Nollywood filmmaker, Biodun Stephen, has said that her movie ‘Glimpse’ was part of her early struggles as a wife and mother.
Ms. Stephen made the revelation in a recent chat with media personality, Chude Jideonwo.
She recounted how she and her spouse struggled to pay their rent in the early years of their marriage, and her confrontations with temptations.
According to Stephen: “Glimpse’ is a true life story. It was part of our own story. In our early years of marriage, we had this landlord from hell. In fact, it was the landlord’s girlfriend that was the one from hell. She would burst into the room and say, ‘Mummy Victoria, your rent is due.’
“We [my husband and I] didn’t see where the money was coming from. There were so many choices. And I remember that conversation I had with someone who asked that I see him before helping us. At the time, my salary was N40,000, and my husband was earning N25,000 [monthly] in a law firm. Altogether, it was N65,000, and we had a kid whose school fee was N80,000.
“So, it was a lot of temptation. It was tough.
“I remember when I went in for that meeting with that man [millionaire], he said, ‘No problem, I will give you the money tomorrow.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I will come for it tomorrow.’ And then he called me [on phone] and said, ‘I’m at this hotel, come and meet me.’ I was married with a three-year-old kid, and he wants me to meet him at a hotel because I have rent to pay. I told my husband that the man said I should come to a hotel to meet him. He said, ‘Let me drive you there.’ So, we walked into the hotel together, and the man said, ‘Ah ah! You came with your husband?’ I said, ‘Yes, he brought me.’ And the man said he forgot his chequebook. We drove back home crying. We had just three days until when the landlord’s girlfriend said she was coming.”
She said her boss eventually paid the rent on their behalf.
She also spoke about how she slipped into depression due to unemployment: “Right after university, I got a job in a radio station. I was at Star FM. At that time, Radio business had not developed to what it is now, it was just you playing music and talking. Later, I got an opportunity to work at Insight as copywriter, so I worked there for a few years. Then, I got bored and I said, ‘maybe, I have missed the radio’. So, I returned to the radio, but this time I knew what I wanted to do. We started something called ‘Whispers’, for people to share life experiences. All this while, we were still going for auditions. I had slipped into depression in between. This time, I had my first and second daughter. I realized that I wanted to be on TV, and I was not doing what I am supposed to do’. Then my husband said I should go and learn something related to TV; this was when I decided to go to film school. When I returned, we did ‘The Visit’.
“Before the nominations of the AMVCA 2015, I had a total breakdown. I had returned from studying abroad at the London Film Academy, and I thought that would get me through the doors, but it wasn’t happening like that. So, I had a huge breakdown, and I was crying. Usually, my husband cannot handle me crying but for some reason that day he was calm, and he said, ‘Let’s pray’. He just said one prayer, ‘God, please fulfill our desires’. Shortly after that we got the nomination for AMVCA, and I think that was God just telling me, ‘This is what you are supposed to do’. It then hit me, my place was not in front of the camera, my place was behind the camera. The moment I accepted that wholeheartedly, and I stopped chasing being an actor, everything fell in place.”
Biodun also shared about her creative process, saying, “I write as a fragment of me, I don’t waste any necessary experience – good, bad, or ugly. I always incorporate them into my stories. When I am writing, I write as the actor. Every emotion that the actor was feeling, I felt it when I was writing. I write with the strength of the actor, so it is easy for the actor to take on the role or embody it because I wrote it with them in mind.”
Speaking on the inspiration behind her film, ‘Joba’, she said “I was listening to a song by Psalmos featuring Tope Alabi, ‘Jesu Joba’. I was going for a meeting from my house in Ogba to Lekki. It was on repeat, and I just said, ‘There’s a story in here.’ God showed me the story and I kid you not, I was in traffic, and my windshield turned into a TV. I started seeing the pictures. I heard Abraham, I heard Isaac, I saw when he was about to slaughter him. Everything was mumbo jumbo, and I was like, ‘Lord, hold this, let me get home, let me get home.’ I got home, went into my room, and I texted my husband, ‘Don’t come in until I’m done.’ Then, I started writing. I finished writing at about 3am, and I went to sleep. After that, I posted on social media that I had just written a beautiful, powerful story that I’m so blessed with. I was just talking about it, and two days later, somebody sent me a text from South Africa and said, ‘God said let me work with you on this film.’ I did not answer, I thought it was a scam. I did not reply. Then the next day, the woman said, ‘The Holy Spirit said you have just created a film that we should do together. I’m in SA, and this is my number.’ My husband said, ‘Well, let’s call the number.’ We called, and I asked, ‘In what way (do you want to work with me), ma?’ She then inquired, ‘How much do you need to make this film?’”
