WERUCHE OPIA
THERISINGSTARWITH THE SNACK CONNECTIONS
WHEN WERUCHE OPIA RETURNED to work last December on set of comedy series Sliced, her first job since the pandemic began and following her award-winning performance in BBC drama I May Destroy You, she knew she had to secure the bag. And by bag we mean Bourbon creams. “I had to figure out which runners had the chocolate biscuits,” she says. “It’s a hustle; all I want on set is Bourbons, so you have to build a relationship, but everyone comes to me because they’re like, ‘Weruche has always got the biscuits!’”
The British-nigerian actor certainly knows how to survive on a film and TV set, having spent the last decade appearing in such shows as Top Boy, Inside No. 9 and Bad Education (plus spin-off
The Bad Education Movie), as well as establishing herself in Nigeria’s film industry, aka ‘Nollywood’, as the lead in 2014 romcom When Love Happens
and its 2016 sequel. But right before she landed a role in Michaela Coel’s celebrated I May Destroy You, playing Terry, a jobbing actor auditioning for TV ads, she was doing the same. “A year ago, I was doing commercials and commercials and commercials,” Opia recalls. “I wasn’t booking any film or TV, so it was very visceral.”
The lack of work might’ve been down to Opia’s refusal to take on “two-dimensional” stereotypes of Black women. She didn’t want to be boxed into “sassy rude girl” characters she had played before. “I thought I might remove myself from a lot of things, but I was willing to make that sacrifice for my own comfort and for the trajectory of my career,” she explains. “There might be some exceptions, but it depends on if there’s something in the script I want to lend my skin to.”
Of course, since I May Destroy You became a global success, the quality and quantity of scripts coming Opia’s way have vastly increased, but how do you choose the next role when the previous one set such a high bar? “It’s definitely a lot of pressure,” the actor admits. “I’ve been blessed to have made the right decisions to this point. I mean, I almost didn’t do I May Destroy You! But I always think about every other role that comes afterwards — you know, will it affect me positively or negatively? I'm just grateful to be in a position where I don't have to take everything that comes my way because I need to.”
Opia is pretty happy about her decision to spend the last six months in Canada filming her Hollywood feature debut, “a badass role” in Slumberland, the live-action adaptation of the comic-book series Little Nemo In Slumberland by Winsor Mccay, directed by Francis Lawrence. “He’s an actor’s director,” she says. “We’d have conversations before each scene and before I came on set and even when I wasn’t on set, he’d check up on me and ask if I wanted to come and hang out and make sure I knew who everyone was.”
The cast, including Jason Momoa, Kyle Chandler and Chris O’dowd, helped make it an enjoyable shoot, and Opia is most excited for people back home to see it. “It’s a family-friendly, fun project,” she says. “I can’t wait for my nieces to watch it.”
It was while in Canada that she attended the 36th Independent Spirit Awards, where she received her trophy for Best Ensemble Cast (Scripted). The award is currently sitting on a shelf in her London flat, but after being nominated in the Supporting Actress category at the TV BAFTAS, it may soon have company. “I’m hoping to put a few more up there,” says Opia, but in the meantime, she’s focused on making choices that ensure longevity on a world stage.
“I want my career to be global between Nigeria, the UK and America,” she reflects. “I intend to have a base in each place where, when I want to do work, if there’s a project that reaches out to me or stands out in those three places, it will always be a priority for me. Nigeria because it’s home, UK because it’s home, and Hollywood because it’s Hollywood!” Go forth and conquer.
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