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Nollywood Fast Rising Actress, ROSALINE MEURER
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Says “I Am Not A P.A”
Over the last few weeks, the story of how the marriage of star actress, Tonto Dike to Oladunnui Olakunle Churchill crashed has been trending online. That she has moved out of his Abuja home with her kid is also no longer news. She posted all these developments on her Instagram page.
But up till now, no one can say for sure what led to the collapse of her less than 2 year marriage to her rich husband who runs a big foundation called Big Church Foundation. There are all sorts of allegations flying around. Linked to the whole story is a light-skinned Gambian born beauty, called Rosy, but whose real name is Rosaline Meurer. She is a fast rising Nollywood actress from Gambian who stormed the scene about 4 years ago and has lately been enjoying the limelight.
She is the one that was accused of crashing the 17 months marriage to Tonto Dikeh. But last weekend this petite babe debunked the allegation. She told City People Magazine, matter of factly, that she had nothing to do with the collapse of Tonto’s marriage. “I don’t know why they brought me in, into this scandal”, she told City People Magazine, last week. “I have nothing to do with it. I still can’t figure out why. Yes. I am friends with Churchhill. He is my friend and he knows my family members. I know Tonto too. Some reports refer to me as his P.A. I am not his P.A. I am an actress. Simple. I am also involved in his Big Church Foundation.”
“I am into charity. Tonto knows the truth. Let her talk and clear the air. Her marriage problem has nothing to do with me.”
“I don’t know why they picked on me. Everything is just surprising to me. I am more focused on my own career and making my own life successful.”
“I don’t have anything much to do with it. Honestly. Trust me. I am focused on my work. I really don’t bother about what people are saying out there. I have ignored the whole thing. I have moved on with my life. I have a bright career ahead of me. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. That is really how I feel. That is why it is not getting to me”.
How come not much is known about her until recently when the scandal broke. “I have always been there”, she explained. “I didn’t just spring from nowhere. I have always been a Nollywood actress. I have been involved in acting for close to 6 years but I stopped acting for a while and went back to school in Gambia. I am from Gambia. Maybe that explains why you didn’t get to hear about me. I went back to school and then came back after that to continue. So officially, I can say I have been into full acting for 4 years. And it has been an exciting 4 years acting with all the big names in the industry. That is why I said I am not a P.A. to anybody, contrary to the reports out there.”
Before this distraction, I was working, acting. I was doing my work. I have worked with Emem Isong, Eniola Badmus, Chico Ejiro, Hilda Dokubo, Jim Iyke, Ini Edo, Monalisa Chinda. I have worked with all the big names. Mine was just to focus on big jobs and work with the big names.
I have always focused on what my passion is and what I have a passion for. I did modelling with Ebony. I like to hangout with friends, not really close friends, but working colleagues. People you meet on the job and become friends. I am always on set back to back. I really don’t have time for extra activities like that. I was always more concentrated on my job.
I didn’t grow up in Nigeria. I grew up in The Gambia. So coming here, I didn’t have friends I could call friends or childhood friends. I came here to obviously make good use of the opportunity I have for myself. I am not someone that is lazy.
Its mainly work for me. I decided to get my hands in so many things I do business too. I am about to start producing my own movies too. So, I will be doing more of my own personal movies. I also hope to feature in many other big movies produced by well known directors. Basically its all been work for me.
My work is key. My work is major.
How did you start working with Churchill and his Big Church Foundation? How did you meet his?
I had already known him well before working together came in. He knew my family from when I was much younger. From that time, years back, we already knew him as a family friend. So we met his wife when he got married.
Obviously, she is a colleague in the movie industry. I had meet her once before then, through Desmond Elliot. Everything was cool. So I met her again this time through her husband. We had dinner. We went out with my brother, my sister my family. And yeah, from there we got along. She has always been in the industry. I just came from abroad to join the industry. I joined in 2009/2010.
It only makes sense that you have a family that you are friends with, family relationship, and you have the opportunity to help some body that is growing, that you have already seen that has put a lot into it. If I was lazy it’s a different thing. But I am not lazy. If you see someone trying to do something and you have the means to help, why not? I am also interested in Charity. Its not as if I want to open and organization right now. But Giving has always been my thing. It has always been part of me. I am very very happy with Big Church Foundation. This man Mr. Olakunle is an amazing person no doubt.
