Wura: The Re-introduction Of Scarlet Gomez
Actress, Scarlet Gomez is captivating as Wura in the eponymous Showmax original Telenovela but acting was not on her cards until fate happened.
The day was not going as planned. What started as a nice, friendly gesture soon evolved into panic, with her friend locked in the hall for too long. When she agreed to accompany her to an audition, she hadn’t anticipated meeting hundreds of people forming a line around the block and when she took the bag, she had naively assumed that it’d only take a few minutes.
Her mother, who was calling every two minutes now, was going to kill her. It was past 2 a.m., and as she struck off creative ways she could be dealt with at home, she anxiously craned her neck, hoping to get a glimpse of what was going inside so she could find a good window to drop the bag.
She considered going home with it but couldn’t find the courage to leave her friend stranded. She did the next best thing: walked up to the admins in front and told them she needed to drop the bag off. They insisted that she had to fill out the audition form as the only ticket to enter the hall. Seeing no other option, she filled it and was soon called in.
“Please perform your monologue,” one of the judges said.
“Monologue, how?” she thought to herself. This wasn’t what she came for. She just wanted to find her friend, drop the bag and go home.
The judges kept looking at her, expecting a performance. There was nothing to lose so she did whatever came to her mind first. It was enough for the judges to take their notes and let her go.
Her friend was leaving the hall at the same time she was. She handed the bag over and stormed away, really angry and feeling ambushed.
A month later, she got a phone call. When the caller said they were from Africa Magic calling her to read specially for a new role, she asked if they’d made a mistake.
“Should you be calling me? Did my friend leave my number?” she asked in disbelief.
They meant to call her and were considering her for a role. Months later, she made her acting debut in the Africa Magic Original, Scarlet directed by Patience Oghre Imobhio. The year was 2014.
Working in film was a new experience as she had no prior experience beyond church dramas and her extensive work in pageants and as a music video model. Pageantry and music videos first introduced Scarlet Gomez (then Shotade) to the world.
She was involved in a lot of pageantries including Miss Nigeria, Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, and Miss Global Nigeria, which she finished as a First Runner-Up.
In 2012, she participated in the Miss United Nations Tourism pageant in Kingston, Jamaica, and won. In 2013, Scarlet went into the music industry briefly as a music video model and made her first debut on Timi Dakolo's Love Song. Next, she did Lynxxx's Eziokwu, Naeto C's Bartender, and Burna Boy's Run My Race videos.
****
Life is different for Scarlet now. She has consistently worked in film since 2014 and is a household name, leading one of the biggest television shows in Nigeria, Wura by Showmax.
The Wura journey started when she ran into filmmaker Rogers Ofime at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) in 2022. He produced her first film, Scarlet and had become quite fond of her. They exchanged pleasantries and he told her about a reading for an upcoming project, which turned out to be Wura.
“He said he was going to send me the details but I didn’t want to be very hopeful. A week later, I got the audition notice and prepared for it,” Scarlet told In Nollywood. “I’d never heard about the series so I had to do my research. They asked us to come looking like the character.”
There was one snag — the character, Wura, is a 45-year-old woman; Scarlet was 30.
“Do these people know what they are doing? How is a 30-year-old lady going to play this – life experiences and everything,” she thought when she reviewed the material further.
She went for the reading anyway and it turned out to be a blast. It was the first time she ever had people cry while she auditioned. “It was so surreal for me. Deep down, I knew I did something right. I couldn’t be too sure because there were other talented people there. A veteran followed me outside and told me he saw greatness in me. Everything was happening so fast and I thought God was playing a prank on me.”
She auditioned seven times.
“After my sixth audition, they called to say they were going with an older person for the character. I remember locking myself in the bathroom and crying. My husband knocked and begged me to come out. I was clear that I wasn’t going to do this again.
“I put everything into that audition. My friend, who is a stylist, had been making my clothes because I needed to look like the character. I called her to share the news and she cried with me.”
Ofime called her two days later to let her know he was not going to give up. He was certain no-one could play the role like her and was going to fight for it. He wanted her to come audition for the last time but she refused. “I was clear. What they didn’t see six times was not going to be seen the seventh time. He insisted and I went out of respect.”
