It’s no longer news that popular actress, Eniola Badmus and Funke Akindele are very, very close. They have been very close for years. In this cha with Seye Kehinde, she revealed a lot about her best friend Funke Akindele.
How did you feel when the President announced the lockdown in March, and how did you react to it?
“I was not in the country when the lockdown was announced, myself and Funke Akindele, we were in Dubai. From Dubai, I went to London. It was in London I got to hear, I was like what is going on? Is the world coming to an end or what? Before we know it the border has been closed. All of these are things we have never heard before, things we have never seen before.
At some point, my stepbrother told me that, “sister you need to go back home” and that time I have spent like maybe a week or so. He was like “you need to go back home, they are closing the border and we don’t know when they will open it”. So I had to leave London on the 19th. I had to even come with the economy because there was no business class. There was no even time for that because Nigeria will close the border on the 20th.
At the time Funke Akindele had her problem, how did you feel considering your closeness?
That day I was out of this world. I wasn’t myself. I was like what is going on. I tried to get there I couldn’t because there was police on the road and they stopped us. I wasn’t myself, because I have seen myself in Funke and Funke in me, that whatever is happening to her it’s happening to me too. I was not myself at all.
The way even people go about it was like, somebody called me and said “Eniola you are trending” trending, why? What is going on? I had to go on twitter and saw all manners of shading, people were saying all sort of things.
That day was one of my red-letter days, I can’t even explain how I felt that day.
Looking back at your career and how far you have gone, how does it make you feel?
I feel great, I feel honoured. I feel super proud of myself. Well, I might not be at the top of my career right now but I believe I have tried. 20 years in the game and we are still here, still bagging award, still bagging endorsement and we are still one of the people the world reckons with. I feel so proud of myself.
Are there new things you are going to be doing in terms of your regular movie that you want to share with us?
There is a web series coming titled “Peperenpe” it’s an extremely funny character and I am sure people will love it. It’s going to come on Eniola Badmus TV. Like I said earlier too I have my regular movies coming up. Also on Eniola Badmus TV, I have a programme called “Touring With Eniola Badmus” I have not been doing too much of it lately, but when we come back to work fully, we would definitely start from that.
Touring with Eniola Badmus is a program that showcases me going to different places, getting people interviewed. Also, people watching me doing my things, how I do my day-to-day activities. And there is another one called “Time Out With Eniola Badmus” that one is a show on its own, whereby we have different celebrities from all works of life; we get them interviewed and people get to know what they are up to.
How do you juggle all these you are talking about?
Eniola Badmus is someone that when you message me 3 am, 4 am I will definitely reply you except when I am exhausted or I really don’t know what to say at that time. I really don’t sleep but when I went to sleep nothing can stop me.
Somebody said what is your relationship with Olamide?
Olamide is a brother from another mother. He is one person I talk to every day of my life. He is someone we try to put ideas together. Olamide is a brother, he is part of me. There are some of the things I do that the idea is from Olamide and I use to give him ideas too.
We relate so well. I don’t see him like someone I am older than, I see him like my men, people I relate freely with, and that is how it should be if you want to acquire wisdom. I am not kind of person that expects you to call me Aunty, just call me Senator Badosky or Baddoo, I am good with it (laugh).
Someone is asking if you are married or single?
I am single and ready to mingle (laugh).
How come Eniola is not married yet?
When the time comes I will. Of course, every girl wants to get married to a responsible guy. So definitely, I will get married and have my own children, don’t worry (laugh).
Being a plus-size, how do you inspire other plus size women out there?
I am sure I am one of the ladies who advocate for that. I carry my body so well. Anything that looks good on me I want to wear them. My size doesn’t have to hinder me from doing anything I want. I believe sizes don’t determine beauty, I mean beauty is different from sizes, so whatever I feel comfortable with I just want to wear it. And I never knew a lot of people are watching me, they will message me that I inspire them a lot. I do tell people if you feel so bad about your size then Iose weight, the most important thing is that you need to live your own life.
Be good, be comfortable with who you are if you know you can’t lose weight.
You and Funke have been close for a while, how did you develop that relationship to this point?
Funke Akindele is one person you should know who she really is before been her friend or been very close. Funke loves Loyalty. She is a playful person. When Funke is cool with you, she wants to be around you. Funke is someone that wants to see everybody eating at the same time. Funke is like a mother, she has that mother figure in her. She cares a lot about people around her. Somehow, we are cool. You know Funke is funny and I am also funny too. We don’t get thing personal to ourselves, even if Funke did something wrong to me I won’t see it as being wrong, we would play and laugh over it. I call her Lafunky.