There is no possible way that you will be around him and you won’t benefit. Apart from benefiting financial wise, he has knowledge.
There is always something you will learn from him that you can apply to your life. I just look up to him honestly as a mentor. I have always been a fan of his wife, way back when I was in The Gambia. I just have never had an opportunity to work with her.
She put to bed then, had a child. She is a new mother now and I don’t expect her to still be working and going on set with her. She has been a cool lady. She never complained about anything. She has never been a problem to us. That’s about the relationship.
I have had with her. Her husband is close to my family. He is part of our family. As long as her husband is cool with my family and we are cool, no problem.
Most people don’t know you? But there has been so many comments about you in the media. How did you take those comments?
Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. Like you said many of them don’t know me. Don’t forget I am not a Nigerian. I am Gambian and I am just coming up in the industry. Everyone sees things from different angles, different perspectives. I can’t try to persuade everyone that this is this or that.It doesn’t work that way.
So, I will let you talk, say what you want to say. I will keep doing what I can do and obviously, along the line, somehow you will see that your views are wrong. I have nothing to do with Tonto Dike’s marriage problems. I am innocent. Rosy is cool. Rosy is just chilling and doing her own thing.
Yesterday I had fun. It was my birthday and they wanted to spoil it for me. Why? It’s my birthday, so I can take as many pictures as I want. It’s my day. Despite their comments, me I still had fun. I launched my new Jeep. Did you see the photo on line?
I like the comments under my pictures. Everyone is entitled to their comment. It was my birthday and as you know its not easy to make up in the morning and breathe. So I woke up and all I did was to thank God and celebrate with my friends and family that love me. Yeah, I just want to say thank you to God because without him I won’t be here today. What I have learnt about life is that life has its ups and downs, the high moments and low moments. And I had learnt from life to be able to handle all of it. Whats life without the lows and highs? I was on set minding my business, fighting hard to be an A List actress, working on my passion, working on getting to Hollywood and my phone is ringing relentlessly. I am still in a state of shock as to how I got into all this mess. This is a family I love, I admire and work with. I am not even a Personal Assistant as the media claims, nothing in my resume says Personal Assistant. I just think some mischivous people got hold of my pictures and put it out there. With time the truth will come out because the truth never, never hides. There is a God in heaven. I am not worried. It might be a tough time. I thought my OMG moment was going to be when I am in a blockbuster movie and my pictures will be everywhere. I never in my wildest dreams thought that this will happen. But hey it has happened and it is part of life, it is part of the journey of life. But I know that the truth will eventually come out.
How do you take the fact that all these things happened around your birthday?
Nobody likes to be in this kind of precarious situation close to your birthday. Life is filled with ups and downs, highs and low. But hey it has happened.
Am I happy about it? No. But life must go on. I am doing what I like to do. I am passionate about acting, I am passionate about charity. Thats what matters. These are the things that are close to my heart. And these are the things that I am concentrating on. All these negative stories hurt. But life must go on.
So it is not true that you are Churchills P.A? What do you do for him?
I laughed my head off when I read that. In fact, I cracked up. I was rolling all over the place when I heard that. I have never applied to be a Personal Assistant. I did not study to be a Personal Assistant. It is not one of my dreams to be a Personal Assistant. It is not my forte. I still don’t know how that came about. I am an Actress, a thespian. I tell stories with my body and my voice. That is what I have done from day one. I am multitalented. I am also a model.
What made you come to Nigeria?
You know how you grow up and you grow up with Nollywood movies. You can identify and you love some of the actors and actresses you see. Nigeria has everything I had always wanted. I am not saying you can’t stay in Gambia and fulfil your dreams but I do know that Nigeria is the Zenith or if you like the capital of Entertainment in Africa. I just said go over there, flow with your dreams and I came over to Nollywood. I parked my bags and came over I came dream searching.
Before then I had met Desmond Elliot in Gambia. They came to do a movie. Desmond Elliot came to do a movie in The Gambia and I happened to be there it was towards the end of 2009. I came in January 2010. So Desmond Elliot had meetings with Emem Isong. They sent for me. They had a role for me. And I came here and I worked with Ini Edo, Uche Jombo, Monalisa Chinda, Nse Ikpe, Desmond Elliot directed and acted in it. There are many script writers I worked with as well, like Koko, Emem Isong’s sister.
