Talk about one Nigerian actress who holds Nollywood icon, Genevieve Nnaji in high esteem, think Mercy Johnson. And when she surprisingly showed up at her wedding few years ago, she almost melted, twas one of the highlights of her day. MJ opened up in a recent interview with City People on the first time she met her idol.
On Genevieve Nnaji as her role model
I think I have one of the best role models ever. I like Genevieve like crazy. I started watching her movies from the onset but I didn’t want to be Genevieve, I wanted to be Mercy with the motivation that a Genevieve could give me. So I watched lots of movies. I don’t play with her movies. I don’t know what I can do that will be better than what she has done. But I just try to improve on it, try to do it the way she will do it and perhaps even better to my own level. I practice like all the time. It is like a passion. It is just where I want to be. I am alive and I am in my space. It was paramount to perfect that space. I need everything. I watch everything. Nothing passes me by. I watch newscasters reading there news and after they are done, I sit down the way they do and read the news like that. So it is practice and Passion. It was never a hypocritical kind of love or likeness. It was plain. I didn’t even ever think I will become close to her. It is like I can meet her anytime I want to
Meeting Genevieve Nnaji for the first time
Ahh! The first time I met her, my friend took me there. When we got to where she was, I became nervous. I told my friend “no, let me hide in your boot”. And I did. I got into her boot. Can you imagine I came to see her and when I got there, I wanted to run back. I jumped into my friend’s boot. So when she came out of the hotel, I could not see her, I could only hear her voice. The 2nd time I saw her was on set. When she came down and I met her, she said” “Ahh! Mercy, I like your movies” and I started crying. I was in tears of joy. I said “Aunty Genny, so you watch my movies?”. She was sort of embarrassed. Before I met her, she had already known that there was somebody who was crazily insane about her. She was really nice to me, receptive. And even whenever we work together, she will correct me and say, that thing you did, you could have done it this way. Usually in life, you will know somebody, who is more than you. Give him or her that respect. You can’t fight a battle you can’t win. It does not make any sense. If somebody is much more bigger than you, there is nothing as big as you admitting it and hearing it from that person. I didn’t come into the picture to compete with anybody. I came to learn, do it well, make it and be there