Mara Derwent-Ashton: “People Being Open to Being Wrong is Good Practice.”

She grilled me like a suspicious mind, but I was not deterred. “She must have her reason,” I consoled myself. So, I provided her with what she needed to verify me, according to her request.

 

During our sit down conversation, I said to her that she would have been a good detective. With head slightly slanted, an eye squinted, she evoked an image of a crime scene detective keenly perusing a situation. Humor has not left her.

 

For some reasons, her name popped up in my head a few days ago: “Derwent.” I ruminated as I nostalgically reacquainted myself with her in my subconsciousness, but her first name escaped me. Recalling from memory her personality as captured in “Osuofia in London,” her frail youthfulness and charming beauty clothed in feistiness besieged me. Again, I won’t give up.

 

“This British lass!,” I whispered aloud. I struggled to recall her first name, but the haziness of my mind obfuscated any clarity. So, I went searching. I asked Siri for the names of the cast for “Osuofia in London.” Hurray! It is Mara!!

 

“Mara Derwent.” I populated my browser with it. However, I was redirected to “Mara Ashton.” I thought that I had made a mistake. I started all over. Same result. Perhaps the search engine is confused, I thought. After the third attempt, I opted to check the images for both names. They are the same in appearance.

 

Another search: rampaging through the cyberspace. Alas, there she was, but I was not certain. Nonetheless, I shot her a text: “Quick question, are you the Mara who acted in ‘Osuofia in London’?”

 

A few hours later, she responded: “Hi! Yes, that’s me. I am surprised there’s still interest 20 years later….”

 

Of course, there’s still interest in “Osuofia in London”! Four years ago, after watching the movie on YouTube, @zebronmontford2472 wrote, “This is my best Nigerian movie I ever watched.” Forty-two months after, @user-cw3fq1wi9y enthused, “I can’t believe I am actually watching this movie in 2024.” And, 36 months ago, @pitopintogorgorito4309 said, “I am Spanish, and I am dead crying with this movie! Love it…”

 

Twenty years after, what has Osuofia’s British import, Samantha, been up to? In this conversation with The Nollywood Reporter, the former Mara Derwent tells her story.

 

 

TNR: It has been a hot minute since “Osuofia in London.” How are you and what have you been up to since 2003, which was the year that you were first introduced to Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry?

Mara Derwent-Ashton: A hot minute like twenty years! I’m fine thank you, lovely.

 

What have I been up to? Obviously, a lot of stuff. However, a few years after the film, I got married and since then I’ve had two children, who are eleven and fourteen now.

 

I’ve always been singing with the band; so, I sing at weddings, birthday parties, functions; really good fun! A bit of acting: Not that much acting. And a little bit of modelling. A little bit really because, you know, I’m a mum mostly and everything else has to fit around that now.

 

 

So you have been modelling, you have been singing…

Singing, yes. I was more of a singer before … I’ve been singing for about twenty-five years. That was what I did before acting.

 

When I played back “Osuofia in London” recently, there was a time I thought I heard you sing in the sound track. Was that your voice? In other words, did you sing in the movie?

I don’t think we sang. No singing. I don’t think they knew.

 

I noticed that your last name has changed from “Derwent” to “Ashton.” What explains this change?

My maiden name Is Derwent. I was Mara Derwent when I did the film, and now I’m Mara Ashton since 2007.

 

 

You mentioned that you now have two kids: Fourteen and eleven. Are these the two kids that were in a picture with you? I saw some of your pictures recently online.

Oh no! The modelling one. Those two boys are not real. That was a modelling job.

 

What can you share about the joy and burden of motherhood?

It’s really funny because when I was younger, I didn’t want children. I wasn’t that interested because I was like it probably didn’t matter. But since I’ve had children, I love all children and I now think it’s amazing. I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time with them.

 

I think a lot of families have two parents working, and they have lost time with the kids to childcare. They need that time with the kids, but they also need the money to have their lives.

 

I’m lucky. We have a minimal kind of life. We don’t go on expensive holidays, and therefore I don’t have to work that much. I’ve always been around for the kids a lot. I work when I can. But, for me, it’s so that I can be there. They’re both in secondary school as of this year.

