at Cranfi eld Aviation School in South Africa, after which she worked with a pprivate airline before returning to Nollywood.y
Passionate about her craft and perhapsp determined to ‘learn byy doing’,g Shirley took a stepp further to attend the New York Film Academy.y The Kingg and The Maidens, Happyppy Anniversary,y My y Neighbour’sg Wife, Cross of Royalty,yy The Sassyy One and Complicitypy are among g the movies she listed to have featured in. She revealed that from the start she has alwaysy wanted to act. Due to one reason or the other, she had to finish school before makingg the move but already had started modelling.g
“Commercial modellingg I could do while I was still in school because it’s jjust pphotographygpy and once youy are done you are off,” she said. “But actingg I had to finish school and once I was done with that, actingg started and myy dad didn’t have much to sayy about it because he saw that I did well as a model and he was confident that I would excel as an actor.”
Watchingg the likes of Joke Silva and Liz Benson while growinggg up,p it’s only natural that she ppossiblyy must have drawn from their fountain of rich theat - rics. In cinematography,gpy the fun of having different roles “and pplayingyg characters that yyou are not in real life” are exciting to her.
In addition to takingg upp roles “that are veryy challenging”gg and relatively y connect with the outside world making g the act look believable, she loves having g access to the script(ps) before acceptingpg to pplayy whatever role ppresented to her – to her, an actress’ abilityy should not be regimented.g For her, there are no fixed characteristics to success and that adopt - ingg a differentlyy ppeculiar approachpp to success lies with the individual involved.
Shirley’sy settingg out to pproduce her own movies is not an accident. “It’s justj somethingg yyou need to do as an actor to ppush yyourself. I didn’t justj decide. I didn’t wake upp one morningg to sayy I will pproduce myy own film. When yyou have acquired knowledge you wouldn’t just wait to ppour it out,” she explained.p
How well equippedqpp is she with movie productionp in terms of technical knowhow and other pprerequisites?q She said, “I know what a ggood storyy is when I see one and then I engage people to work for me and I ppayy them.”
With Ogechig “Shirley”y Igweg in the saddle, time will tell how the youngy g actress will turn the attention of Nol - lywoody watchers and movie lovers in her direction.