I had to take a break after ‘La Femme Anjola’ — Rita Dominic

It’s a big month for Rita Dominic as La Femme Anjola, which she produced and starred in, premieres in a week.

Dominic said in a press conference for the upcoming neo-noir movie, that the whole process of making La Femme Anjola was so gruelling that the director Mildred Okwo advised her and her co-stars to take a break to recover from it all.

Rita Dominic plays the titular character Anjola in La Femme Anjola, who is a femme fatale with an air of mystery.

The screen diva said that some scenes in the crime-drama movie were so graphic that she became overwhelmed to the point of tears. She said, “Sometimes you get so into playing the character that you start to feel what they feel.”

“After one of the [redacted] scenes, I actually went home and cried. I realised then that I was becoming Anjola.”

Her co-star Femi Jacobs expressed his fear for her as well because of the intensity the role of Anjola demanded. He said, “I was terrified for her at the beginning, and many times, I was oscillating between the complexity of the role and the complexity of the actor as well.”

Jacobs continued, “It was comforting and it was something I wanted to witness particularly. Good actors don’t work on set, they show work there. The set is the stage on which the actor unfurls their consciousness. That was what I thought would happen, and it was precisely what did. It was spiritual, sublime.”

Mildred Okwo added that as director, she sees it as her duty to take care of the actors; which was why she practically forced them to take a break after filming. Okwo said, “I understand that some roles can be so immersive for actors that it leaves a negative effect. That is why I told them to hold off on any other projects for a while.”

Dominic in turn revealed that for months after playing Anjola, she took no other acting jobs.

La Femme Anjola is coming to theatres on March 19. Watch the trailer below.