 

I love being a sit at home mum.

 

 

While they were growing up, did motherhood challenge you professionally?

Yes it did!

 

In the beginning, as a mother, you can’t do anything else because it’s a 24 hour job: literally awake 24 hours. So, you just stop. You just stop for a while.

 

I was singing with my band till I was very pregnant. Until I was like nine months, I was just doing gigs. But I’ve not for a while.

 

Regarding acting, I could only do short things, not long projects, but I’ve been gone for a long time and it’s only more recently that I could do something for a few weeks or something like that.

 

The gigs are good because it’s one evening. Acting is more time consuming and so it stops. But, I am having more time now and doing maybe less. Because I couldn’t say yes all the time, I had to keep saying no. It’s sad.

 

Beyond the gigs, does your band have a plan of releasing an album?

It’s not that kind of band though they’ve been doing this forever. They’re like my other family.

 

We do jazz and covers, mostly. So it’s not that kind of band that we have our own songs.

 

 

I was looking at your profile on IMDb and I saw that you’ve done a number of movies since “Osuofia in London.” However, there was one that caught my attention because you did a stand in for Cameron Diaz …

That was off camera. Basically, as a stand in, when the famous people are in their trailer learning their lines, getting into character, you do the boring bit. You don’t have to look like them. You just need to have the same measurements that fill the frame, the screen in the same way. I’ve got nearly the same measurements with Cameron Diaz.

 

As a stand in, you just work with the crew really that. With you, they practice before the famous people like Cameron Diaz step in. The crew like to practice with someone, and I did that for a few weeks because they cannot do that with her.

 

She’s a lot taller than me, but somehow I got away with that one.

 

 Did you have the opportunity of meeting her?

Yeah, because I have to keep swapping places with her. She would show how she was going to do a scene and then me and the crew would keep doing that until they were happy. Thereafter, she would come and do the actual. We kept swapping places. Not a lot of chats, but you know, pleasantries.

 

From your interaction with her, what did you take away from that experience?

Wow! She’s such a thing.

 

Obviously, she’s gorgeous and talented. She kind of floats into a room, and I had to mimic a lot of her movements. She’s so elegant, even if she sits. No one sits like her … so beautifully. It’s quite hard trying to copy how she walks. I was quite enamored by her and how intelligent she was. Like fiery intelligent.

 

She’s not like a dumb blonde. She is gorgeous and talented. She’s also very clever and has very good ideas. She would suggest and change scenes, with the director agreeing for her to try stuff and it really worked.

 

So it’s really interesting how she works. I think as stand-in, it’s quite nice to see the crew side of it as well because you’re basically part of the crew. That’s another thing you know behind the camera.

 

 

Let’s go back to “Osuofia in London.” Would it be right to say you were in your twenties when you acted in the movie?

Yes. I’m forty-five now. Nearly forty-six. So, I was in my early twenties.

 

You have acted in both Nigerian and British movies, right? Do you plan to make a dash for Hollywood at some point in your career?

I doubt it. Hollywood is very shallow. I don’t think it’s likely for someone my age to break into Hollywood, at this stage in my life, no. I feel like it’s fine if you’ve been doing it. Maybe you’re very established and you can carry on.

 

Obviously, I wouldn’t turn down anything. If someone wants to pay me, I’d give it a go.

 

 

Do you mean your agents never tried to reach out to Hollywood?

I’m my own agent. I’d rather be here with the kids. It’s a big life choice. I think a lot of stars have made different decisions regarding their careers. I’m happy living with my decisions. I don’t have any regrets about that.

 

Based on your personal experiences on sets of British productions and other professional considerations, in what ways are these productions similar or different from “Osuofia in London”?

I think they’re all similar, but it depends on the budget doesn’t it? I don’t know their budget for “Osuofia in London,” but I didn’t feel it was very high budget.

