From a 5-year hiatus to top 5 highest-grossing actresses — The magic of managing Nse Ikpe-Etim.
Opening my rusty medium page was all I could think of as I read FilmOne’s 2020 Box Office report this morning, with Nse’s face on the highest-grossing actresses list. I thought to let you people understand the history of it all and why this not-so-little win is worthy of an article.
It was about 3 years ago when I met Nse during my creative director stint at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. It was a cold night in Kigali and I was too busy to pay attention to her in a way she would have expected. She was hosting the show and I was making the event look good. We still joke about how dismissive I probably was that night. That’s how I mask my excitement when I meet people I admire. That did not work with Kwam 1 though — story for another day.
One of the conversations that stuck was her telling me she was quitting Nollywood. I’m sorry, what? How does one of the best actors to come out of this country say she’s not doing again? I laughed it off and told her she could not have been serious. Well, she was.
She didn't go into the details of her reason for that decision but I could tell it was important and personal. Post-AMAA, we got closer while she was back home in the UK and she told me about her fertility struggles. Being in the limelight made that twice as hard if you have any idea what that means. I had a better perspective as to why she may want to tell Nollywood to fuck off.
I tried to convince her for a while to have a change of heart, only for Nse to ask me to be her manager if I believed in her so much. Lol. From where to where? I turned it down immediately because I had no idea how that worked. I was just an agency boy with a lot of interest in branding and advertising. Even though at the time, I was ‘managing’ Tomiwa Sage — or whatever the hell we were doing at Bowen that year. Tomiwa believed I could do it because I had a pretty impressive brands portfolio and I guess his confidence in me contributed to why I eventually said yes to Nse.
It was different though. Representing an established talent came with a lot of pressure to deliver. I was taking a comeback project. Nollywood and comebacks are not two terms that usually coexist. Once you are gone for a while, there are a million other people that will take your place — not to mention someone who disappeared for 5 years for understandable reasons.
Where do I start? See, it was extremely difficult navigating the murky waters of Nollywood. My first plan was to get her to tell the world why she left. Imagine asking a very private person to share their deepest secret and pain with the public. Yeah, an impossible task that required a lot more convincing than you can possibly imagine. I thought it was important to tell that story because people criticize what they don’t understand. I thought it was an important step to moving forward. I thought it was important for everyone to know that she had a hysterectomy and she cannot have a child. The assumptions were also draining for her and she finally agreed to talk.
I flew her in for a media parley with the key people in the room. I called one of her closest friends, Femi Jacobs to moderate the session and that was it. She dropped the bomb and the room was cold. Nobody knew how to react. It felt like a deliverance session. There were tears, screams and all of that. It sipped into blogs and the story went viral as you would expect. Her phones kept buzzing and people who have had similar experiences found the courage to also speak out about this health condition.
The shock was telling, Nse felt relieved and my mission was accomplished. A viral story like that naturally comes with a lot of interviews and media tours. The BBC one stood out because she confirmed what people still thought was a rumour in front of a camera.
Telling her story was not an automatic re-entry into the big brands and screens. I needed a lot of help. Uncovering the different layers of industry politics, eye-services and cancel culture was the absolute ghetto. So I set up a team, consulted with other managers, drove her to closed auditions to remind the industry players of her abilities and wrote a whole lot of proposals.
Did it get tiring? Yes. Did we argue? A lot. I walked out a number of times until she bribes me with her cooking — another thing she is incredibly fantastic at apart from acting. But nobody understands Nse like me. I mean, after her husband of course. LOL. She just wants to be excellent in everything she does. She cannot stand mediocrity and that’s where she becomes difficult. Unlike a lot of us, she lacks the ability to conceal how she feels about a job badly done. She cannot manage a subpar performance. She will not ignore a misspelling or mispronunciation of her name. All of these, she does from an unbelievable place of kindness — her ultimate trait that fueled my consistent effort.
It was just a matter of time and patience before she gradually eased her way into the hearts of her fans and stakeholders once again. Nse is back on the big screen with blockbusters like Quam’s Money, Netflix Originals like King of Boys 2 and brand endorsements like Pandora and Glenfiddich.
The secret to being able to perform this magic with her in such a short period of time is that Nse listens and she grinds. I manage other actors via BoxxCulture now and those are a few of the first traits I look out for — before the actual talent.
If you are a talent reading this, you must understand that managers are not exactly lifeguards. Your relationship with your manager is like any other relationship in your life. It benefits from talking through what both parties want, and how it looks from both sides. A manager’s job is to complement the talent’s abilities and structuring the business side of it. They cannot do any of these if you don’t have an unwavering ability to listen.
Another important secret is collective growth. The ability to grow together with people on your team. Samuel L. Jackson did not become Hollywood’s most bankable superstar by hopping from manager to manager and firing the next one for a minuscule misunderstanding. Toni Howard has represented him for 25 years and they have grown into each other. Same reason we all love Nike campaigns. It is a result of a 35-year relationship and counting. The brand and their agency, Wieden + Kennedy have produced countless memorable campaigns featuring Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Lebron James and lots more.
Longevity and consistent representation go a long way in building a formidable brand. It takes years to properly understand what makes a talent tick. When that is eventually figured out, it only makes sense to stick with the same team until there is an irreconcilable difference.
Create together — not apart.
Anyway, this is not a masterclass. I am enjoying this ride and the gear is just about to change. Congratulations to the best to ever do it, Nse Ikpe-Etim. And to the team at BoxxCulture that was excited to go on this journey with me.
Stay jiggy and check out what Road2Blow is up to. Don’t say I did not do anything for you.
