Queen of Nollywood: Genevieve Nnaji’s 5 Most Important Performances
Photo credit: Frank Ugah Photography.
WHEN IN 2009 Oprah Winfrey called
her “The Julia Roberts of Africa”, she wasn’t wrong, popularity-wise, but
Genevieve Nnaji’s place in the African movie world is higher than Julia Roberts’ in
Hollywood. Aside being Africa’s biggest home actress, she is also arguably the
first superstar of twenty-first century Nigerian entertainment. Here, she is closer
to Angelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett, a combination of what those two Hollywood
untouchables are: queen of the box-office and most revered actress of her
generation. In terms of star power, Genevieve is the Queen of Nollywood: the
industry’s highest paid as well as its most successful professional. A cerebral performer, her uncanny screen presence is perhaps the most indomitable Nollywood
has seen since the days of Liz Benson and Regina Askia. In her is personified an acting strength not so easy to come by in Nollywood: restraint. Since her 1998 debut,
her work has garnered unprecedented popularity and acclaim. She was named Best
Actress of the Year at the 2001 City People Awards, and won Best Actress in a
Leading Role at the inaugural African Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs) in 2005. She
has also racked up a host of major international profiles most notably by CNN where
she was Connector of the Day in 2011. With her outstanding fashion sense and natural glow, Genny is one of most recognizable faces across Africa. For someone who is untouchable in Nigerian
pop culture, someone frequently cited as an inspiration by tons of her
colleagues, it is hectic narrowing down her most important on-screen moments, especially with her BeyHive-like fan base patrolling the Internet.
This list, it must be made clear again, isn’t a ranking of her best performances. It is
a list of her most important performances, decisive landmarks in a career that has become a standard for the industry.
Photo credit: unknown.
5.
Ijele (2000)
Cast as the Igbo rain goddess, in
a role that demanded charisma and charm, it is an epic turn that Genevieve
churns out in Ijele. Her debut in Most Wanted (1998) had turned heads but
it was Ijele that drew all attention
to the then 21-year-old. Often cited alongside her roles in Last Party and Mark of the Beast, Ijele
gave her a firm foot in the industry, elevating her into the new constellation
that would dominate the 2000s.
4. Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
Having stirred unnecessary
controversy over the casting of the biracial Thandie Newton as Olanna, Biyi
Bandele’s adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel saw Genevieve in a supporting role as Miss Adebayo.
And what beauty it was. Her acting is stuffed with class, her composure aware
and sublime. Her scenes with Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Odenigbo are riveting, her
attempts to seduce him elegant, and she effortlessly holds her own in that single scene
with lead Thandie Newton, that handshake and graceful glide back to her seat. A later scene where she stands, shocked, as Odenigbo launches into
fierce criticism of her, summarizes everything about Genevieve’s acting in
general: her mastery of nuance. Or, as Biyi Bandele points out, as her great
acting in recognizing when to offer another the stage (paraphrased). We may be enraged that
Nigeria’s pre-eminent actress was onscreen for less than a total of ten minutes
in a film rooted in Nigerian history, but her brief turn won her Best Actress in
a Supporting Role at the 2014 Nigerian Entertainment Awards. Think of Viola
Davis’ Oscar-nominated 12 minutes in Doubt
(2008): it’s less about the time and more about what is done with it.
Genevieve with Idris Elba. Photo credit: unknown.
3. Road to Yesterday (2015)
Opposite Nigerian-British actor Oris Erhuero in her first production effort, Genevieve plays Victoria, a woman in a sinking marriage who embarks on a journey with her husband in an attempt to figure out where they went wrong. When, in the jeep, she tells him, with a slight, sharp nod, “Let’s find a way out of here,” you simply understand the depth of her marital frustrations. Genevieve brings her trademark heavy intelligence here, a wholesome interpretation that the critic Oris Aigbokhaevbolo describes as “unwavering excellence”, and that director Charles Novia summarizes as having a “Bow Down, Bitches undertone”, a warning to anyone aspiring to her throne. The film won Best West African Movie at the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards where she was also nominated for Best Actress in a Drama. While earning her nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 2016 Nigerian Entertainment Awards (NEA), the film was controversially left out of the 2016 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs) nominations due to submission issues.
2.
Sharon Stone (2002)
Unconnected to the real Sharon
Stone, this is the film that exploded Genevieve’s fame all over the continent
and placed her on a different pedestal, as a bankable star and a sex symbol.
She is glamorous as the female Casanova at the center of a web of three rich
men none of whom really interests her and all of whom she plays until all her
lies come crashing down on her. In each scene, with every move, every stare or tilt
of her head, she bores a hole through the screen, burns so bright that the rest
of the cast pales in her shadow. Thomas Michalski characterizes her turn here as "fascinating" and having "a definite star quality". Even without solid box office figures back then, it
was easy to see that Nollywood had had a landmark commercial smash, comfortably
shouldered by the then 23-year-old's natural glow.
Photo credit: unknown.
1. Ije: The Journey (2010)
way to go young, I enjoyed this.
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