Right from the entrance of the Filmhouse Cinemas, there were massive images of Gbubemi Ejeye staring directly into the camera. It was the premiere of Farmer’s Bride, a new flick co-directed by Jack Opukeme and Adebayo Tijani, and she plays her first cinema lead alongside Tobi Bakre.
It’s been years coming. Her first role was as an extra on Hustle, the African Magic series. She had just a line and she was paid ₦3,000 for it. From there, she did YouTube series, low-budget films, projects she hated, and projects she loved. Now, in the next few weeks, her face will adorn LED Billboards at cinemas nationwide.
“I didn’t audition for it [Farmer’s Bride]. They just gave it to me. That’s why I’m so surprised,” she said.
“The writer [Jack Opukeme] had seen me in Far From Home, and since then, had just been like, ‘I want to work with Gbubemi.’ They sent the story, of which, they just wanted to be sure that I could speak Yoruba, of which, I sent a self-tape in Yoruba, and that was it.”
Farmer’s Bride follows Funmi, a young woman who is forced by her parents into marriage with an older wealthy farmer (Femi Branch). She soon—as these things tend to happen in Nollywood—finds a spark with his young university dropout nephew, Femi (Bakre), and their lives unravel throughout the film.
“I’m just going to say it, I don’t like her decision-making skills. She is so different from Gbubemi. Funmi is a lady filled with joy and complications,” she said. “She is just who she is and she accepts herself like that.”
While Gbubemi is the least-known actor in Farmer’s Bride, as lead, her chances of snagging other cinema lead roles in the future rest on the shoulders of how the film performs. She will have to make a series of media appearances, stop by cinemas, make posts on social media, create content, and say nice things about the cast and crew for at least the next few months. But for her, this is only a small price to pay. “I feel blessed,” she said.
“I’m so glad that my first cinema lead is this story and this character. She gave me a lot to work with. She gave me so much joy.”
Since the billboard for the film went up, Gbubemi’s career has begun to take a new turn, as she begins to walk the path that birthed the Bimbo Ademoyes and Adesua Etomi-Wellingtons of the industry.
“I get a lot of free stuff. People are like, ‘Just take it. You don’t have to pay for it.’ I love it when people say, ‘I’ve watched your movies.’ I’m always like, ‘You’ve made my day,’” she said.
As Farmer’s Bride proceeds and Funmi falls deeply in love with Femi, a tragedy happens and the village rises sharply against her. Does Gbubemi judge Funmi for the bad decision she makes that leads to the tragedy?
“I don’t judge my characters because I will not be able to play them. That’s her story,” she said. “She didn’t want to be bad, but she had to be. They married her off to an older man that she didn’t want to be married to. They took her life away from her.”
It happens that in her village, if the paternity of the child is false, the baby dies and the mother faces huge consequences. For Gbubemi, this is one of the arcs in the story that she wants to elevate. “Do you know there are still many of these traditions still happening?” she said.
In some modern-day Nigerian cultures, female infidelity is still believed to be the source of huge calamities that might befall a family. Some say that if a wife cheats, the husband or the first son will die if she doesn’t confess her crime.
“Many people are married off to older men that they do not even care for and that’s Funmi’s story. I hope that many parents seeing this can consider the women in this situation,” she said.
But she doesn’t absolve Funmi of her agency or responsibility. “I hope that people see that being a good woman and a bad woman is dependent on the decisions that you make. But please be accountable for those decisions,” she said.
For now, she is focused on gratitude for how far her career has come even as she anticipates doing more films. “The prayer is to always do greater things than you’ve done before. Growth keeps happening and I’m just so grateful,” she said.
“I’m so happy.”
