THE AMANDA EBEYE INTERVIEW

Amanda

We recently went after one of the true new stars that are burning up our television screens. Her name is Amanda Ebeye. We bring you this interview we had with her and would like you to enjoy this.

She is a graduate of International Diplomacy from the Benson Idahosa University. She is bright eyed, she is funny and we think that she is endowed with some serious talent. When we called her to ask for an interview on one of her  movies, LOVE AND STEAL she moaned.
“Not that one I beg, choose another one now”
“Why not?”, We asked.
“It’s not one of my best works.” She’d answered with a tone of mischief and some laughter.
It did not matter really what she thought about the movie but this young woman from Delta State has a way of looking good in everything she appears in. And she certainly carried her role well in LOVE AND STEAL, a convoluted story about Campus life where girls swap and snatch male boyfriends and Sugar daddies, which appears to have become a recurrent trend in Ghanain productions these days.
Amanda Ebeye for that is her name is approachable, filled with laughter and easy to talk to but that was not the picture that finally came out when we talked to her.


“I had a painful and traumatized childhood. I come from a broken home. I grew up with my mother and she is everything to me.  My dad and my mum had heavy issues and after my dad married another woman my mum moved out of the house. My dad refused to allow us see her. Whenever she visited us, especially in the church where we used to worship my father would come down disgrace her and drag us away. Often times it would come with severe slaps and beatings for my siblings and I.  After I finished secondary I officially wrote my Dad that I wanted to live with my mum.  I moved in with her in a tiny space that was a little less than a shop space. She didn’t even have a tv set then.”
As Amanda talked there was a hint of tears in her eyes but the smile was ever present.
“If you want to cry go ahead.” I quipped in but she waved my comment away lacquered nails
“Nah, I have gone beyond that now.” She continued. Her love for her mother who she describes as her role model would not allow her think of the bad times. Her eyes shone even brighter as continued telling us about her mother finally gathered money for the television set she had demanded but had to give it away to a friend whose family had been thrown out of the house because of rent issues.

Amanda

“That’s the kind of woman she was. If there is anything like being kind to a fault then I can tell you that she was. My Dad is a wealthy man so it was slightly difficult at first to adjust to the circumstances of my mother’s life. When she left my dad she started life again in a mini shop where she used to make bridal dresses. From there she moved to a bigger shop. Now she has her own plaza.” I admire her because of her resilience and her hard work.
As for my dad, he gave me everything, sent me to the best schools and paid all my bills. Now I am mature we are trying to work out our relationship issues but then, it
can’t ever be the same.
Asked what a would be diplomat is doing in acting Amanda chuckles. “I studied International Diplomacy and Relations because that’s what my father wanted me to study. He felt it would be more dignified than Theatre Arts which was what I really wanted to study. I have always wanted to be an actor really. I used to admire and still admire Genevieve Nnaji a lot so I really wanted to act but my mum was insistent on keeping me in School. She kept promising to take me to Nkem Owoh’s house when I finished with school. She lied. She did not know Nkem Owoh but the hope of that kept me going until i was done with school.
After that things evolved naturally. We were resident in Benin then and APPLE HOUSE MODELLING AGENCY invited  me to come to Lagos and do some modeling jobs for them and i did a lot of ads both Billboard and print. While that was going on, I was trying out in auditions until I snagged a role in Fidelis Dukers EL-DORADO then I got to play opposite Jim Iyke in a movie called WEEPING TIGER. But movie roles were far in between and my Mum had warned me that she was not going to keep paying my rent so I had to take charge of my life and that’s why my friends and I decided to move more into television and I got my starring role in the very popular CLINIC MATTERS. After that the movie roles started coming.”
The roles did come but there was one more important question we needed to ask Amanda before letting her go. She left CLINIC MATTERS in controversial circumstances, a move that created a lot of angst with her admirers.

On the set of Bella Place

“Clinic Matters was the best I had done up to that time and i loved working with the director and crew. The director in particular was very patient with me and allowed me freedom to express. He wasn’t very about everybody doing things the way he wanted them done. He understood that the whole thing was a creative process and everybody had to be part of and contribute to that process but like I said my Mum had told me I needed to start standing on my own so as much as I loved the project when BELLA’S PLACE came along I could not refuse because it was going to pay me three times what I was earning in CLINIC MATTERS. Art for Art’s sake doesn’t put food on your table. I believe that what you do should take care of your needs. That was why I left.”
We couldn’t but help agree with the starlet but what has her journey been like so far
“Tough, rough but it has been bitter sweet. There have been some good moments but I believe I have not been challenged enough. Because everybody thinks I am more or less a comedian, they keep giving me the same kind of roles and what we term comedy here is basically slap stick. I want to do some more challenging roles. And like my mum I want to be able to touch people’s lives and make some meaningful impact in my society.”