Exclusive: TIFF 2013 Anika Noni Rose talks Half of a Yellow Sunby Wilson Morales
September 10, 2013
Making its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival is Biyi Bandele‘s film, Half of a Yellow Sun, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, and Joseph Mawle.
Based on the novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the story centers on the lives of four people swept up in the turbulence of war. Olanna (Newton) and Kainene (Rose) are glamorous twins from a wealthy Nigerian family. Returning to a privileged city life in newly independent 1960s Nigeria after their expensive English education, the two women make very different choices. Olanna shocks her family by going to live with her lover, the “revolutionary professor” Odenigbo (Ejiofor) and his devoted houseboy Ugwu (Boyega) in the dusty university town of Nsukka; Kainene turns out to be a fiercely successful businesswoman when she takes over the family interests, and surprises herself when she falls in love with Richard (Mawle) an English writer. Preoccupied by their romantic entanglements, and a betrayal between the sisters, the events of their life loom larger than politics. However, they become caught up in the events of the Nigerian civil war, in which the lgbo people fought an impassioned struggle to establish Biafra an independent republic, ending in chilling violence which shocked the entire country and the world.
Blackfilm.com got a chance to speak with Anika Noni Rose at the festival. She is known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the Broadway production of Caroline, or Change, her co-starring roles in the films Dreamgirls, voicing Princess Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.
Rose will soon appear in the Hallmark TV film, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, and then appear in the 2014 Broadway revival of Broadway revival of ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ with Denzel Washington, Sophie Okonedo, and Diahann Carroll.
What’s the role you play in “Half of a Yellow Sun“?
Rose: I play Kainene. She’s a fraternal twin of Thandie Newton who plays Olanna. We play upper class rich Nigerians in late ’60s/early ’70s, a similar time period as Vietnam. There was a war going on called the Biafran War which a lot of Americans don’t know about because of Vietnam. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie’s characters are married and I’m hooked up with a British guy and it’s about how the war effects relationships between the sisters, our family, how it tears apart and pulls together. It too is a love story between sisters and lovers and Nigerians and Nigeria.
How was shooting that film? Did you learn the language?
Rose: I didn’t learn the language because I was a British educated person, so there was not much that this character had to do within that language. I spent a lot of time with a lot of people of the area, made some good friends and really enjoyed being there. It was a very intense shoot in Calabar, Nigeria. It was an amazing experience.
What is it you’re looking to do as opposed to something that comes across your way?
Rose: I want to move more into producing, not just pieces for myself but for people that I know who I feel are very good at what they do. I want to do some action movies, that’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. Superhero, supervillain, always fun. I’m looking forward to branching out and doing more lead work. I actually love doing supporting work. There’s amazing work to be done, but I’m looking forward to more lead roles. I guess I’m looking forward to everything! (laughs)
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