Empress: My father foresaw bad publicity for me

Weekend Magazine: Tell us about the real Empress. Empress Njamah: I’m obviously different from the Empress you see on the screen. I’m very homely and playful person. I like people around me. I also cook a lot. I also like spending my spare time with the less privileged in orphanage homes. I also find time […]

Weekend Magazine: Tell us about the real Empress.

Empress Njamah: I’m obviously different from the Empress you see on the screen. I’m very homely and playful person. I like people around me. I also cook a lot. I also like spending my spare time with the less privileged in orphanage homes. I also find time to design clothes. I hate being idle; so I make sure I get my time occupied doing something useful and beneficial to me or the society.

Is this why you have been off the movie radar for a while?

Not really and likewise I’m not going to say that I am tired of shooting home video, but I think it’s about time we did movies. We are like third-rated in the world in terms of home entertainment. It’s high time we took our potentials to a higher level.  I do a lot of things and I thank God for the fame that the industry has given to me. I have not stopped shooting movies.

It is just that I have a lot of things doing at the same time, so have limited time for even myself. I run a bridal make-up outfit. I do interior decorations. I do furniture and other decoration stuffs. Basically, my hands are on deck. I do a lot of travelling because of the materials I need to get from here and there. Once an actress always an actress, Nollywood does not have an expiry date; even when I am old, I can start acting the part of an aged woman. So, I haven’t left my love, it comes if and when it comes. Acting will always be part of me.

How did you venture into the handcraft thing? Did you always have a flair for it?

I have always had a flair for art works. I experiment with colors a lot and bring out the best in color combinations. I am not an idle person; I don’t know how to stay idle. I am very adventurous. I am somebody who loves to experiment. I am hardly jobless. The bridal make-up comes up almost every weekend. From one job, I get another job and I get another job from that one. Bridal make-up has been very okay. Interior decoration as well has come in handy for me and so far no one has been disappointed with what I had to offer. I like to do new things. Acting is obviously in me. Acting is beautiful; it pays, but I just like to venture into a lot of things. What is important is that I love everything I do and I do them to the best of my ability.

What is it like coming from a family of actors and actresses?

It‘s normal. There is nothing wrong with acting or engineering. It is fun and interesting. It is something we can all sit down and talk about. It helps to have a brother who does the same thing that you do. We learn and advise on how it could be done better. We are used to it and it just flows. There is actually nothing strange about it.

Though my father wasn’t in support when we started, my mother gave us all the support we needed. She has always been encouraging and she helped made our father understand that this was what we had chosen in life.

My father watched my first movie from the beginning to the end. I was scared because he never said a word after watching the movie. I was apprehensive and couldn’t sleep. My father was very strict. In the morning, he came to my room and told me the movie was okay. He advised me on how the industry was going to be. And in fact, what he said was what I eventually saw. He told me I was going to get bad publicity. He told me people would live my life for me and all that. There is nothing I do that will not be in the papers and advised me on how to keep my head up despite all.

A lot has been written and said about you, most of which are negative. Are you really a controversial person?

I don t know why people think of me in such a way. I am not controversial; there are many actresses who will do worse than what I have done, yet they will not be termed controversial. I am the opposite of what people think, and that’s the truth; except if they are judging my being colorful for being controversial. Being colorful does not mean I am controversial. For instance, I am very passionate about my hair and also colorful with my fingers. Also I wear loud make-up. I do what I believe in. So when I hear people say I am controversial I just laugh, because I know I am not.

How have you been able to cope with all the negative perceptions about you?

I would say I saw it coming as I was told about it. My brothers were in it before me. We read stuff about them and we would come home and laugh about them. If my father hadn’t prepared my mind and if my brothers weren’t in the industry, I probably would have broken down by now. We are all humans and would surely be affected when negative stories are in the media about us, but I was sure prepared for it.

I have grown thick skin about such reports. I have come to realize that that is the prize one has to pay for being a celebrity. But one thing that has always been going for me is the response from people who truly love me. A lot of people know what I can do and what I cannot do. That is one way I cope with negativity about me in the media. Another way is that I kneel down to beg God to give me the strength to overcome. It is not easy. It is traumatizing and devastating, psychologically it really is not good for me but for the love of Christ and for the love of friends and for the love of what I believe or who I believe in, I keep on moving.

Many see you as a snub. What do you have to say to that?

It’s not good to judge a book by its cover. I hate pretence and a lot of people like to pretend. I do not sit with such people and talk about things that I’m not.  A lot of people live false lives but I don’t. When some people get to know me better they discover that I am different from what they thought. People who know me know that I am far from weird and also far from being a snub. I am the last person you can call a snub, because I overplay. Even my friends do caution me from playing too much with people. They remind me that I am a celebrity but then I am also human (laughing).