By Ferdinand Ekechukwu
Reality TV star, Maria Chike Benjamin has shared her first film set experience, describing it as challenging and intimidating. Maria, in a chat with THISDAY, recalled her transition from air hostess to reality TV star and now actress, saying that her first experience on a film set was completely different from anything she had learned in the UK or anywhere during her studies as an actor.
Maria decried the standard of getting actors to set on short notice without proper preparation before filming.
Reflecting on her journey and time in Los Angeles hustling, Maria, born to a Nigerian father and an Austrian mum, recounted fatherhood influence, studying law before acting. She shared her biggest lesson through the journey, believing in herself when people outside didn’t believe in her.
She said “That has to be the biggest lesson ever throughout having moved back to Nigeria since 2021 transitioning from being an airhostess with Emerald Airlines to a reality TV star to now being an actress. I think the biggest lesson ever would be that I have consistently believed in myself,” she said recalling her dad’s influence on her life and career.
“My dad has been such a great influence in regards to my life and my career. I mean he always wanted me to be a lawyer back in college days in Manchester, in the United Kingdom. I actually studied law because that’s who my dad wanted me to be. But I didn’t like law and kind of failed some years and went in to do what I actually loved. And he was quite upset but we squashed things afterwards.
“He wanted me to be a lawyer but from law I moved on to acting. I went to a performance school in Sanford University, studying strictly acting and script writing. I have been mostly in front of the cameras. Even some journey in my life after I finished university, you know l lived in Los Angeles in America for three months and I was going for acting auditions and stuff like that.”
She added: “The high cost of living in LA chased me away and I moved back to the UK. I just went for a short period to get acting jobs and it never really happened for me. So I have been in front of the cameras, in front of so many auditions, so as much as my first ever time being on an actual real movie set that was going to feature, it was exciting but it was also intimidating.
“Abroad or when I was in acting school, they would give you weeks, months, they would give you script ahead of time. But Nigerians we do things completely different. They give you a script today and they expect you to be on set tomorrow morning. Or you are on set the first time you will see your script, all you doing is just quickly learning the script not even going into character.
“So, it’s very intimidating in the terms like it wasn’t what I studied, it wasn’t how I perceived acting and it was quite challenging to just come on set and have to quickly just read my script and then they expect you to just be in character straight away, it’s extremely challenging. I’m like wait… I’m I supposed to read this script right now?! And you are supposed to film me?!”
“I wish I was given my script weeks in advance to submerge into this character, to own my character, to be that character, to come on set and give a different type of standard acting. I haven’t been in a lot of movies in this industry or in any industry. I have just been in a few. But I do hope that someday the film industry in Nigeria or Africa would actually change.”