•Star Actress, SHAFFY BELLO Tells City People
Shaffy Bello is one the A-list actresses setting off the fireworks on our big screens. This incredibly talented actress and musician (remember her foray into music with Seyi Sodimu of the Love Me Jeje fame) has established herself as one of Naija’s brightest exports as far as the movie industry is concerned.
Her confidence, her poise, her charisma and the intensity she brings into every character she plays is nothing short of phenomenal. She is an absolute delight to watch. Yet, this enchanting looking lady carries herself with utmost humility, as though she has no idea she is such a big fish in the entertainment industry. But that’s Shaffy Bello, very real, very down-to-earth, very unassuming. But watch it, she can also be very firm and decisive when you step out of line.
City People Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) recently had a lovely conversation with this hugely gifted thespian and she shared with us a few things about her personal life and reason why she’s taking her time before settling down with another in marriage. Below are excerpts of the interview.
Let me put you on the spot here. Who were some of those names at the time you were coming into the industry that you rated very highly and felt were way up there, and you wanted to be on same pedestal with?
There were so many people that I met in the industry, the likes of RMD, the likes of Aunty Joke Silva, Kate Henshaw, Ireti Doyle, Bimbo Akintola, so many of them. Oh, come on, I met them on set and I’m thinking, okay, I’m rolling with the big guns now. But I will say this, I’m now in a place that they see me also and give me the honor and that’s not because I met them and just thought, oh my god, they’re fantastic, no. They see someone who appreciates the fact that they’ve been there before her. She honors them. But at the same time she makes what they do look good. And I think when you look at it that way, it’s almost like where I am now. When I see the younger ones come in and I see a hot actor, wow! I think to myself, my God, that’s what I’m talking about! You know what I mean? That’s what I’m talking about. So when I see good actors, it makes me so excited and proud because for me, gone are those days where we’re looking for quantity, now Industry is all about quality.
So, when I see those actors that bring their A- game, oh, boy, I am excited because I feel now that’s what we’re talking about.This is where we’re going, because it doesn’t do us any good when people who are in the industry or you watch a film and you see an actor just make a scene go flat and you’re thinking to yourself, my goodness, you had every element to make that scene brilliant, what are you doing? Unfortunately, we’re also in an era where we have platforms now that’s giving them popularity and then they come into the industry thinking that that popularity is what’s gonna propel them. But they forget that the skill is actually what they need. Now, don’t get me wrong, when you’re coming into the industry you get better. I got better over time. You get better over time. But at the same time you need to sharpen your skills.
But if you want me to call names of those actors that I think are my favourites, I won’t do that. We have some exceptional actors that are in this industry now that, my God, I can’t wait to work with some of them that I haven’t worked with before. But for the most part, we have some beautiful actors, but if you want me to go ahead and start mentioning some names, I might forget to mention a few names and that won’t be good.
Okay, I’ll let you off on that. Now, tell us about your relationship with God, I am so, so surprised to find you talking so passionately about God the way you have done in the course of this interview. Can you share this part of your life with us? Where did all of that evolve from?
I was born Muslim. My father and mother were Muslims, but while I was in high school and I would see a lot of my friends, holding small fellowships. They will have these meetings, just little cell groups of Christians and for some reasons, for me, Christianity felt right. It made sense. I wanted to speak to my maker in my language. I didn’t want to have to learn another language to do so. As a young kid, that’s how I felt. That doesn’t mean that that’s the norm, but as a young kid, that that’s what happened to me and I just thought, okay, I like this religion and I started doing it. I was hiding it at home. I was hiding it from home but then when I now got to the U.S. after high school, that’s when I truly developed this relationship with God. And an aunt of mine was also like a pastor, she would always call all of us together and we had prayer meetings. And so, I think honestly, he had been knocking on my door for so long and just like he does for everyone. It’s just up to you to open that door, He’s always knocking. So, I opened the door with all pleasure. But I thank God that the way that I accepted Him and the way my nature is, is that, I don’t want you to tell me about this thing, I want to know about it myself. I want to find out myself. Don’t give me testimonies, don’t tell me what he’s about and all that, I don’t want that.