 

I think here, if I did something on a similar budget, there would probably be similar amount of crew. But some of the films like Cameron Diaz must have been just a lot more people: there’d be loads of camera guys and loads of everything. Big budget films are slightly more organized. Low budget films are, maybe, more last minute as well. “Osuofia in London” has a lot of low budget feel when you consider how relaxed everyone is. It wasn’t stressful like a lot of big movies, which are all money and time, because every take would be costing them a fortune. So I think “Osuofia in London” was quite relaxed.

 

So you are saying that the Nigerian production is more relaxed?

Yeah. The Nigerian film is more relaxed. “Osuofia in London” was more relaxed, laid back and sort of flexible. The crew was quite last minute with their scripts and things like that. I guess Nigerian films generally allow a bit more improvisation.

 

The crew may not insist that actors stick to scripts, and actors may not have the scripts much more in advance. Again I don’t have any other Nollywood experience, so I don’t know how typical this was.

 

As a result of this observation that you have just stated, which one would you consider more professional: big budget or small budget sets?

It feels more professional when you have the big blockbuster films, because everybody there is going to get in a lot of money as they mark up. I feel like it kind of has to be more professional because they’ll get into much bigger trouble if they’re not. So yea I feel the bigger budget ones.

 

I don’t think that Nigeria with a lower budget will be less professional. I don’t like studio films and the things in between.

 

 

If contrasted with what is happening now, between 2003 and now, I think the budget is bigger in Nollywood because these days you have big organizations like Netflix, Prime Video, pumping in money into Productions. Have you been watching Nollywood movies since the making of “Osuofia in London”?

No, not really. Like I said this is all faded over the years and it’s like what I should get into a bit now … see what’s going on now.

 

A moment ago you said you’ve not acted in Nollywood since “Osuofia in London.” However, I read somewhere that you acted in another Nollywood film, “Career Woman” with Osita Iheme.

I haven’t. Nobody’s asked me. It’s not like I’ve had lots of offers from Nigeria after “Osuofia in London.”

 

We have talked about your earlier years. I’ve asked questions about Nollywood, Hollywood. Now let us do some more talking about the film industries in the UK and in Nigeria if you were to describe both. I’m talking about the industry generally not in specific films.

I don’t have much insight into the Nigerian film industry now, even then really. I cannot compare it now, today really. I can only compare my experience, again, which is a long time ago. So yeah I don’t know any of them right now, sorry.

 

Talk about the last few films you’ve done in the UK, because I want to believe all those movies you’ve done are in the UK, right?

Do you want me to compare them to “Osuofia in London” even though it was twenty years ago?

 

Yes.

I think I have. As I said before, the set in the Nollywood film was more relaxed. The producers and the crew were definitely more chill, a little bit chattier and laughing at the funny bits and things like that. It just wouldn’t happen here … like I go off into the distance and the director says, “cut,” and I’m just walking off into the mountains.

 

Out here, you just have to learn to be more relaxed. It’s quite a good lesson really, to learn to be more flexible and not have everything handed to you on a plate. You have to work a bit harder. Be more flexible.

 

So you’re saying that in Nigeria, flexibility in filmmaking is a big thing. You have the liberty to improvise. Is that what you’re saying?

Yeah. Most of the scripts were quite last minute, sometimes, really. With “Osuofia in London,” there was really a massive script that came out like the day before the really big scene in the hospital, and I don’t think they were that fussy about it being done exactly: It was kind of the gist of how they wanted you to be behaving; again, I only have that film to go on, and it did really seem Nkem was improvising a lot all the time. I got the impression he was telling his own jokes, and, you know, a lot of both.

 

So, yes, comparing to here, improvisation is very big. Here, I don’t think improvisation happens. It’s very rare. Maybe someone might likely … but most of the movies are heavily scripted and you do the exact. I have watched them doing the text and, in every take, they all do the dialogue identically; there’s not much space or freedom for the artist to do what they want. It all depends on the higher-ups. The artists have no say.

 

Therefore, while you were shooting “Osuofia in London,” did you have to improvise some of your lines, or did you stick to the script?

I think I might have tried to stick to the script but, as I said, some of it was last minute so it may have been just along the same lines. I don’t think it was all meant to be improvised. It’s not just about being stuck on the exact wordings, but it’s much more about the emotions and plot. You know, doing things how they wanted it.

