Eyimofe Star Temi Ami-Williams on Film, Fashion, Faith and Fighting Cancer.
At the start of this year, I wrote a listicle on my favourite Nigerian films and shows of 2021. I also wrote about my favorite performances. Temi Ami-Williams’ performance in Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Eyimofe as Rosa was one of my favorite performances of 2021. This is what I wrote: Temi Ami-Williams is a fine actor. I hadn’t seen her in anything before Eyimofe but she held my attention– the quiet to her performance, her ability not to play up emotions but just wear them. She was brilliant in what is surely her first major role. I hope I get to speak with her someday.
I'm really glad that I got to speak with her. Temi was open, honest and allowed herself vulnerability while conversing with me. I found the many stories she shared about her life, career and battle with cancer uplifting and inspiring. I don't mean to be maudlin but it left me with a renewed zest for life and with a better determination to chase my dreams and goals.
Here's our chat:
So of course my first question, how did you get to play Rosa? Take me through the auditioning and casting process.
Funny story, my twin sister Tolu was the one who was invited by Chuko to come and audition for Eyimofe. Chuko had seen us, my twin sister and I, in a stage play in 2016. It was called Sad Pink. It was curated by the British Council for Lagos Theatre Festival 2016. We didn’t know him prior to that nor became acquainted with him after the play. But then a few months or a year later, he ran into my sister at her job in Parkview where she was working in a gallery for Mrs Polly Alakija. They exchanged contacts and he told her that he really liked our performance at the stage play and that he would like to invite us for a reading for his project when he is ready. So in February of 2018, he reached out and told her he was finally ready for his project and asked if she would like to come in for a reading. Of course, she said yes. I also reached out to Chuko and asked if I could go with her and Chuko agreed.
We were auditioned by Chuko and Lala Akindoju. The audition was so interesting in that there was no script that you had to have prepared. Chuko right there just gave each of us scenarios. Separate scenarios. He whispered something into our ears and then we played it out. Then he did it again. He whispered something to me and whispered something to her and we played it out. We were reversing roles in those two takes. After we were done, they said thank you and we will see you later. The first time we both got call backs which was great. We both went for the second audition and it was nice. But this time, we auditioned with other actors. One was Toyin Oshinaike who later played Mr. Vincent. And then finally, only I got a call back after. I had a few sessions with two prospective Graces and Chuko asked me which of them I felt more connected to. Between Cynthia Ebijie and Joy Sunday. I said I felt a stronger connection to Cynthia. Joy ended up playing Tolu.
I just found it amazing that there was always something else for each person to play. So if you didn’t fit one role, Chuko and Lala always made sure there was something else for you to play. And I think it was fantastic. At this time, I wasn’t even sure that I was their Rosa. All of this I have been describing took months and in August, they finally told me, Hey Temi, you are our Rosa and we are super excited to have you onboard. It was fantastic. It was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me.
Did you understand the kind of production Eyimofe was at the time?
I didn’t. I didn’t think it was going to be what it ended up being. I thought it was going to be a regular film. Something nice but then I started meeting people. I think I understood the kind of project it was when I had my first official meeting with everyone on the crew and realised that they flew in half of the crew.
I would like to know how you and your sister took the news that you had gotten a callback for Eyimofe while she who went twice with you and whom Chuko reached out to first wasn’t.
So my sister was okay to be honest. Chuko was sweet and considerate enough to actually tell her first before calling to inform me. So when I found out and called to tell her , she said “Temi it’s fine, I’m happy for you. Better one of us than none of us” . That meant a lot to me and she has celebrated me all the way! She really carried me on her head for the Nigeria premiere, made sure I looked nice and even went with me ! Funny, people even mistook her for me and were congratulating her.
Oh that's nice. I like this. It was also thoughtful of Chuko to reach out to Tolu first before contacting you. You’re currently not in Nigeria and I doubt that you’re acting at the moment, so my question is, has acting always been the dream?