Two weeks later, they called to offer her the role. “I flung my phone and screamed. I was just over the moon because I really wanted to be a part of the project,” Scarlet recalled. “Everything turned out great in the end and I’m grateful.”
The role earned her an AMVCA nomination for Best Actress in 2023.
****
The Showmax’s telenovela follows the titular Wura Amoo Adeleke who orchestrated a shocking murder that set the stage for a plot unfolding over 100 episodes. The characters navigate several challenges ranging from murder attempts to clandestine relationships and family dynamics.
Wura, the character, is vile. Unapologetically vile.
She is the ruthless CEO of the fictional Frontline Gold Mine, and the perfect wife, a mother of two, who will do anything to maintain her ground in the gold mining industry. In her family, Wura is faultless and a saint, but when it comes to running her business, Wura will go to any lengths, including murder and blackmail.
Initially, when Scarlet read the script, she thought to herself how a person could be so evil. So vile. It worried her in the beginning and she found it difficult to agree with what Wura did.
“I was quite worried in the beginning on set because I was finding it very hard to agree with the things that she did. But here’s the thing as an actor, you have to forget your preferences and what you think as a person and take on the role as a person whether you believe it or not, you have to fall in love with your character.
“As I kept playing the role, I just started to really appreciate the deeper meaning, and started to see things from her angle and her side. Trust me, I don’t support Wura but if you were in her shoes, you probably would have done the same things. It just made me realise that it gets to a point when you are really ambitious where your conscience kind of goes away.
“Also a lot of things that she did, she did it trying to protect her family, which anybody would do as well. How she went about it was wrong, yes. But in the end, she did it for her family, right?”
Navigating such a complex character on screen takes from Scarlet almost as much as it gives. She praised her husband for his unending support from pre-production to this point. He accompanied her to Osun state, where the show is filmed and does not spare any affection, especially in times when she needs reassurance.
“He also helps me with some character work by sharing his perspective of the character. He breaks it down from a third person’s angle, which really helps me,” she said.
Even with his support, the character threatened to break into her real life, leading her to seek professional help at a point. “So we are basically living the characters on set and doing it every day. Getting into character as an actor is easier than getting out of character. This is the first time I am saying it openly, but Wura seeped into my life.
“I remember having a conversation with my husband one time and he asked why I was sounding insensitive. It really touched me because even if I was going to be insensitive to anyone, it shouldn’t be to him. That’s one person I should never do that to, you know? And for him to have mentioned it, that was definitely something he saw becoming regular.
“I was getting angrier than usual and really quick to anger. I didn’t want to talk things out and I was becoming vindictive. I had to go to therapy,” Scarlet told In Nollywood.
****
The show’s reception by the audience has been insane. Clips on social media get millions of views and fans passionately review each episode. Scarlet admits that while the team knew the show was going to do well, they couldn’t imagine it being the sensation it is now.
“Anybody that says they saw this reception coming would be lying. All we knew was that we had an amazing story and if it was executed well, people would like it but we didn’t think it was going to have this massive following or become a key part of the culture. I still pinch myself sometimes. It is life-changing and speaks to Showmax’s impact.”
Showmax has steadily built a reputation for high-quality originals. The streaming platform, which launched in Nigeria in July 2020, accounts for 40 per cent of the continent’s streaming market, according to Omdia Research, a tech research-based firm.
The majority of customers, 73.3 per cent, are based in South Africa, which is Showmax’s home market and it continues to invest heavily in African content looking to invest up to $1 billion dedicated in original shows and market expansion. A big part of that investment is evident in the quality of shows it greenlights and how it cares for its stars.
“I don’t see Showmax as just a platform, I see it as a family,” Scarlet said. “They make you feel like it’s not just about the project, which is amazing to see. The stories that they tell are original to all roots; it’s not selling Hollywood to Hollywood but rather telling our own stories.
“Women get stronger roles in Showmax productions. We are the heroes, the villains and very complex in these films and shows. I’m just grateful to be a part of it, to be a part of the movement and to see where it goes.”