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| Rita and her daughter, Regina |
Here are excerpts from the chat;
Aside acting ma, what else do you do?
I
am a very busy woman. I am into so many things. First, I am the
chairman of Actors Guild of Nigeria, Delta state chapter, (AGN). I am a
politician; presently, the majority leader and counsellor, Aniocha
South Local Government Area. I hail from Ogwashi-Ukwu town. I am also
the managing director of Last Point Resort; the CEO Reginal Daniels
Children Foundation; the CEO, Chris Daniel Nigeria Limited; an officer
in Director Guild of Nigeria; and a producer.
People feel you pushed your daughter into acting because of money and that you want her to take after you as an actress?
Not
really; nobody makes one a star. It’s only God that has the power to
lift from nobody to somebody. Yes, I am a good actress who is also
talented. But my daughter started when at the age of seven. She loved
watching movies and acting at home. Though I didn’t allow her to watch
Nigerian movies because of her age, she followed me to locations and
made friends with a lot of actresses and actors. Anytime she saw little
children on locations, she would beg me to allow her be part of the
cast but I would refuse. She kept on pestering me until one day, I
allowed her to act in a movie. She was very happy. She started
practising at home. Everything my daughter knows about acting I taught
her. I encouraged her not to be nervous and she listened to me. She
started as low as N5,000. She still acts for free to date if I want her
to act. She is humble and very obedient.
How often does she get movie roles?
She
is a lucky child. She is always on set. I just thank God for
everything. As soon as she is concluding a particular movie, they are
calling her for another one. It got to a point that I had to plead with
some of her directors and producers to allow her concentrate on her
studies. If not, there is no week that she will not be on set.
Has your celebrity status deprived you of anything in life?
I
believe it is a normal thing for you not to be everywhere as a star.
But, I am not mindful of that. I have a business I run. So, I still go
to the market to public places like every other person. I am not
affected by celebrity status. If you don’t go out how will you meet
people? Even when my fans are screaming, ‘Mama Regina! Mama Regina! Mama
Regina!’, I will just smile and hail them back and continue what I am
doing. I am a politician and I am used to crowd.
Are you married or a single mother?
I
am a proud mother of four children and my children are everything to
me. I hate to discuss my family in public. Can you ask me another
question?
How many of your children are into acting?
For now, only two of them are in Nollywood. But one is a musician while others are still in school.
What is your view on s*x-for-role?
When
you talk about s*x-for role, it has to do with an individual. There’s
nowhere that it does not exist. In the entertainment industry, people
do a lot of funny things to get what they want. I believe it is an
individual thing. If you feel s*x is what will take you up there, fine,
go ahead. But know that whatever takes you up there that is not God’s
will, will certainly crash. Definitely, when you are up there with
God’s help, nobody will pull you down. Anything you get from an illicit
affair does not end well.
Who should be blamed for this?
Nobody
is to be blamed. If producers ‘toast’ you, maybe it’s okay but
sometimes the girls are the ones ‘toasting’ the producers. So, who is
to be blamed then? A man has the right to say ‘bring your body’; a
woman has the right to say ‘no’. It is a two-way thing. If it is rape,
it is a different thing.
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