 

 

Between the Nollywood and the British experiences, which one do you prefer in terms of what you have just described?

Difficult, isn’t it? It is so different.

 

I don’t know. I guess here, it will feel safer to always know what’s going to be happening. I guess I’d like to play safer with the industry here so that I always know what’s going to happen. I think I feel more comfortable and more confident knowing exactly what is going to happen. If I were a viewer, I probably would feel differently. I would probably enjoy productions and films where artists improvise. I feel more confident not doing that.

 

What was your experience like on the sets of “Osuofia in London;” that is, if you can still remember? I say “sets” because the film was shot in both the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Above all, what was your impression of Nollywood as a result?

There was no set of any sort. It was just an amazing house that they hired to be my house in England. In Nigeria, it was in Enugu, in a village outside Lagos. That was like, again no set. There were goats everywhere, and it rained a lot, and everything was getting wet. It was just a completely different experience. It was quite an adventure shooting in Nigeria. It was an amazing experience. Unforgettable. It’s just so different.

 

Again, with “Osuofia in London,” it was more relaxed because everyone was calmer because there was no pressure on them … not stressing all the time about where we’re doing the shots. Someone will come and find you and you do the thing, not very fussy with a lot of takes and it’s just generally a nicer atmosphere because it’s like more relaxed.

 

And in Nigeria, for me, it was an eye opener. There were children everywhere watching us. It’s so different. Amazing. During the scenes, there were goats everywhere, and I had to live like a Nigerian woman: I was wearing a shower hat in bed, pounding yam, and what I wore … all those things; it was amazing, amazing!

 

 

How was it like pounding the yam?

It was good because I am very strong. I had to cook, too, but it was really spicy and making my eyes water. There was a lot of chili pepper in there, and the steam, spicy steam was going into my eyes. It was fine. All fascinating. It was really cool.

 

I went to eat the local food. I wanted to get what the local people eat because I grew up with curries. My mum grew up in Africa, and we have always had curry since I was born.

 

Wow! Your mum grew up in Africa?

Yes, Africa was home for my mum. She’s not with us anymore. She died a few years back. She moved down there when she was young. So, she grew up there. She worked there, learned to drive there; she met my dad there, and they got married in Africa. My oldest sister was born there as well. I’ve got pictures of me there. I went when I was a baby. I don’t really know. I should go back … Kenya. I think I should go back to East Africa because I don’t really know it.

 

My mum was more African really. An African mum.

 

Sorry about your loss because you’ve just mentioned that your mum passed a few years ago. Back to “Osuofia in London,” how did you meet the producers?

It was Kola. Kola Munis, is it? He was like casting: he was the person I got in contact with. There was an audition advertised somewhere, and I had to go audition. I think they said to pretend I was waiting at a bus stop or something, and these guys were coming over hassling me or tried to chat me up … I can’t remember.

 

They wanted me to be the racist or the stereotypical white person, who is a bit racist, and I had to not just like these guys talking to me like I was better than them … very funny. There was two Nigerian guys trying to chat me up and I had to just not like it, basically. That was my audition.

 

After the performance that was your audition, what was their view of your it? Can you still recall?

They cut down to two. I wasn’t blonde then, but they wanted a blonde. There was another lady, really blonde; they wanted her, but her agent told her not to do it. So I was second choice. They wanted me to dye my hair blonde, but it was growing, so I didn’t want to do it…

 

What was it like working with Kingsley Ogoro, as a film director?

He was very calm, quiet, there was no shouting. Very chilled and peaceful guy. Nice guy.

 

What did you find fascinating about the script and its characters, which made you to want to do the movie, and did you have the chance to read the script before deciding?

I knew the concept. I knew the story and what kind of character they wanted me to play, and I found it really fascinating to play that kind of character: the typical English white woman. I didn’t mind. I thought it’d be interesting, and just being in a foreign place, alien sort of landscape was an interesting idea. It’s like a massive adventure: an exciting thing … crazy thing to do, really, as a twenty year old young girl living in London going off to Nigeria, to a village in the middle of nowhere. It was quite a big thing to do.