When I got here I met a lot of good people and I was happy that my dream had come through. Everything seamed really nice. But there were loads of challenges because of my accent, which didn’t fit in, Nigeria wise. But the journey was fun because I have always wanted to be like them anyway. I came here, I did that movie. I did another one for Emem as well. But then I had to go back to Gambia. I was way younger and I always got Secretarial roles I was always playing the role of Secretary. I was 16, 17 then. After that, I went back to Gambia to school. My mother is from Nigeria. She is from Delta. I came back to Nigeria on holidays and Zig Zulu Okafor, a very well known Producer called my little sister and wanted to cast her for a lead role in a popular TV series. She was very young. He made her read the script. Randomly he just said do you have an older sister that looks like you. She said yes. And she even acts. Let me give you her number. And he called me. I was very excited. I went for the meeting with him. To my surprise, I read the script infront of a whole lot of other people. I was very shy. But I wanted it so badly. So I did it. I was picked to play the Lead role. I had trainings, so, from no where I just got that opportunity. I was very happy. After that TV series that we did we had Season I and Season 2 they showed it on AIT and African Magic. Its called OASIS, sponsored by City of David Church. It was premiered at the church. We were invited.
It was really fun. And I started enjoying myself. I started getting comfortable on set. I met other actors. I met other producers and directors. From there I started getting calls. I started with minor roles and now I get lead roles.
I think they see something different in me. I am obviously here to give you guys some thing different, not the normal thing. So, I have worked with Eniola Badmus, I played Lead in her movie KAMA. It was totally different from everything I have done in Nollywood. I have done quite a number of movies. I have done about 16 to 20 movies. Its very difficult because everybody gives me that fine girl role. But she gave me a razz, pidgin-speaking, girl and I just had to blend into that character. I had to speak pidgin by force. It was a nice experience. That movie was BAAD. She gave me the opportunity to play The Lead. She made it happen. I am here to do more. I have a lot of stuff coming. I am coming on to your screen large and bright.
What are the movies you’ve acted in?
When I first came into Nigeria I acted in a movie Desmond Elliot and Emem Isong directed. I did a movie called Spellbound. I did another movie with Emem Isong in Uyo. We went to Uyo to shoot that movie called Udo Obong. I have done OASIS. I have done Redcard, with Zig Zulu Okafor. I have done My Sister & I with Chico Ejiro. I have done Vendetta. I can’t remember the others. I have done quite a number. I have done The Get Away with Emem Isong and Jim Iyke. Also Ini Edo and Monalisa Chinda. I can’t remember again ooo.
What has been you major challenge?
The heat. You can’t work with AC so all the lights generate heat. I can act any role. I know how to fit into a character. I am determined. I can play the role of a mad woman and all. My accent is another challenge but interesting some other producers love my accent and that is why they cast me for some roles. Right now, I am trying to get comfortable in my own skin; people are beginning to love this accent.
Your new jeep wowed many. How did you afford it?
I have been saving for it. I just felt I have been working really hard. And I have really saved a lot to get this Land Cruiser. It’s for going on set. I used to get Uber for the whole day before. I decided to get an official looking car. It is not that I want a masculine-looking car or anything. If I wanted I could have gotten a Range Rover but it is more official. That is why I went for a Land Cruiser. And I thank God for making my birthday a success. I bought myself a good birthday present. Something that would help me move around and be stable.
Tell us about your family?
I am the first child. We are 3. I have a younger brother and sister. I was born and raised in Gambia. My father is from Holland and my mother is from Nigeria, Delta State. I spent all my life in Gambia. I was raised there, schooled there, and every major thing I did was in Gambia. I did Modeling in Gambia. My sister is into modeling as well. In 2016 she won the crown last year. But she is going to school. My brother is in school too. They are all I have.
I just want to see them happy and I always make sure they are always proud of me. They are all I live for. Obviously, I will never ever want myself in a situation where I will put them to shame. Because of that, I know I cannot mess up or do anything bad, or ungodly to myself or family. They are all I live for.
Tell us all you do?
I am so focused on my acting and modelling. Away from that, I do little business. Whatever business is good and legit I do and I love. I am also into charity. It is a very major aspect of my life. I am an Ambassador of the Big Church Foundation. I spend most of my time following them around to do charity in different states in Nigeria and helping those that need help. That’s something I do, not because I am gaining something back. It is just to make people happy. So apart from acting whenever I have spare time, I do charity. It is me. I just want to see everyone around me happy. I can spend my last penny on charity.
