"Nigerians are too hypocritical," Nollywood actor, Marvelous Dominion

 

Have you ever wondered if some of the things we see in Hollywood could actually happen in Nigerian movies? Have you ever been awed by their kind of stunts for make belief and more so, the harsh realities of unsimulated sexual intimacy between two or more actors in mainstream movies just as we see in TV series and cinema films like "Spartacus" (2010-2013), "Strike Back" (2010-2019), "Game of Thrones" (2010-201 9), "Nymphomaniac" (2014), "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" (2012), "London Fields" (2018) and the like? Conditioned by today's education acquired through different means, different platforms, there's no denying the fact that Nollywood has produced a number of crazy storywriters and even directors who push actors to accurately and convincingly interpret storylines, actions, near sex or sex scenes. For the record, Nollywood movies have had all except one--unsimulated sex scenes. Does that sound like a craving now, hun?

Just in the recent past, Jude Idada---a Canadian based Nigerian writer and producer whose published works and productions include: "The Tenant" (movie), "A Box of Chocolates", "By My Own Hands", "Oduduwa: King of the Edos", "Didi Kanu And The Singing Dwarfs Of The North" (books), "Sankara", "Exotica Celestica" (stage plays), and the most controversial, "3Some", where he created a character to appear completely nude on stage---made tongues wag. Of course this is Nigeria. No actor was willing to dare and the stripper that seemed to come through before Marvelous Dominion demanded a live in-to-in. Lolz. 

Marvelous Dominion is a trained actor with degrees in Contemporary Performance Art from Oxford Brookes University and London Academy of Media Film and TV. For a budding actor like hers, one cannot but say she’s really daring. In this interview with Yamilenu Bamgboye, she explains the connection between the role and her personality which was her very why. Do have fun!

Since your return to the country, would you in all sincerity ascribe your fame to your nude style of acting and even posing nude for a magazine?

Yes, in a way. I think I would love to give credit to that, if I'm being honest. Obviously that caused a lot of controversy, hence the fame. I would also like to say during teenage years, I used to pose seminude at the studios. I would have an arrangement with the makeup artist and the crew and we would achieve great shots. There was a particular makeup artist by the name Oge that brought out that inner gaga in me. We both went crazy with body art, make up, seminudity and all. I've always loved to express myself the way I feel, careless about nobody as long as it made me feel good. That's why when I heard about the magazine publication and heard the concept, and of course it was pertaining to the stage play I featured in, I had no reason to decline. The Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, Azuka Ogujiuba is my kind of person to work with. She motivates you to push. She also didn't care, all she was concerned about was bringing that craze to fruition, very artistic I must say. She made me feel comfortable about expressing my art. I'm not saying nudity or semi-nudity is art but I am saying that our body is a true definition of art, depending on how we wanna play and design and express it. You see artists, sculpts, paints anything they wanna, make up artist applies makeup on our faces. We can do whatever we want with our bodies, and I choose to play with mine as a definition of my art, mind you I understand art to a certain level. I have worked as an artist for years. I have learnt and studied it. So, therefore, my body is my definition of art. I had a lot of backlash from people that are very ignorant of this kind of art. Sometimes I feel like I don't need to educate people like this and hope they'll come to a realization someday that we all are living in a contemporary age and time and in as much as I would like to say this is a contemporary art. I would also like to say this isn't new as it's been there for many years. Well, I hope from this interviewthey might understand and learn a few things.

In 2014, you played a lead role in your first feature movie "Love of a Daughter", and Chika Ike was your mum. I'm just curious, how old were you?

Lolz, now you wanna be smart on me to do your calculation. Ok, I was 19 years old at the time. Now, you know my age. I did that job when I had my short break in Nigeria from the UK.

Would you say in those teenage years of yours, your craze was only limited to posing nude and not exploring with boys?

Well, I never implied sex in my response. Besides, must people have sex to show off their bodies in the studio? Like really? I can't connect to that question but if you wanted to know whether I was a virgin or not at that age, that could get an answer.

You say you've always loved to express yourself the way you feel regardless of wagging tongues. I believe it didn't start one morning neither did it start with the friends that helped you explore further. What things, what influences sparked it off for you?

For me, I think it was just innate.

Sometime ago, you said you did something similar in the UK to what you did in "3Some" here in Nigeria. Could you tell us about it?

Yes. What I did in the UK that was similar to this was a short Art House film titled "Future World" and I had to like play the mother of a dead child, a frail looking mother. So, my character was very intense and all artistic. I was in a bath tub with a lot of things and I was really looking frail and sad from the demise of my child. So in that bath tub, I was laying in there nude, stark naked but they had to like "body-art" me in there. That's why I said it was very similar to what I did in the UK, you know. We shot some scenes in the UK, some in Nigeria, some in Italy and the interesting thing is it won an award in Berlin for the best house film in the whole festival films that were actually screened.

