Nigeriafilms.com reports that the respected Nollywood producer, Ralph Nwadike, has revealed that convincing actress, Regina Askia, into acting was not an easy task for him. He disclosed that back then, each time he went to the former beauty queen’s house, her maid kept telling him her boss was not around.
According to TNS, Ralph Nwadike, who was speaking at a British Council/GenVoices event in Lagos on Monday 15th December 2014, said despite such drawbacks, he was determined to make Regina a screen star, which took him three months to eventually achieve.
“Regina was a beauty queen and I was determined to make her a screen star. I went to her house everyday for three months and her housegirl said the same thing to me: ‘Aunty, e no dey.’ But I didn’t give up; I went again the next day,” he explained.
Regina, who recently turned 47, according to the producer, eventually agreed on the day he concluded that he was going to stop if she does not accept the offer, but was shocked when the language of the housemaid changed to ‘Aunty say make you come.’
He noted that though Regina was embarrassed during an audition, which made her storm out of the place, he never gave up on his quest.
“Regina couldn’t read her script. She was shaking. To make matters worse, the other actors laughed at her. So she stormed out of the audition venue and said to me: ‘Thank you very much Ralph, you have succeeded in making me embarrass myself in public.’
“But we held her back and asked her to stand in front of her mirror at home and practice, which she did. The rest, as they say, is history,” he said. (Nathaniel Ekpo, Nigeriafilms.com)
