Chika Ike says she took inspiration from life events to make her new movie 'Small Chops'

Screen diva, Chike Ike was a guest in Pulse Nigerian studio on Thursday, January 16, 2020, where she got to talk about her new movie, 'Small Chops'.

Chatting with Pulse, the actress explains everything that went behind the scene to make the movie a reality.

Asked about the inspiration behind the movie, the actress said;

 "What inspired Small chops were life's events, things around me, things I see around me on social media, things I hear from friends, things going around different industries, the churches, and mosques, schools, workplace, about sexual abuse and also about personal experiences of being an actress, perception, labeling, unconscious bias on people when they try to judge you and put you in a box, so these things inspired Small Chops."

For anyone to have the likes of Nkem Owoh, Toyin Abraham, Nse Etim Nkpe and Eucharia Anunobi in one movie must have taken a lot or the script was an instant hit to these Nollywood greats. Chika was asked how she was able to pull the A-list cast for her movie.

"It took a lot of effort, it took a lot of thought process to get to this point. We had a lot of meetings, we consulted, we wanted people that apart from the fact they were A-list in their game, also we wanted people that could carry that character and interpret the role, that could leave that character and I am grateful that they were able to bring their A-game and deliver. These are professionals in the field, we don't expect less from them, we expect A game and every other thing from them. I'm glad that people love them, I'm glad that they have a huge fan base and I'm glad that they did wonderful in the movie," she said. 

The actress who played the lead character "Nikita" in the movie also shared how she was able to come up with the story and turned it into a beautiful well-told movie. 

"First of all I drafted the story of the film. I have had the story for four years. I have always wanted to tell the story of perception, labelling because I for one have experienced it in my career. People just see you and say 'oh you are an actress' and have this misconception about you when they don't even know you. So I thought about it and also I got the help of some amazing scriptwriters. They came on board and we actually broke it into pieces, adding the flesh into the skeleton and we made it work. Nikita was actually very challenging playing, I would say for one it was really challenging playing her beyond the fact that I am not a dancer. 

"I won't even consider myself a good dancer in real life but I had to live Nikita, I had to go through dance classes, intense ones, really intense dance classes, I had sores, there were sores all over, it was a lot of flexibility, I had to be on the floor rolling my bum, it was crazy. I had to do it because I had to live Nikita. It was eight weeks of practice and also I had to go on dreads because Nikita was on dreads in the film. I had to live through her so I was on dreads for three months and also I got coaches...I have not gone through half of what she had gone through in the movie so I had to find ways to live her life," she said.

Nikita in 'Small Chops' showcases the life of a dancer and all the hurdles she had to go through in life for survival.