Would you say you're more of a model than an actor considering the numerous modelling deals you get?

I am actually both. I am a model and an actor. I am also a performer in the artistic form that's what I'm working on. It's like my latest project that I'm really investing my time into now. I can also consider myself as an artist when you think of paintings or sculptural makings. So yeah, that's it.

Would you say your kind of art, body art as you love to call it, falls in this unusual category?

Hmmm...unusual as in unprecedented in Nigeria because, I mean, this is something that hasn't really happened in our country if I'm being honest but to be honest with you, body art has been in existence for many many years. You know, the only thing is we are not well educated in things like this because... I mean they look new to us, and because we Nigerians, to be honest now, like to pretend a lot. We are very hypocritical in our ways. We pretend to hate what we love while reverse is the case. Tell me something: why do we have a lot of Nigerians go to pornographic sites to watch a lot of blue films, pornographic films and acting up, imagining they are they ones doing all they see in those videos. These people, including the married ones too go on those sites to have fun. Now tell me something: are you going to go to bed with your wife or partner or girlfriend with her clothes on when you know you're going to do stuff with her for example. No! You gonna strip the clothes off her damn body, you gonna whip her body up, I mean, you gonna do a lot of shit. So, why do people act like it’s a taboo? Besides, body art is not new. We have tatoos, body paintings and people who have tatoos don't cover their bodies because they want people to see what they have on them. So, people act like this thing I did is a taboo. Well, anyone who's going to come talk shit about it should better do with strong reasons because what I did is a form of body painting which is called body art. You can call me a nudist if you wish but I know I'm not. I am an artiste and I understand the theories of art. If you want me to explain, I can give you the histories of things like this. You know, it's crazy because people just go talking shit about what they don't know. If you don't know about a thing, the same phone you use in painting a thing black on social media can be used to gather asmuch information as needed on the subject matter. We are very hypocritical in our ways yet in our rooms we do it even worse. We love to see people go naked. All these men let call girls into their rooms and love to see them dance naked but wouldn't want to see such in public.

What movies or episodic films have you featured in here in Nigeria?

I have featured in a couple of movies and episodic films since my return. I may not be able to call everything out but I've featured in series like "Hustle", "Girls’ Quarter", "Battle Ground"; movies like "Soldier's Story 2", "Almost Perfect", "Love of a Daughter" and quite a couple ofothers. I can't remember everything right now.

For you, what other role could be more challenging than going completely nude in a stage play or movie?

I think for someone who has gone completely nude, that is the highest they can go. So, I don’t think there’s any other challenging role I could take. Uhmm... besides me being asked to speak pidgin, proper pidgin because of my accent or so and my pidgin is not very good. When I hear people speak good pidgin, I'm always like wow you guys are good. I can try fifty percent though.

What about a role involving sex in front of a camera?

What, are you kidding me!?

Are you featuring in any movie at the moment? What's the title and can you say a bit about it?

Uhmm... yeah. I really can't say much about it except I get to be on set Iguess but also I'm working on producing my own film because this country is so freaking messed up. You know, we'll get there.

Have you worked alongside any of the big names in Nollywood?

Uhmm... big names I've worked with in the industry: Bikiyah of Battle Ground, Femi Jacobs, Chika Ike, Ngozi Izunoke, Ken Erics, Solomon Akiyesi, Ramsey Noah, Chigurl and a lot more

What's your career dream?

At an early age, my career dream had always been to act although I added modelling by the side it's the thing I love to do. Then I decided to pursue acting at a higher level. I went to go study acting and stuff like that in the UK. While recently, I've got this really interesting dream which is producing not just producing my own films but producing my own projects which is what I'm working on and hoping it come to fruition.

What can a guy do to win your heart?

Uhmm... let's see. Really, I'm not that difficult to win. It's just for the guy to really show that he loves and cares for me. I think for my age, I could say I’ve seen a lot of shit in my life but love is one thing that's so typical for me to find not until recently anyways. Because if I just want to go out with regular guys who just want to hit you up and that's it. Who don't really care about you but just want to hit you up sexually you know it's crazy when they see a pretty young girl and all they think of is sex. I'm not really up for that nonsense. I think I'm old enough to know what I want for myself. So, if a guy cares for me, I'm ok. I'm like anybody and I'm not desperate. However, at this point in my life, I think I have the love and care and just hoping it could be for a long time.

Let's pry a little more. Tell us the craziest thing you've ever done?

The thing is, to be honest, I do not even know what is crazy anymore because I have friends who say I'm so crazy. If I say the craziest thing I've done is to stand stark naked, some people will say yeah, that's crazy to go stark naked for a project buh I don't really find that crazy because my own level of crazy is higher than normal. I believe the level of crazy for people varies, abi? If I want to talk about the crazy things I've done sexually, I cannot really say because these days, people transcend beyond their regular kind of things. So seriously, I don't know what's crazy anymore because I've done a lot of shit.