 

“Crazy thing to do!” I thought many things in “Osuofia in London” were crazy. As a typical English person, the storyline or subject matter was probably strange to you. Would you like to share with us, if you don’t mind, some of the contradictions …

I wasn’t aware that in that tribe they would kind of inherit everything from their brother even if he were married and, in this situation, she ran the business … it was all her money as well. It was her life. They are going to take all that now.

 

I was quite surprised that that’s still the case … in this day and age, that kind of thing is still happening because, obviously, it’s unfair if someone had put all the work and time, and their money into it, and they shouldn’t benefit at all from it, this is odd to me. But then, I get it, that’s how it is. But Samantha didn’t, so she decided to change things.

 

Quick question here, why did it take you so late in the movie to reveal to Osuofia that you gave £500,000 to his brother?

I didn’t write the script, but it is an odd thing. But I think earlier on she did say it’s her business as well. I think she makes it clear that it was joined business … that they worked together; so, it is a joint venture.

 

Let’s talk about Mara. How difficult was it working with Nkem Owoh, was there any tension between both of you when you contend with his mannerisms which, perhaps, you were not so familiar with and how did you cope with Nkem’s strange mannerism as Osuofia?

I didn’t find tension about it.

 

I was all so very aware he was kind of racist towards me in a way that shows I am supposed to be one of these ignorant white people who don’t understand African culture. I was very aware that I was playing a role of a white person in Britain that they have written, but I don’t know anyone like that in Britain, and that didn’t bring tension. He was just hilarious: A very funny man all the time.

 

Yes, the experience was kind of new and strange but not in a negative way. It was all fascinating because it was different. So different.

 

Shooting the movie in Nigeria was probably your first time in the country. What was your impression of Nigeria and its people?

My impression of Nigeria is very different between Lagos and Enugu because, in Lagos, it was all very noisy: cars everywhere, people at the windows of cars trying to sell you things and it’s all very loud, bright, and busy. I’m glad I wasn’t here on holidays because it was very unfamiliar and very, quite extreme.

 

I grew up like in a village. I don’t live in Central London so being in a city, particularly Nigerian is very different. In London, no one would come up to your car really … people in the roads! It’s a bit more manic, everything.

 

The people I was with were very warm and very relaxed and talked about just everything, very calm and welcoming. When Nigerians welcome people, they are very enthusiastic about it. It was warm, relaxed, and chilled.

 

In the village in Enugu, it was quite different because there was no traffic. It’s just people everywhere. It is quite sad really because, in the village of Enugu, along the road, it is just huts that people have built. It’s really sad the conditions people live in. Seeing the big changes, I feel like in Nigeria compared to England, there’s a much bigger difference between the rich and the poor. I think here, it is more of a gradual change. You don’t really see houses built on this side of the road that people have built with metal. It was moving and sad really.

 

It is amazing admiring these women carrying everything on their heads and how far everyone has to carry everything to get everywhere and all on foot. In the village, I was quite sad, but it was lovely. Again, everyone was so welcoming, happy to see you, and the kids thought we were really getting married; they were really excited when they saw us. … following us. It was beautiful.

 

But I was definitely struck by the difference between Lagos and Enugu and how sad it is to have people in both places live not that far away from each other, but they live in different conditions … in the dark, basically, in the village.

 

You had to experience that village life as well because, in the movie, you had to fetch wood and carry it on your head.

Yeah, that was cool.

 

In internalizing that experience in the village – one thing is you seeing it, another thing is you doing it – something you had to do as a professional. But as an individual, how did that affect you; that is, if at all it did?

When I think more about it, it really made me to really admire and appreciate how hard it is and how tough everyone is there and the women. Everything is very physical, people’s lives are hard, and how they went above their lives without being angry about their lives made me to be very impressed with them.

 

Everything is more difficult there and, I believe, that is what they deal with every day and, to them, that’s just normal. But to me it was all very admirable because living in that kind of squalor and still smiling, warm and lovely is admirable. They are peaceful, like I said. It is amazing really. isn’t it?

