Nollywood actress Sharon Ooja has opened up about the intense emotional and mental demands of portraying a character living with bipolar disorder, describing the experience as one of the most challenging roles of her career.
Speaking during an interview on Arise TV, Ooja revealed that preparing for and maintaining the character required her to move repeatedly between contrasting emotional states, a process she said left her mentally exhausted.
According to the actress, the role was particularly demanding because she had to sustain an emotional state that was significantly different from her normal personality.
“I think that because it was more mentally draining for me; when you’re a normal person playing a bipolar role, it’s a lot of work,” she said.
Ooja said the experience also gave her a deeper understanding and empathy for people living with mental health conditions. She explained that embodying the character helped her appreciate the emotional difficulties they may experience.
“This gave me so much empathy for people who are actually dealing with mental health issues because it was draining,” she said.
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The actress also recalled moments when her director had to remind her to remain fully immersed in the character, particularly when she began reverting to her natural personality during filming.
“My director would sometimes have to call me because he’s like, you’re not staying on tempo, you’re going to normal,” she recalled.
Ooja said the emotional demands of the role were heightened by the need to portray several intense emotions within the same performance, including anger, sadness and laughter.
“So it was so draining having to be crying, angry, laughing, so many emotions in one,” she said.
Reflecting on the experience, the actress described the role as one of the toughest she has undertaken, stressing that the psychological demands were even more challenging than the physical demands of acting.
“So absolutely, it was definitely one of the toughest I had, especially mentally, which is, in my opinion, almost worse than physical,” Ooja said.
Her comments highlight the emotional demands actors can face when taking on psychologically complex roles and the importance of approaching portrayals of mental health conditions with sensitivity and empathy.
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