I Almost Lost My Role In “I Need To Know” For Overacting – Funke Akindele

Nollywood actress and filmmaker Funke Akindele has opened up on how she earned her first N1 million in 1999. She recently revealed that she earned the money through the breakout role as Bisi in the popular TV series, “I Need to Know.”

According to her, after enduring repeated rejections at auditions, she finally landed a role on the TV sitcom, even though she almost lost it in the end for overacting.

Funke added that the producers accused her of not speaking like a teenager, but a conversation with her younger sister eventually secured her first major bag in Nollywood.

Her words, “I made that around 1999. I started my career from like 1996, playing waka pass roles, 1997 going for auditions, getting a lot of nos.

Then I got one big yes with ‘I need to know’ and that is how I got my first N1 million.

I almost lost the role ‘Bisi’ in ‘I need to know’. I shot the pilot of I need to know first and I acted so well and I was waiting for this call back. The call back didn’t come on time. I’m like ah okay.

Then he just called me into the office. I’m like okay you’re a fantastic actress you’re doing so well but you’re over acting.They told me to go home and read my script, understand the character very well.

I was so worried. I said how am I going to do it now? Then I got home and I was so moody and my younger sister was like sister what’s wrong?

I said ‘I need to know’. They said I’m not talking like a teenager.

She said ah because I was not a teenager when I was filming ‘I need to know’. She said ah let me see the script and she held the script. She started reading.

So I heard mama speak like a teenager and immediately you know I took in the character and I started speaking like mama and that and that was how I got the role.

So that was how I made my first one million naira. We were paid for an episode but I will not tell you how much but all together ah I was shocked. I was like me that always jump for bike.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.