Nollywood actress, Sharon Ooja has revealed what she did to perfect her character in EbonyLife‘s newly-released movie, Oloture.
Speaking with Pulse, Ooja said playing the role of an undercover journalist in a crime world tasked her to do a lot of research on human trafficking and prostitution.
“Okay, It took quite a lot for me to prepare for this character. I cant relate with the character in any way because I am naturally a bobbling person while she is a strong-willed, strong-headed, extremely impulsive…I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos, googled a lot of girls who have been trafficked.
“One in particular struck me. There was one about this Edo girl who had gone to Dubai. She had promised her madam about $20k – $50k and she couldn’t pay. Because she couldn’t pay, her madam stripped her naked, recorded her, and posted it on Facebook and it went viral. And it was just disheartening. I remember watching that video and felt like crying. Things like that prepared me for this character,” she was quoted as saying.
On how she felt the moment she first got the script, Ooja added: “My first reaction when I got the script was shock because it was a very very deep story but I think I was slightly taken aback but I felt like it was such an important story that had to be told and for me, as an actor, it was a challenge so I was happy to be part of such a project. I was happy about the script.”
In Oloture, Ooja plays the role of a young and naive Nigerian journalist who went undercover to expose the dangerous and brutal underworld of human trafficking.
The movie which recently premiered on Netflix shows how sex workers are recruited and exploited overseas.