Hence, I tell people all the time, honestly, I’m not a religious person, not a religious woman. Yeah, please, I’m not religious. So, if you’re trying to ask, okay, are you Pentecostal, are you this or that, I don’t like those questions. I love God and I believe in being spirit-filled. Spirituality is a thing for me and my relationship with God through Christ is important. And I think the baseline of who I am innately is that, in this industry, people have been Christians or some people have been Christians all their lives that they forget what we’re supposed to do as Christians. I’ll give you an example. As a Christian, I ought not to say Jesus Christ before you know that I’m a Christian. If I walk into a room, within 10 minutes, you ought to think there’s something about this woman that’s just very captivating. There’s just something about this person. You could be quiet, but there’s something. So by the time it’s 20 minutes in and we’re talking and then it gets to what my beliefs are or that name Jesus drops, you should be able to say, ‘ah, ah!’ For me, I am an Evangelist of Christ, that’s the way I see it and in what I do, in what I am, in the things that I say. The rooms I walk into, I take him with me with pleasure. I introduce him with pleasure, but I will introduce him in a way that, by the time I am done introducing him, you have no other thing to think about but to say, I like that person you’re introducing to me, how do I know him more? So, innately, that’s who we’re all supposed to be. That’s the purpose of our lives. You’re supposed to be someone who, through what you do, introduces Christ to everyone. So, we’re all evangelists. But I love being a Christian. I love knowing Christ. I think it’s that thing that makes you glow, that sets you apart.
Let me ask you one question I know a lot of your fans will be dying toask you as wee, when will thgis gorgeous looking lady finmd love again and settle down with another man?
(Stares up into space for a few seconds) Do I really have an answer to that? I am not sure when it will come and how it will come, but I want to believe that it will come naturally. Sometimes, it is bettert ot to force these things because there’s a lot involved here. My career is involved, my independence is involved, my kids are involved, his family is also involved, his time, my time, so you can see there’s a whole lot. So, you want to take your time before plunging into another relationship. You don’t want to do it because everyone expects you to do it, you do it because you think you’re ready for it and you feel something strong inside you telling you, yes, this is it. Then, you can go for it. Otherwise, it is better to just to stay focused, be patient and take it one day at a time. And that’s exactly what I’m doing now.
I’ve known you with this signature smile for probably about 20 years now and you’re always buzzing with energy, what is that profound feeling that always gives you this bubbly outlook to life?
To be honest, I’m trying to look for that thing, and truly, there’s no other thing. It is knowing who I am in Christ. I Know, nobody needs to tell me. When people give me compliments, I already know, I’m just saying, thank you, yeah. When thay say, oh, you’re this, you’re that, I say thank you, but I already know because he’s already told me. So, it’s like a father that has always told the daughter, honey, you’re so gorgeous. Honey, you’re this, honey you’re that and you walk around feeling like my dad told me I’m beautiful. So when a man comes and tells her she’s beautiful, she knows, but okay, thank you, but I already know. That’s what it is. What is that thing though? I think its people. I’ll tell you the truth, its people. It’s the energy that people bring that I try to feed on. I steal energy from people. I mean, I breathe it in because energy is very loud. You feed on people’s energy because it’s loud. So it depends on the energy that’s in the room. Sometimes, I meet people and they, I’m sure out of a hundred percent of people that I meet, there will be maybe five that will say, I don’t know, when I met that lady, I really didn’t feel her. Yeah, it’s possible and that’s probably because, maybe when we met, it just didn’t click for us. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. Sometimes, we’re just not for everybody. I try but I think that, sometimes, for some people, when you look at them closely, you will find that trauma speaks to them a lot of the time because of some of the things they’ve been through. Now, what can you do for such person? How can you change all of that in one brief meeting with the person?
