by Ify Obi

It has been nearly two decades since the name, Ini Edo, was first introduced to fans of the then-fledgling Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, via the film “World’s Apart”. And still, time continues to witness a symbiotic growth between the industry and Edo. “I feel like one of the identities of a true artist or any really good artist is longevity,” she tells me over a Zoom call in late February — our fourth attempt at a conversation, and understandably so.

A month prior, “Shanty Town”, a 6-part limited series executive-produced and starring Edo, hit Netflix to the welcoming ears of both fans and critics. The series quickly held the streaming giant’s number-one position across different countries and sparked necessary conversations about the idea of collective and individual freedom in Nigeria’s arduous political climate. “We did have a few reservations and a little scare [about making the film], but we knew it was a story that needed to be told,” Edo says.

The Netflix Orignal Series follows Scar, the ruthless leader of a town for drug dealers, sexually exploited women, and thugs called Shanty Town. We see Edo's character, Inem, venture on a journey to end the reign of Scar and his cohorts.

It seems fitting that Edo, an actress with a vast filmography featuring roles with gripping, multi-faceted female characters, would produce a body of work with freedom at its helm. In conversation, Ini Edo shares her thoughts on ownership in Nollywood, freedom, and more.

You have been able to bring to life the stories of diverse characters. How did you avoid getting typecast?

Unfortunately, typecasting is one of the biggest factors actors face. The spice of being an actor is the ability to be different and transformative. That versatility is what sets you apart. It's easy for people to see you play a character and just keep you in that box. So it's up to you as an actor to not let yourself be in that box by perhaps turning down those roles. I turned down many roles because I felt they were not challenging enough. I look out for things that are different from what I did the last time, you know. I prioritise roles that stretch my range. That's part of the reason that when I got the script [Shanty Town], I liked the character of Inem.

You mentioned earlier that you had a few reservations about the story of "Shanty Town". Did your role as executive producer give you a degree of ease?

The story and the script didn't change or anything like that. But as an executive producer, it gave me freedom.

What is freedom to you?

As an actor, freedom is the ability to imagine and to create. Freedom allows you to take a character and break it into whatever you want it to be with your interpretation. It's the ability to send a message to our leaders through art without fear.

In "Shanty Town", you play Inem, who's a formidable character. What would you say this character means to you in the context of your career?

I'd say that I like to dare to do things that look a bit undoable or something almost impossible or things that I feel can overwhelm me. I like to fight for people. I love women, I love to fight for women. I'm one of those people who believe that if women are empowered, they will do great greater things. I just feel like if women had as much of a platform as men have, the world will be a better place.

Shanty Town is timely as we are seeing more Black women in the action genre as leads globally, for example, Wakanda Forever and The Woman King. Do you think Nigerian society is ready to embrace the action genre in Nollywood and with women at the forefront?

I believe they are. I believe Nigerian women have been awake. You see a lot of young Nigerian women doing amazing things for themselves and taking power into their own hands. There couldn't be a better time to be a part of this sort of movement, which is global, as you already said.

Through platforms like Nollybabes and Yung Nolly, Gen-Z women are discovering characters from earlier Nollywood flicks and using them as a source of confidence in themselves. What do you think about that?

I see a lot of Nollywood film clips all over the place. It just means what we did back then is solid enough to stand the taste of time. It just shows perhaps one of the reasons why we are still here. In as much as, you know, there's a lot to laugh about, like the lighting, production quality, e.t.c., you find out that it gets a lot of traction because people are still really into those stories. Whether we like it or not, we will always recognise that era as a foundation of the industry that we have today.

With the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video making their way into the market, Do you worry that this may come at the price of ownership and creative freedom?

From a Nigerian film perspective, you can't have investments and good quality funding where there's no distribution. We tried handling distribution by ourselves and we pushed it as hard as we could. We never really got paid for films other than through our cinemas. And we still had difficulties with that. The emergence of these streaming giants, for me, has been the first step in the right direction. It's an answer to a long-time prayer. If you talk about ownership and the disadvantages and advantages, the advantages sort of outweigh the disadvantages at this point.

We need distribution, we need to be able to sell our products worldwide. That's the only way we can run as an industry. That's the only way we can attract partnerships and collaborations with other industries and even funding. If you take your film to any of these platforms and they buy it, it means they own it for a while at the price of global recognition. It's still your intellectual property at the end of the day.

Speaking of global recognition, Afrobeats is on a global wave right now. Do envision the same happening for Nollywood?

It's already happening. Before "Shanty Town" came out, I was at a conference somewhere in Saudi Arabia where I had the privilege of having a conversation with Spike Lee. We've gotten to the point where we get to sit at these tables as filmmakers. I mean, at the end of the day, it's these, platforms that have given us this exposure.

What is your ultimate dream?

My ultimate dream would be to produce a movie that stars me alongside some of the great people I have seen on tv and work with them. I'll also get on international platforms and win major awards. It used to be far out of reach. Now, I can literally smell it. It's so close. It feels so realistic. And it is almost pipeline.