Yes, I am currently not in Nigeria and amazingly, I am acting. I am acting even away. I had my very first opportunity on the FBI: International series. It was one scene, one line but it was amazing. We shot in Budapest and I lived in Hungary at the time. I did that. So if you check on my IMDB there are thankfully two credits there. I've also been taping for filmmakers back home becaue some of them reached out to me. I am making my own films as well.
Acting wasn’t always my first love. It wasn’t always the dream. I used to be more of a crafts person but now there’s room for acting. There's room for filmmaking. There's room for directing. Initially, I thoought I was just a crafts person, costume designer, and a dancer. In university, I was acting because I could act, because I was good at it. Not because I was in love with it. Not because it was my life-long goal to become an actor. But after doing Eyimofe, it sort of birthed something in me that makes me want to be an actor. Now, it is something that I want. Something that I visualise myself doing, and something that I project into my future. And I definitely want acting to be on the table for me. Eyimofe is really key to my career as an actor. I watch movies like Black Panther and the recent trailer of The Woman King and I am like, this is what I want to be doing. These are the kind of movies I want to act in. I watched The Greatest Showman and I am like, yeah, this is what I want to be doing!
While I didn’t stumble into acting, I stumbled into the love of acting with Eyimofe. Also, Eyimofe showed me what a film set could be like. What a production should feel like, in terms of professionalism, creativity, the arts. Eyimofe really opened my eyes, like tore my eyes open to the back of my head.
There’s no Nigerian film that has garnered the critical acclaim and international recognition that Eyimofe has. I want to know if that puts you in an uncomfortable position where the films you’d be involved in going forward have to live up to the standard Eyimofe has set for you.
Eyimofe did set the standard for me. I will tell you what a lot of people told me, and this includes even veterans in the industry and film producers. They all told me, well not all productions can be like Eyimofe. Don't use Eyimofe as your benchmark. They all can't be the same. Don’t expect everything to have this standard. And at first I thought, why shouldn’t I expect greatness as the standard? But then I learnt. They were right. And you are right, it did put me in an uncomfortable position. It was really a serious career work between me and God. I personally don’t think I have control over anything. I mostly just watch God point me in directions and then I take them. That’s why half the time, it looks like my life is in phases. One phase, costumier. One phase, academia. One phase, acting. It's been amazing. At one point and this was in 2019 when I had just finished shooting Eyimofe, I felt like every production should be the Eyimofe standard and if it’s not that, then I don’t want to do it. But then I learned from some of my mentors in the industry that it depends on the nature of the project and the people who are doing it. Now, I no longer try to put every film on the same pedestal as Eyimofe. I read the story and if it is something that resonates with me or if it’s something that moves me in a way, then I want to do it. Before I left Lagos, I was cast in a film I'm excited about; The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos where I also got to play the leading character.
You won the FESPACO prize for the Best Young Actor in 2021 for your performance in Eyimofe. You are the first Nigerian to win that award. How does it feel to make history?
I was blown away. I threw a one-woman party in my room here in Hungary. And I asked God, what did I even do? I made history! It’s a prestigious thing. I was happy, grateful and surprised. So I will let you in on a secret: I'm not so impressed by my performance in Eyimofe. And this is my absolute honesty. When I get compliments from people, I say thank you because I think they are just trying to be polite and offer me a compliment. Because I watch this film and I think, Temi, you could have done better. You could have done better than this. It took a while but I made peace with the fact that it was my very first film. I could cut myself some slack. Between then and now, I have seen exponential growth in my acting, in the way I portray characters. I have seen amazing, amazing growth. I am not the person I was when I did Eyimofe. I have grown. So I told myself, Temi, for your first film, it was good and people are telling you the truth, believe them. I thank God that I could even do what I could do when I could and I thank my brothers Arie and Chuko who took it upon themselves to get me and Cynthia an acting coach. They flew Nicholas Monu in from Austria to coach us for this film. I am grateful for it. I think I tried. I did him justice in the film. But I will continue to do better. I know I can only continue to get better.
