| She is beautiful.
She is talented. She wants to be an actress – a star
actress, but someone says he wants to sleep with her. What
does Kate think?
By OLAIYA TOLUFASHE
Saturday, March
26, 2005
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Kate Henshaw
Photos: Sun News Publishing
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There is cute, there is pretty, there is hot and there is
beautiful. Kate Henshaw-Nuttal falls in the beautiful bracket.
Her lips, her eyes, her hair, her body, compliment her pretty
natural face which takes on a healthy chocolate hue.
Kate, has been through a lot, and has come out gold. Married
to a Britton – Roderic James Nuttal, she admits it –
actresses are asked for sex to get roles, said she, “It
does happen.” Has it happened to her? “Never.
Not at all. A few girls have walked up to me,” telling
her they’ve been asked for sex. But Kate would counsel
from a feminine point of view: “Say no! Believe in yourself.
Believe in your confidence. No matter how long it takes do
not sell yourself short. Because once you do that, that is
what they will tie you down with.” The girls took to
the advice, refused sex and according to Kate, but too bad
(if that is the word) “they didn’t get the role.”
What should be done to perpetrators of such vices? “If
there is unity, [among actors and actresses]” answered
Kate, and “if a law is passed that this and that should
be done to” such immoral individuals or group, “I
believe that it should be carried out. And if anyone defaults,
be it the actress who goes after the producer or the other
way round, they should be fined and maybe not even worked
with because it is wrong. It is very, very wrong.” Getting
roles shouldn’t turn “people who are doing a serious
business into prostitutes.”
Basic Problem of AGN
The Actors Guild of Nigeria started out as Nigeria’s
Actors Guild (NAG) and “I’ve been a member for
as long as the association has been there – since 1995.”
So being one of the pioneer members of the guild when, “we
used to meet at 70, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street… and then
to Calabar Community Hall, Ajao Road,” the actress observes
that, “basically for ten years, the problem [of AGN]
is of uniting everyone; everyone speaking with one voice;
everyone listening to the leadership and obeying so that when
we have cohesion it will be difficult to break us. If we stand
together as one, it would be very difficult for things to
be done over our head. You can have the film, your director,
your camera and everything, without the actor to interpret
what you have written the script is nothing. I know everybody
is important but the actor is the mouthpiece.”
A voice should go forth
The fight for the position of the National PRO of AGN is going
to be a kill or cure, you are either successful or not. This
actress who “shot my first film (The Sun Sets), 1993
and it was released 1994” says if she becomes PRO, “I
want to work with people who have the same vision like myself
and the rest of the people that’ll be in the cabinet.”
She has never done politics before but the former student
of Federal Government Girls College, Calabar “where
I was Social Prefect,” said, she used her sociable qualities
against other contenders. “I’m a people person,”
says Kate a graduate of “Medical Microbiology at the
school of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Lagos University Teaching
Hospital, LUTH.”
As the medical microbiologist turned star actress, homes-in
on being the National Public Relations Officer of the AGN,
three things of precedence, she would do as AGN’s spokesperson
are: “First is to garner respect for everyone in AGN
so that people would not look down on us and think we are
bunch of unserious people who meet here just to waste our
time.
“Second, I would want us recognized abroad as well.
As much as trips are organized, I would want to be a National
PRO or someone from the national executive who would go and
speak on behalf of the AGN. There’re premières
being done in the UK in America and all that. I want a voice
to go forth. Actors abroad put themselves together to organize
things and they are recognized wherever they go. So when people
do come in here to do anything that has to do with entertainment
be it movies, commercials or whatever, I want them to recognize
AGN.
“Fostering unity is the third thing. I would make sure
that the state PRO’s relate with the chairman. And make
sure there’s unity among the members. It is important
to me. I don’t want to be one of the people who have
risen through the years and then won’t do anything for
the association I belong. I want to be remembered for doing
my best and that is okay for me. There was a situation in
Ikorodu where there wasn’t enough food for the extras
and I personally gave my own money for food to be made and
to feed them because they are an integral part. I don’t
believe because someone is an extra you leave them on set
for two three days. They don’t give them money to go
back. They come with their transportation, they don’t
get to shoot for three days, and they keep coming back because
the lead is not there. The lead is busy doing something else.
You have to be good to people on your way up so that on your
way down they’ll still be there for you.
Won’t say what I can’t do
If there is a problem in Abakaliki and you are somewhere in
England shooting and you need to speak to the press what happens?
“I would call them on phone.” Are you not going
to take the next flight and come home? “I might but
I would not promise what I cannot do. No. I’m very straightforward.
That’s me,” she answered without a hum and hew
and emphatically too.
One last question. If your president is corrupt and as the
PRO would you tell the press? “Yes I would. And if he
refuses to desist then I would resign. I would not be part
of a corrupt regime. I do not stand for it at all.
If honesty is a virtue, humility and forth rightness are apt
complements – Kates benchmark. Memo to all AGN members:
if you should spot Kate Henshaw-Nuttal – and you will
– try not to stifle your natural impulse to holler,
‘Up PRO!’
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