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26.04.2010 Movie News

Uche Jombo: I Played Street Football

By Daily Guide
Uche JomboUche Jombo
26.04.2010 LISTEN

NOLLYWOOD ACTRESS, Uche Jombo, has recalled her days as a teenager on the streets of Nigeria, saying she even used to play football on the streets.

However, she said she is no longer the tomboy she used to be. “I am more girly these days” she simply told BEATWAVES in an exclusive interview, last week while on a Glo trip to Ghana.  According to the actress, while growing up, she wasn't an easy teenager to deal with.

“I think I have probably done everything teenagers do and more, but I grew up in a normal environment; Played with other kids, played street football, did drama in church drama group; I think I did every basic thing normal kids do.

Probably, I was an extremist at that point. I used to go overboard on things which my mum was scared that I might end up hurt.

God willing, she got me into a drama group which is the reason why I am here today”.

For Uche, it is safe to say that she is who she is today because of everything she went through whiles growing up.

As a teenager, Uche had no idea what she really wanted to become in life, but she feels if she hadn't gone into acting, she would have probably become a broadcaster.

Uche debuted in the movie industry via her first movie 'Visa To Hell' by Fidelis Duker in 1998. Since then there has been no looking back.

Now a writer and executive producer, Uche has produced two movies, one of which is 'Nollywood Hustler', expected to be out soon in Ghana.

She co-produced her second movie, 'Holding Hope', with Desmond Elliot and popular producer, Emem Isong. The movie, she noted, will be premiered in Ghana in some months to come.

She however took a swipe at critics in the industry for being too critical of the industry.

She was of the opinion that Nollywood critics have derailed from what they are supposed to be doing, as critiquing and analyzing movies have been substituted with personal attacks on Nollywood as an industry.

“I don't think it is ok for you to diss this industry. I don't care where you are talking from. This is an industry that has made both of us what we are today.

So if things are not rightly done, I believe it falls on our shoulders to put them right. And until you come and say I am going to shoot a movie and make a difference, please don't insult Nollywood.

And I am saying this from the bottom of my heart. Till you come and be part of it, or make an impact by virtue of actually supporting with ideas to change the industry, or supporting financially by saying that you are going to shoot a movie to show us how it is done, shut the hell up.

And I mean it. I am sick and tired of all this talk that we not doing anything”, fumed the actress. Nollywood, from her viewpoint, is an industry where individual producers finance their own movies.

The quality of movies will definitely be compromised and cannot be compared to movies from well-endowed industries like Hollywood which gets government grants and huge studios to produce movies.

“I think Nollywood is still a child. It happened to all of us and it is becoming larger than any of us now. It needs all the support, all the care a child can get, because as far as I am concerned, that is what it is.

You can't compare Nollywood to Hollywood. There are no bases for comparisons. As a film industry, they are ahead of us with a lot of years.

Even the Oscars as an award ceremony; do you know how long it has been in existence? Please, people, let's be realistic”, she concluded.

By Francis Addo

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