Right now, I’m single -Stella Damasus
Adeola Ogunrinde
Award-winning actor Stella Damasus says she is presently single.
She stated this in an interview with The Nation.
Damasus spoke on the challenges of the movie industry in Nigeria, and how she is coping living in America with her children.
“It’s not been easy. I’m not going to lie because we face a lot of discrimination abroad. People might not want to be honest about it but I’m going to tell you the truth, it’s not easy especially as a Nigerian.
“I don’t look like the kind of African they expect, they expect black, they expect you to have a certain type of accent you know, so If you’re not black you don’t have that accent, I’m also not white neither do I look like I’m mixed race.
“I don’t sound American, nothing, so it’s hard and they keep telling you oh they’re not writing enough stories for people like us but we have a lot of Nigerians abroad who are filmmakers and we make good films only that we still don’t have the right platform for the films we are making in America to go to where everybody can see it like Netflix, Amazon and the rest because we don’t have an aggregator, we don’t have a middle man because when people make films here they take their films to an aggregator, who now submits to Netflix.”
Damascus noted that fame comes with a huge price.
“It wasn’t about the fame or the money we just loved it, it was about passion. How much were they paying us? But it became glamorised and people were like I want to act, even those that don’t have the real talent, everybody want to be a star.
“Being a star is different from being a talented artist, fame comes with a price, your life is no longer yours, anything you do, anywhere you go, anyone you talk to, everybody’s eyes are on you and then some people want to sensationalise anything around you to make the news because good gist doesn’t spread, so they know that if they say scandal or this or that so if you want to get into it, you have to be sure that you can handle it.”
Damasus who said she hasn’t directed a movie yet, but have directed some music videos, commercials and campaigns said her daughters have one way or another contributed to the arts.
“Both of them have this love for arts but in a different form. My first daughter is more behind the camera. She’s the one that does videography, editing, graphics, she produces music too. My second daughter, even though she studied political science, she’s into advocacy politics and all that but she has a flair for acting and she’s really good”
Asked about her new marriage, she said, “Hmmm, I really don’t talk about that but let’s just say right now I’m single.”
The 43-year-old is last known to NT married to USA-based director, Daniel Ademinokan.
