Funke Akindele, the Nigerian actress and filmmaker, has opened up about the sacrifices she made while building the Jenifa brand.
Speaking recently at Wema Bank’s International Women’s Day (IWD) conference, Akindele said the success people see today came at the cost of her personal time, comfort and social life.
The filmmaker said she deliberately withdrew from parties and social gatherings and even once isolated herself in Amen Estate for nearly two years to concentrate on growing the brand.
“We are all seeing the billions, the congratulations, the accolades, ‘I want to be like Funke’, ‘Funke is doing a great job’, but what it costs for me to be sitting here today is a lot. It took my time, when I said my time I mean I did not have a party life, no social life,” she said.
“I remember locking myself up in Amen Estate for over almost two years just building the Jenifa brand. Writing, producing, directing, playing Jenifa, supervising every department just to grow the brand.”
The actress added that many of her colleagues often misunderstood her absence from social events at the time, often criticising her for not attending parties.
She also spoke about having to develop resilience in the face of criticism when some projects did not turn out as expected.
“And I could remember that my colleagues used to be so mad at me, ‘you do not come for people’s parties, what is wrong with you? She is a sadist’. But they did not know what I was doing, it took my time, my comfort,” she added.
“Sometimes I would want to relax, I would just remind myself to stand up, that there was no time to chill and I had a target. Then it took vulnerability.
“I was vulnerable in the sense that when you pour in different things, you pour in your all into the production and some things do not work out and you sit back and you watch them criticise you. I had to take it in, it was difficult but it has helped me today to grow.”