I'm glad that you are in this place where you have come to accept that you did good in Eyimofe while also seeing room for growth. I thought your performance was brilliant and understated. When I saw it, I could not imagine any other actor as Rosa. I think what I liked most was that it was honest. Happiness, anxiety, frustration, whatever emotions I saw on your face looked genuine. It didn't look like you were playing to the camera. I liked that.
Thank you.
I think when I stumbled on your Instagram was when you shared your cancer survival story and I found that deeply moving. Could you speak about that period in your life? It must have been physically and mentally challenging.
Yes. It was mentally, physically and spiritually challenging because I have never experienced something like that. Prior to that I had never been admitted to the hospital for an illness. And when this happened I was 22. I was also the kind of person who wouldn’t allow myself show any kind of physical exertion because I hate to be thought of as weak. And so to go from that to this person who couldn’t lift a fallen pin…
When it started in October of 2019, it was back ache. I was working on this theatre production. We were touring and were in Bonny Island at the time and I thought it was due to stress. But on the flight back to lagos, I was in such excruciating pain. I cried. On getting to Lagos, I started visiting hospitals here and there. This is the first time I am articlating this: I was embarassed to be sick. I hated that people will get to see me in a frail state. But thankfully, God gave me strength. He gave me beauty for ashes. So instead of feeling embarassed and angry, I found strength and courage through the word of God and through spending time with family and loved ones.
It was also a period of learning for me. I learnt that nobody owes you anything in life. I learnt that family is everything. I learnt that family doesn’t have to be by blood. It could be by love. I learnt that God’s will for my life is what matters above all else.
Would I want to go through cancer again? Never. But do I wish to go back in time and change things? No. That experience taught me many things that I am today grateful for.
I can't even begin to tell you what it was like going through what I went through. Do you know how emotionally traumatising it is to watch your hair fall out your head? And you try to patch it back and tie a scarf so you don’t see your bald patches.
I had wonderful friends who set up a prayer altar for me everyday at 7pm. They prayed for me and for my health and for other people who were going through stuff. I got help from the church, from acquaintances, people I had worked with. Arie and Chuko too. And it wasn’t just financial help. It was their presence. I remember one time Arie came to spend time with me in my house. I will never forget. He had a conversation with my uncle. It was amazing. Then he took me and my sister to see a play at the Muson Centre. The next day I went to lunch with him and Chuko. And we didn’t talk about the fact that I was ill and possibly dying. They were just positive and future-focused. They were just talking about my trip to Berlin for the premiere. They were asking questions abut my diet. They wanted everything to be right. I coundn't go at the end of the day but it was just nice to be around people who geninely loved me. I went on their set as an actress on a job but I left with a family worth more than gold.
Did your illness leave you in a place where you have become a little paranoid about life, sickness or the fear of death?
I wish. No, I take that back. The devil wishes that it did. My experience left me in a place where I had become less paranoid, more daring, with a better urge to chase after my goals. I am not going to lie that there aren’t days when I wake up with fearful thoughts about me being sick again or the mass in my kidney growing back, but as often as those thoughts come, we cast them down immediately. Because I give no allowance, I give no room for fear of death. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate me, Temioluwa, from the love of God. Nothing can pluck me out of the hands of God. See, he is holding me. I am a very precious egg in his hands. And when I die, it won’t be because of sickness and disease. It will be because Abba had said it is time, Temi, come home. I will achieve everything that God has put me on this earth to achieve. Sometimes when I feel afraid I remind myself who I am. I am Temioluwa. To translate: it means I belong to the Lord.
You are brave. I am thankful for your strength. I watched your film Journey to Wholeness and found it comforting. The film is beautiful. But it’s more watching the costumes you made during that period and just knowing that you were ill when you made them that deeply affected me. How have you grown as a filmmaker and costume designer since then?