 

Since that movie was shot in Nigeria, have you been to the country again since that time?

No. I haven’t. Like I said, I haven’t been approached by anybody to go do anything workwise. And I haven’t had anything personal. Again I should go there more, but I should go to Kenya, first.

 

Honestly I should go to Kenya first, my mum grew up there and I was too young when I went there.

 

In what ways was “Osuofia in London” a source of conflict for you, Mara the British, culturally?

Inheriting a dead man’s property including his wife is quite shocking. That is a real thing; that is not fictional; that was based on facts, which is quite amazing to someone from the British culture because it’s a lot more equal here.

 

I am sure, back in time, it would have been exactly the same here … maybe not exactly but very uneven and now equality here, is not there, but it is much farther ahead. Maybe it will happen, but I don’t know how in the space of time things would change in Nigeria as well. I’m not sure because you would know how people live there now. With this particular situation, maybe it’s from a tribe in a village and that’s not what Nigeria is now.

 

I think it’s unfair because of my culture and because of where I live.

 

Would you consider yourself a feminist?

No. I think I’m just a realist.

 

“Osuofia in London” is a comedy with a serious theme. The dramatization of identity politics in this movie made comedy a weighty genre. How did you, who was probably not too an experienced actress at the time, navigate or balance the responsibility of ensuring that the laughter evoked by the film did not drown the weighty matters of identity politics?

I felt a bit like that was my job because his job was to get the laughs, and a lot of my dialogue would have been about not understanding his culture. The clash of culture came along and, obviously, he was trying to catch pigeons in London. The clash of culture was Osuofia’s because of its comic elements, but the seriousness of the movie was Samatha’s … her struggle with dealing with the culture there and what to do about it … how to handle the situation correctly. Also, she had to learn about herself. She had embarked on a serious journey, and he didn’t.

 

I think there was a good balance, and that is why it did so well because it it’s like it did better than other comedies, maybe. I don’t really know about the Nigerian comedies but maybe that element was part of why it did so well.

 

Was it difficult for you to present this more serious part of this conversation, this narrative, or did it come naturally to you?

I think it was really difficult. That scene in the hospital was difficult, where I was just saying all white people are ignorant of it, that kind of speech. That was great, but it didn’t sit comfortably with me because I know that not to be true, but I was portraying a racist view of white people in that situation …  like evil white people are shocked by other people’s culture and don’t understand it and have no flexibility of adapting to it and working together. It was quite difficult to do that speech because it was her saying it was all her fault for being ignorant.

 

Listening to that speech reminded me of the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, don’t judge a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Will you say that was the same message that you were trying to pass across in that speech?

Yes, it is that. Also, generally, it is about we have to work together and listening to each other on both sides. We don’t have to be on two different sides.

 

Would you say that’s a big problem in the world today is that fact that people are not trying to be tolerant of one another’s differences, culturally?

Absolutely, yeah. I think a lot of war is about this. It is about people’s lack of empathy; you can’t put oneself in someone else’s shoes. I think empathy is the answer to a lot of things in life. In any arguments, if you can always put yourself in that person’s shoes instead of being blinded by your own position, a lot of arguments including wars would be handled better and helped a lot, even day to day conflict. Just people being open to being wrong is a good practice.

 

I am sure people are not aware of how much racism still exists in the world, especially here because if you are living in London it is more mixed. It is shocking how much racism is in the world. It is ridiculous.

 

Is there a solution to that problem?

I don’t know how we change people; it is like you’re asking me the solution to world peace, basically. I’m probably not the right person. It’s about love, isn’t it? It is about loving people because we are all people, and if everyone can find a way to love each other, everyone has got good in them and everyone is loveable and likeable.

 

It is not about the superficial, but everyone is quick to judge others not just on the color of skin but everything. We make assumptions about other people. We are doing it now in communities by how we are sitting, how we are speaking, the things that we are saying. We are constantly making little decisions about people we don’t know all the time, and I think that is the judging and making assumptions.

 

Everyone should try to live in someone else’s shoes. That will change how people think about things.