TIPTOPSTARS

Though an inert passion, acting had appeared too distant for Begium-based Cameroonian up-and-coming movie artist, Cassandra Kinde. Then, her meeting with Titus Banyoh, film producer/director brought both girl and the art she so much cherished and dreamt of marrying closer to each other. “And that’s how I found myself on set for the first time,” the actress, now a selling face told TIPTOPSTARS.

The producer of Shades had introduced Cassandra into the world of acting by handing her a copy of the inspiring Berlin Icon which he and Terence Fomunung, under the banner of Trend International did way back in  Germany in 2005. “I told myself this is my moment of truth, so I wasted no time in engaging the acting business,” Cassandra went on.

The actress who is about now rounding off studies in Child Care was at the ignition point of journeying into her world, having nursed acting ambitions during her childhood days. What started as YP and CYF (age-old youth groups in the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon) drama performances was now maturing into full-fledge movie acting. Her first stop-over was the 2010 hit, Shades, shot and produced in Belgium. Cassandra in the lead role put up a convincing performance that left no one, including her directors/producers indifferent. “Cassandra, that’s great, but we need more of such acting from you, so work even harder,” the 1.65m-tall actress who hails from the North west region of Cameroon recalls.

Soft-spoken Cassandra who is equally God-given in singing would press on to say Shades is her biggest challenge so far. “It was my first experience on the camera and at first , I thought I could not do it. But when I started off, things were on the move. Luckily, my director and other collaborators found it soothing working with me,” she explained on the line to Antwerp where she is happily married.

She has had other set experiences though and now nods with the fact that she was meant for movies. Watch her game in Oben Slow’s Wrong Turns in Europe, you would love to watch the young Cameroonian actress again and again.

Perhaps Chloe, still from the producers of Shades is proof of Cassandra’s ripeness in the art she knows best. “She gave us just what we wanted for her role in the movie,” one of the members of the production team of the 2011 Cameroonian film had told us prior to its release.

Cassandra who on a sunny day would love to go shopping thinks actors haven’t got so much to decide on what role they desire to play in a movie, reason why she is comfortable in any. “But it becomes a different ball game when an actress has tied a nuptial knot, then you have spouse you ought to respect and won’t negotiate those extreme bends…hahaha,” she said, laughingly.

The holder of a BA in Geography however prides herself of the ability to master her script and propensity to smoothly deliver it at the call of the shot. “That’s my strength in acting,” she said. These skills are perhaps what she finds in Hollywood’s Halle Berry and Nollywood’s Chika Ike and Stephanie Okereke, her role models in the seventh art.

The day you find Cassandra clad in anything sky blue, do the talented actress the greatest favour of serving her a hot bowl of fufu corn and njama njama, a traditional delicacy from some parts of the North West region of Cameroon. “That’s my dish I can bet for,” the movie queen told us.