Uzoamaka Aniunoh is Stepping Into the Forefront

To break that obstacle, and finally step into a character whose performance has been well praised, Aniunoh found herself reaching back to her younger self, a version of her that was head over heels in love and would have very likely made a proposition like that. “I considered that I was madly in love, and I considered small choices I had made that I wouldn’t make now, so I thought ‘Okay, I could have been this person.’”

This dance of uncertainty; of entering into character with the wariness with which one approaches a stranger they are forced to live with, of allowing herself to fumble a little so as to surprise herself, is a technique Aniunoh — despite years of noteworthy performances and culturally significant projects — continues to employ in her work. “It keeps you wanting to do better,” she says. “You are curious, you are attentive and aware of the environment, you’re listening to your scene partner and you’re involved. Because if you were 100 percent sure, then everyone would be laid back. But I like to be surprised when playing a character.”

It is also a defining factor that has made her one of the most brilliant and visually interesting actors working in Nollywood today.

Starting out

As a teenager, Aniunoh was obsessed with Nollywood movies. During holidays, she would spend days watching films that starred celebrated actresses like Genevieve Nnaji, Rita Dominic and Oge Okoye, films that explored Nigerian campus life, and captured the zeitgeist of the early and late 2000s. In these films, these women were unconventional, difficult, and unpredictable, and they were just what Aniunoh wanted to be.

“I would stand in the mirror and rehearse the lines in the films I watched. It was everything to me,” she says.

Finding the frontline

For an actor who says she is moved towards side characters because of the compactness and specificity their roles require, Aniunoh is finally embracing the forefront. This year, she stars in two major projects. In With Difficulty Comes Ease, she plays Zainab, a widowed Muslim woman who tries to rebuild her life while dealing with various socio-cultural dictates. With Zainab, Aniunoh allows her eyes to do the heavy lifting. In moments of grief or disappointment, as she tries to rebuild her husband’s business or deal with a perpetually dissatisfied mother-in-law, her eyes are the most arresting indicator of her unending despair. The conditions she was filming also helped.

Meanwhile, Aniunoh’s character in The Weekend operates in a completely different world, one charged with gripping darkness and an unshifting sense of danger. Aniunoh’s initial difficulty with the character led her to understand her better, but the most helpful part of the filming process, she says, came from her co-stars. “The point of a scene is not to outshine the next person but to be honest. And I was so thankful to have worked with actors who were honest in the scene and gave their all and were not worried about who was doing it better.”

So far, Aniunoh has been moved by the reception to her leading roles. While camping out at a cinema in Lagos, some people who had just watched The Weekend came to her with conflicting, but equally strong reactions. “One person said, ‘I loved your character,’ and another person said, ‘I wish your character’ died. But I was happy because people are feeling something strongly.” And this, about her films and this new phase she has entered, is what Aniunoh hopes people continue to feel.