Iya Rainbow and I are very good friends — Ngozi Nwosu

Nollywood actress Ngozi Nwosu says that contrary to their characters in the popular Airtel 4G advertisements, she and her co-star Iya Rainbow are good friends.

Nwosu and Idowu Phillips, popularly known as Iya Rainbow, play competing mothers-in-law in Airtel’s Meet the In-Laws 4G ad campaign. But Nwosu says their characters are far from reality. “Iya Rainbow is my mother, a colleague and a friend. She comes to my house,” she said.

“But because this is a job,” Nwosu continued, “we just have to do it. Sometimes when I read some of the things people send to me about how I treat Iya Rainbow, I just smile. We’re just acting from the script given to us.”

Watch one of the ads below:

Nwosu then shared her experience with people judging her she had with a by her on-screen characters. She said, “I’ve had too many people react to me based on the characters I play. A guy actually saw me on the road, came down from his car and asked if I was Ngozi Nwosu.”

“I thought he was about to tell me he was a big fan. But instead, he rained insults on me. He said, ‘You’re so wicked, stupid, and mean’. There I was feeling irie, thinking he was about to tell me I was his favourite actress. Only for this guy to wash me from head to toe. Then he got into his car and drove off.”

Speaking on this negative experience in an interview with Chude Jideonwo, the Nollywood veteran chucked it all up to “the price one pays for being a celebrity”.