Rania Khaliq, my little Rania...when Nikki told me about Manaal's film Through The Red Doors I was so deep into Olufemi that nothing could get me out of the Oli mode. I made it a point that the only character I will give life to will be Olufemi, even if it was my last one. I was polite so I said e-mail it to me. A rush of goose bumps invaded my body. To give life to a character that is at the top of her game, sitting on a throne all alone...her hard life and how she became so emotionally detached, how she got there and to top it all, she's in her late fifties, I have no wrinkles... To have to enter the screen with all that past, experiences I will never have. Let's face it I was not an immigrant that had to prostitute herself to save her mother who was ill and so on. Now how to you get there? That's a pretty dark place to tap into. Drove on Santa Monica blvd a lot, watched prostitutes, harsh reality. Spend all my time thinking about her, the way she eats, the way she thinks, the way she moves, the way she stares. Constantly wrote things down about her, fictional, but made sense to me, for example in my head she had two bedrooms, one she slept in and one she fucked and once she was done she said "you can show yourself out when you wake up"... Rania was everywhere, in my head and one night I went to Bar Marmont, was letting her go, thought I need to have a moment in my head, a Nansia moment...was having such an amazing time with friends, laughing , vibrating...on my way to the restroom while I was walking through that little dark hallway, I was touching the wall with my fingertips and Amy Winehouse's song "I am no good" came on, I looked up and my whole body language changed, I got her, she fall right into place. I was done with Bar Marmont for the evening, went home bought the song on iTunes and the rest is on screen...
