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How did you develop your craft to the point where you now act any role and it looks so real?
It is Passion it is Practice. I watch a lot of movies. I can stay in my room just me alone and start crying. I can play any role. I think I have one of the best role models ever. I like Genevieve like crazy. So I started watching her movies from the onset. But I didn’t want to be Genevieve, I wanted to be Mercy with the motivation that a Genevieve, could give to me. So I watched lots of movies. I don’t play with her movies. I don’t know what I can do that will be better than what she has done. But I just try to improve myself on it, try to do it the way she will do it and perhaps do it better to my own level, not to her own level. I practice like all the time.
It is like a passion. It is just where I want to be. I am alive and I am in my space. It was paramount to perfect that space. I need everything, I watch everything, nothing passes me by, I watch newscasters reading their news and after they are done, I sit down the way they did and read the news like that. So, it is Practice and Passion.
How have you been able to manage your relationship with Genevieve such that it has grown from strength to strength?
At first did you have to go and meet her to tell her you admire her?
No. I never did. It was not a hypocritical kind of love or likeness. It was plain. I didn’t even ever think I will become close to her. It is like I can meet her anytime I want to.
How did you feel the first time you met her?
Ahh! The first time I met her, my friend took me there. When we got to where she was, I became nervous. I told my friend “no let me hide in your boot.” And I did. I got into her boot. (laughs) Can you imagine I came to see her and when I got there I wanted to run back. I jumped into my friends boot. So, when she came out of the hotel, I could not see her, I could only hear her voice.
The 2nd time I saw her was on set. When she came down and I met her she said ahh! Mercy I like your movies and I started crying. I was in tears of joy. I said Aunty Genevieve, so you watch my movies. She was sort of embarrassed. Before I met her, she had already known that there was somebody who was crazily insane about her. She was really nice to me, receptive. And even whenever we work together she will correct me and say that thing you did, you could have done it this way.
Usually, in life, you will know somebody, who is more than you. Give him or her that respect. You can’t fight a battle you can’t win. It does not make any sense. If somebody is much more than you, there is nothing as big as you admitting it, and hearing from that person. I didn’t come into the picture to compete with anybody. I didn’t come into the picture to rub shoulders or outshine anybody. I came to learn, do it well, make it and be there.
So, where did all the talk about your trying to upstage Genevieve come from?
I really don’t know. I love Genevieve a lot. Growing up I discovered myself on time, I got to know my potentials. I got to know my weaknesses and I respected them. So, I didn’t really look at anybody as a threat, because the field is big enough. It is so large. All you have to do is make your footprint matter and people will come. You don’t force the fans to like you. In my entire career nobody for me has been worth my distraction or was enough to be a competition for me. It is do your thing I do my thing. We have different physiques, different voices. Let the fans choose, who does it better. It is only those who don’t know the meaning of self-realization that will begin to see someone as a threat. I never did see anybody as a threat. I saw my seniors as a pathway for me to learn from, not as a threat. I didn’t come into the industry because I wanted to take over from them, because there is no movie I will do that will measure up to what they had done.
There is no acting I will act today that Genevieve has not acted. So, it was more like I want to learn from you, and I want to better myself for me, not because I want to edge you out. The industry is so large that only one person can’t occupy it. It is when you don’t understand who you are, when you have not realized self actualization, you don’t know who you are, that is when you begin to see people as a threat, or as a competitor. That came up at a point in my career. It came up and it even made me stronger and bigger. Nobody was actually worth my distraction, or strong enough to be a competition for me.
How did it make you feel, becoming No. 1 actress all the marketers go for?
A lot of people say that but I don’t agree I am. Life is a phase. Life is a moving train, whether you like it or not. The roles you could play 4 years ago are not roles you can play now. All I would say is that at a point in time, it was like a Mercy Johnson boom. It is still Mercy Johnson boom. But like I said it is a large playing field. For 6 years or more running all my marketer friends kept letting me, even producers kept telling me oh you are No.1. I kept telling them no I don’t feel that way. I just feel I am ahead of the game, let me do my thing. I just see it as I am just doing well in my field, not like I am No. 1.
Ok, if you won’t accept the fact that you are No. 1, how do you take the fact that every marketer wanted to have Mercy Johnson’s photo on the jacket of their movies?
That didn’t mean I was No. 1 that just meant Grace, because there are too many girls they could pick from, but it had to be Mercy Johnson. That trend hasn’t stopped. It is a nice feeling. It is just Grace that keeps you there.
How do you also feel knowing that you’ve been off work for about 7 months and many people don’t know?
That feels nice. You go to a place and tell people you’ve been off for 7 months and they tell you they don’t know and still gather to see you. It is love. It doesn’t go away; it’s about creating an impact. When that impact is there, it does not go away. Ten years after, people still look at you and say oh! You are awesome. It is just there. Stamped on my body. It doesn’t go away.
When you look back at your life, 9 years back and now, how does it make you feel?
The last time you interviewed me was 9 years ago. Then, I answered most of my questions almost in tears, because I was undergoing the process of getting here. Nine years after, that you are interviewing me, I am answering all my questions with smiles. I feel that I won. I feel that I missed the negative publicity. I missed betrayal from certain people, I had missed the love, the acceptance, I made it. And above all, I made it without certain people. I missed their hate, their disregard and their negativity. I still got here.
If you were to talk to a room filled with budding actresses, what are the principles you will share with them, that can get them to the top?
When Agbani Darego won Miss World, the question they asked, I will never forget. If you are lost in a desert what are the 3 things you will take with you. She said my Bible, My Blanket and Water. Anybody who is a budding actress, who wants to come into the movie industry, will need a lot of practice. When you know your onions, nobody looks down on you. You will never go down once you know your onions. People who have been there before you, there is nothing as important as when you respect them and give them their space because there are a lot of things they can do for you.
There are so many things Aunty Genie has done for me. I give her, her space. It is just paramount. You certainly need God. You cant do Him. Other spices then come in like Humility, it just takes you ahead. It does not bring you back. Those are the principles you need if you want to come here. It is know your onions, respect those who are there before you. You have to be humble. Those are the principles that have worked for me basically. That is the song I sing basically. It will work if you just do it that way, just to be at peace with yourself.
About Unknown
Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.
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