My twin sister likes to tell me, Temi, I think God gave you a new set of eyes. I think God gave you a new set of senses when he gave you remission of cancer. And I think the same thing too. So in my journey as a filmmaker and costume designer, I am more daring now. It’s made me more of a go-getter. I think about it, then I want to do it. I am no longer waiting for someone to hire me to direct a film for them or to direct a fashion campaign for them. I am no longer waiting for opportunities, I create them and at the same time, create for other people as well. Because like I said, I don’t walk alone. I have friends and a whole village. So when I say lets do this, they say yes! We did Journey to Wholeness. We did Ladipo’s Garden. They are all on my YouTube. We are in fact shooting today as I speak with you. I am remotely, virtually directing another film in Lagos and by the grace of god, it’s going to be so much better than Journey to Wholeness and every other thing that we have done.
Yeah, I am growing. Before I left lagos, I was making costumes for stylists. You might know some of them. I was making pieces for Uduak of Gangstlying. I was making pieces for Daniel Obasi. I shot a film in Hungary in April. And I made the costumes for that film. It got accepted into the Choreo Dance Film Festival because it’s an ethno-graphic experimental film. I am practicing. I am growing everyday.
Congratulations! From following you and watching Journey to Wholeness, it’s easy to see that you are grounded in the Christian faith. And I don’t mean to patronise, it’s uncommon for young people these days, especially those in the creative arts. I would like to know if you ever experienced a crisis of faith and how you pulled yourself from it.
I really like this question about my faith. I was born into a Christian home. All my life, I have been Christian. But I didn’t personally have a relationship with God. I always prayed and saw God answer my prayers but I didn’t know what it felt like to be friends with Jesus, to be a child of God. I didn’t know what communion with the holy spirit felt like. I really didn’t know what a prersonal relationship with God was until 2018 when I intentionally decided that I am going to do this. So when people ask me, February 2018 was when I really became a Christian in every sense of the word, despite having been raised in two Christian homes. My father was an interpreter in Mountain of Fire Miracles. My mother was a deaconness. Then I left and went to live with my aunt and uncle who were pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Me and my cousins were omo pastor. And I am thankful for that experience.
But I made a decision to be closer to God because I thought to myself that it was better to know this God now that things seem to be going well instead of seeking his face during a time of hardship, little did I know that the next year, hard was going to come knocking.
Did I experience some crisis of faith at any point in my life? I have never not believed in God. I have never not had faith in God. But the level of faith increased. My faith took a whole new turn when I got ill and watched God perform miracles for me everday until the day I got my healing. My faith just grew exponentially.
You are right when you say there aren’t many young people who are still grounded in the Christian faith. It became apparent when I left Nigeria. It’s easier to be a Christian in Nigeria. Here, I am judged for my faith. In my programme, I came in contact with people who judged me for my faith. They didn’t even need to say anything. Their body language around me said it all. It was in their attitude, their behaviour, their facial expression.
Does Christianity influence your art?
Yes. Every single idea that I have creatively comes from God. I take no single credit. And when people ask me, Temi, how do you get inspiration for your work, I tell them, would you believe me if I told you its from the holy spirit? Then they get sceptical. Christianity influences my art. But it doesn't mean that everything I do has to be a gospel on christ. You watch and you feel the impact.
Final question: if I told you that I am currently working on something that I don’t deserve yet, that I am yet to prove my talents for a project that big, what would you say to me?
I would tell you first that God calls the unqualified and then he qualifies them. God takes you through a process to prepare you. Sometimes when you think that you don’t deserve or that you are not ready, you probably are but you won't see how ready you are until you are thinking about it in retrospect. Things like this, only hindsight can show you that you were prepared. If you ever find yourself in a position where you know in your heart of hearts you are not ready for what is happening, then be honest with yourself. Take the time that you need to prepare to learn, to grow, improve on your skills. See, talent is not enough. Skill half the time is what matters. In fact, those with less talent work harder and then grow their skills and are for that, the greater people. I always say, if it’s looking bigger than you, then God is in it with you.
*this interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
I have never been so happy to do an interview as I have with you Dika. Thank you for keeping my honesty! Thank you for sharing my truth. God bless you.♥️♥️
Wow ..... I knew I did not wait this long to read this by coincidence . Thank you Dika and Temi