It’s no longer news that popular actress, Eniola Badmus & Funke Akindele are very, very close. They have been very close for years.
A few days ago, she was our Guest on City People TV Instagram Live Chat with City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE during which she revealed a lot about her best friend Funke Akindele, among other things.
How did you feel when the President announced the lockdown in March, and how did you react to it?
I was not in the country when the lockdown was announced, myself and Funke Akindele, we were in Dubai. From Dubai, I went to London. It was in London I got to hear, I was like what is going on? Is the world coming to an end or what? Before we know it the border has been closed. All of these are things we have never heard before, things we have never seen before.
At some point, my stepbrother told me that, “sister you need to go back home” and that time I have spent like maybe a week or so. He was like “you need to go back home, they are closing the border and we don’t know when they will open it”. So I had to leave London on the 19th. I had to even come with the economy because there was no business class. There was no even time for that because Nigeria will close the border on the 20th.
And what have you been doing since you came back?
At first, when I came back I went on 14 days quarantine, because we were been asked to go for 2-week quarantine, and in between, I was taking care of myself, eating right, taking Vitamin C, all those they were asking us to do. After the 14 days quarantine, I came back home and that was when reality set on me, many thought of how we are going to cope. We have EniolaTV and at that point the crew were going out, to ask for people’s opinion and how they are taking the lockdown, so I was involved somehow and I was busy in that area.
At the same time, I have other businesses I do. We distributed stuff for people to use, though at one point there was no delivery again, no movement. So in this lockdown, I have been able to get more ideas in terms of my script and my forthcoming productions.
We had enough time to read the script, deliberate about it, change somethings, but in all these, I think the world really needs prayer.
So you think it’s a positive thing?
Well, for the pandemic, no! But for us to rest, yes!
Does that mean we should be expecting your new production after Covid-19?
Yes, I have like 5 productions coming out.
5 productions at the same time?
Not at the same time. It is going to be one after the other. Just telling you the plans for now, we are doing 3 English movies and 2 Yoruba movies. Also, during this pandemic, I have a film that is online “Madam Cash” and people were able to watch it. This pandemic time actually helped us to look inward and prepare ourselves further. I am supposed to be in London now shooting and also go to the US to do one or two things, but the most important thing is that we are alive and we just have to give thanks to God. Don’t forget that ghetto bred is also going trending online.
What are the lessons you have learnt at a time like this?
I found out that everything we run at are all vanity upon vanity somethings that we think matters in life are not really matter. First and foremost we should seek the Kingdom of God first. We should learn to love ourselves more, especially the rich people around us, we should learn to extend love to the poor. We should learn to share whatever we have among ourselves. Secondly, this time actually give us time to have a rethink on what we can still do more. We have found out that if I can do this, I can also do this. There is a lot of time to think of so many new things like now food is really selling now, you can imagine, there are so many things I may not buy now. I may not buy cloth, I may not buy shoes etc but I must eat, people just want to eat.
Are you also into food?
Well, I am into food essential. I have a small company that we are into food and cleaning essentials we called it “Embad Essential”. We are also into wholesale selling of American products.
At the time Funke Akindele had her problem, how did you feel considering your closeness?
That day I was out of this world. I wasn’t myself. I was like what is going on. I tried to get there I couldn’t because there was police on the road and they stopped us. I wasn’t myself, because I have seen myself in Funke and Funke in me, that whatever is happening to her it’s happening to me too. I was not myself at all.
The way even people go about it was like, somebody called me and said “Eniola you are trending” trending, why? What is going on? I had to go on twitter and saw all manners of shading, people were saying all sort of things.
That day was one of my red-letter days, I can’t even explain how I felt that day?
Looking back at your career and how far you have gone, how does it make you feel?
I feel great, I feel honoured. I feel super proud of myself. Well, I might not be at the top of my career right now but I believe I have tried. 20 years in the game and we are still here, still bagging award, still bagging endorsement and we are still one of the people the world reckons with. I feel so proud of myself.
Are there new things you are going to be doing in terms of your regular movie that you want to share with us?
There is a web series coming titled “Peperenpe” it’s an extremely funny character and I am sure people will love it. It’s going to come on Eniola Badmus TV. Like I said earlier too I have my regular movies coming up. Also on Eniola Badmus TV, I have a programme called “Touring With Eniola Badmus” I have not been doing too much of it lately, but when we come back to work fully, we would definitely start from that.
Touring with Eniola Badmus is a program that showcases me going to different places, getting people interviewed. Also, people watching me doing my things, how I do my day-to-day activities. And there is another one called “Time Out With Eniola Badmus” that one is a show on its own, whereby we have different celebrities from all works of life; we get them interviewed and people get to know what they are up to.
How do you juggle all these you are talking about?
Eniola Badmus is someone that when you message me 3 am, 4 am I will definitely reply you except when I am exhausted or I really don’t know what to say at that time. I really don’t sleep but when I went to sleep nothing can stop me.
Somebody said what is your relationship with Olamide?
Olamide is a brother from another mother. He is one person I talk to every day of my life. He is someone we try to put ideas together. Olamide is a brother, he is part of me. There are some of the things I do that the idea is from Olamide and I use to give him ideas too.
We relate so well. I don’t see him like someone I am older than, I see him like my men, people I relate freely with, and that is how it should be if you want to acquire wisdom. I am not kind of person that expects you to call me Aunty, just call me Senator Badosky or Baddoo, I am good with it (laugh).
Someone is asking if you are married or single?
I am single and ready to mingle (laugh).
How come Eniola is not married yet?
When the time comes I will. Of course, every girl wants to get married to a responsible guy. So definitely, I will get married and have my own children, don’t worry (laugh).
Being a plus-size, how do you inspire other plus size women out there?
I am sure I am one of the ladies who advocate for that. I carry my body so well. Anything that looks good on me I want to wear them. My size doesn’t have to hinder me from doing anything I want. I believe sizes don’t determine beauty, I mean beauty is different from sizes, so whatever I feel comfortable with I just want to wear it. And I never knew a lot of people are watching me, they will message me that I inspire them a lot. I do tell people if you feel so bad about your size then Iose weight, the most important thing is that you need to live your own life.
Be good, be comfortable with who you are if you know you can’t lose weight.
You and Funke have been close for a while, how did you develop that relationship to this point?
Funke Akindele is one person you should know who she really is before been her friend or been very close. Funke loves Loyalty. She is a playful person. When Funke is cool with you, she wants to be around you. Funke is someone that wants to see everybody eating at the same time. Funke is like a mother, she has that mother figure in her. She cares a lot about people around her. Somehow, we are cool. You know Funke is funny and I am also funny too. We don’t get thing personal to ourselves, even if Funke did something wrong to me I won’t see it as being wrong, we would play and laugh over it. I call her Lafunky.
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