Big Brother Naija Season 4 housemate, Thelma, spoke to LITV about life outside the Big Brother house, what it’s been like, and how she’s making the most of her new-found fame.
Speaking to LITV’s On Air host, Dami Dawson, Thelma said people now recognize her when she’s seen in public, something she couldn’t boast of before she went for the reality show. She added that she’s grateful for the platform the show gave her.
“Life is smooth outside the house,” she said.
Thelma mentioned that she was supposed to audition for Big Brother season 2 in 2017 but she lost her brother during that period, so she had to shelve that dream. However, she said she was convinced that she will “make it” if she auditions.
She said: “Something in me kept on telling me that I’ll make it, so I said, ‘fine, let me just give it a trial.”
She considered trying again in 2018 but her attention was divided because she was a student of Imo State University, studying “Medical Lab Science”.
She ended up trying in 2019 and made it into the house.
Speaking of her excitement at being informed that she will be one of the housemates for the Big Brother Naija Pepper Dem edition, Thelma said she couldn’t sleep the night she was informed that she had been chosen as a housemate.
“It’s an awesome experience that everybody will really want to have. Seriously,” she said.
Speaking of her dreams and goals, Thelma said the even before she went to the Big Brother house, she always wanted to act in a movie. She said she got two roles but because of her schedule and schoolwork, she let it go. However, she adds that acting remains her passion and it will be a “dream come true” if she gets an acting role.
When asked why she chose to study Medical Lab Science and not Theatre Art since that’s her passion, Thelma said: “I already got admission in Imo State University and the course Medical Lab Science. But even in my class, my coursemates, they’ll be like,’Thelma, this is a wrong department for you. You’re supposed to be in Art.’ And different people, they kept on saying it, because of the way I relate to people. Like, anywhere I am, people get to notice me. Like, I love everything comic. I think I have such things in me already. Even without much talk, I display lots of things.
“They’ll be like, ‘Thelma, this department is not for you.’ Sometimes, they’ll even be like, “Thelma, are you sure you’re the one that filled your JAMB form?’
“So, that acting of a thing, I don’t mind o. I can still keep my certificate somewhere but you see that acting, it’s something I really have passion for and I’m really really longing for it.”
When asked which filmmaker she’ll love to work with, she said: “You see Funke Akindele? Jenifa’s Diary? you see that series? I don’t miss it.
“Jenifa’s Diary, that’s number one, and then any other one. Like, I love comic reliefs: Jenifas Diary, (My) Flatmates, The Johnsons… These are the series I really want. Series, especially. I love them.”
She also spoke about considering being in a beauty pageant. She said all through her five years in University, people kept encouraging her to consider it and she “only gave it a trial once” but she “didn’t really see it as something I wanted to do.”
“Pageantry, right from time, is not something I really want to go into. This acting of a thing is what I want.”
Watch the rest of the interview below.
