I want to live a normal life – Vina of BBA
Weekly Trust: You were once quoted as describing your personality as amplified. What do you mean when you describe yourself as that? Malvina Longpe: Well what is amplified to you will surely be different as amplified to me, but for me to say my personality was amplified just means I was a goal getter and […]
Weekly Trust: You were once quoted as describing your personality as amplified. What do you mean when you describe yourself as that?
Malvina Longpe: Well what is amplified to you will surely be different as amplified to me, but for me to say my personality was amplified just means I was a goal getter and I could be over the top and very outrageous.
How was your growing up like?
Growing up for me was a two world thing, because I grew up in Nigeria for 11 years and moved to the UK and lived there for 16 years. So I had two different backgrounds of growing up
Can you tell us about your experience on the set of BBA 2011?
It is an experience that can’t really be spoken about, because if you are not in it, you won’t get or understand it. If you were not there and I explain it to you, it will not make a lot of sense, but for me as a person the experience was very overwhelming. I was opportuned to see different people from different countries, organizations and culture all living together trying to fight for the same thing, the grand prize. The experience was one that I never thought I will get or enjoy, but I did.
Your root has been contentious among your fans, you may use this opportunity to say exactly where you come from?
I am from Plateau State. The whole Lagos thing was from BBA. They got my state of origin wrong, I don’t know what happened, but I was put down to be from Lagos. I think they just got that wrong.
Looking back at BBA 2011, what did you wish you would have done better. Any regrets?
To wish I had done anything in a better way, hmmmm….not really. I think the way everything worked out for me was the way it was supposed to work out. I don’t regret anything at all and I don’t take back any moment of the show, because everything that happened that day was actually meant to happen and I actually loved it.
How have you been able to cope with fame after the BBA?
I found it ok, because I already was working in a radio station and even then a lot of people know me. Fame only became amplified after the show, so, to me it was just like the everyday thing but in a bigger version. Though it still gets into my head like …’oh my God that is my picture on the bill board or on TV!’ It’s scary, but I think I’m coping with it one day at a time.
What was the reaction of your parents when you told them you were goinginto the set of BBA?
My mum wasn’t really happy about it, because they watch Big Brother UK and know the kind of things they see there. Well they didn’t know how to react to it. Even when my mum objected to it and said it wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing and all that. I kind of thought ok and I just asked her to please let me do it and if there is one thing that I ever asked my mum for was to please allow me to go and let me do what I had to do and she did. Funny enough my dad was ok with it. I actually thought my dad would be the one to object to it, but he didn’t. He instead said go ahead and do what you have to do, we would be behind you a hundred percent and they were. My mum was a little bit jiffy, because she didn’t want me to go.
Did the BBA portrayed the real you?
Some parts of the BBA did portray the real me and that would be when I was in the diary room or when I was sitting down with other housemates. Sometimes I tried to keep to myself, because there some issues in the House that I did not want to get involved in and if I had gotten involved with them, I would have been over the top. I did not want to bring myself to that kind of situation. So the Big Brother did try to bring out the real me, but there was still a part of me that I had to curtail and that kind of stuff (laughing)
If you had another chance, would you give the BBA another go?
For the experience and meeting new people I definitely would, but not now maybe in another two years or so.
It was apparent that you and Kareen were not the best of friends in the House. Why the conflict between you two?
The whole Kareen and I situation was because we were both a pair with the same personality, but very different people. Putting two big people with the same personality in the same house, they are bound to clash and obviously we were both trying to fight for the same thing, though we are from the same country. We both really wanted to go home with the grand prize. I had nothing against her at all, but we had to understand that it was all a game and everybody was fighting for one thing or another.
How true is the story of Kareen and yourself dating the same guy at the same time?
(laughing) that is so funny, because we never dated the same guy at the same time. The Big Brother just mistook the whole situation and turned it around and made it look real. Basically, I didn’t date the guy, he was a friend and in fact, my uncle’s nephew. We got on really well and Kareen met him I think three years after I had met him. I met him in 2005 and Kareen met him in 2008. The story is totally false. It’s just that the same guy who knew me was telling Kareen whom he was dating. She knew me before she even went to the House and it was a coincidence that we were both in the same House at the same time.
Is your hairstyle a form of signature you are trying to create for yourself?
Not actually, it was just one of the things that I did when I came back from Malta in December 2010. When I went back to the UK, I decided to start things afresh and I wanted to look different. So, I went to the hairdresser and I asked him to cut my hair and he gave me this style which I have been rocking since then till now. Luckily for me it became like a signature for me in the House. It wasn’t intentional but fate played it out with the hairstyle.
You are from Plateau state. What is it with Jos and the BBA contestants and winners?
(Laughing) You got to have to ask the producers of the BBA, because I don’t think they knew we were from Jos. It just that Jos is where entertainment was booming. Anybody who wanted to do anything in entertainment would go to Jos, get trained and all sort. I wouldn’t say the best entertainers come from Jos, but I just feel that Jos has a lot to do with entertainment. And it just so happens that every winner who has come out of the BBA is from Jos or has a stint with Jos.
What has been your greatest challenge so far in life?
It is trying to live a normal life. I can’t go out with my friends or to the cinema without people shouting ‘oh my God it is you Vina from the BBA !’. Even when I wear a cap or try to wear a long hair to hide my identity, someone somewhere still recognizes it’s me and alerts others which is not a bad thing, But there are times when you need to live normal life and you can’t.
So what has Vina been up to after the BBA?
She is back to work at Kiss FM, Abuja and she is loving it. I am still doing what I was doing before I went on the set of the BBA. I haven’t gone anywhere I am still very much in the country. People think I went back to the UK. I am still around and I will be around for a long while. My fans should keep their eyes and ears open, because I will be back in a classical way to help people around me and the society as a whole. So they need to be patient, because I’m coming back with a bang.
Do we see you debuting into the movie industry?
Well if the opportunity comes and not Nollywood but Hollywood comes knocking, why not…..
Why not Nollywood?
I think there are already too many good actors and actresses in Nollywood. So let me aim higher and debut in a Hollywood movie. Life is all about aiming higher and for the best.