Sharon Ooja Reveals Emotional Toll Of Playing Bipolar Role: You Can’t Be Normal

Nollywood actress Sharon Ooja has opened up about the mental and emotional demands she experiences when portraying characters living with bipolar disorder in films.

According to Bush Radio Academy, the 35-year-old actress discussed the challenges during an interview with Arise TV, explaining that such roles can be particularly demanding because of the need to constantly shift between different emotional states.

Ooja revealed that playing a character with bipolar disorder often leaves her mentally exhausted, as she has to transition rapidly between emotions such as sadness, anger and happiness while remaining convincing in her performance.

The actress said the experience has also given her a deeper understanding and empathy for people living with mental health conditions, noting that maintaining such intense emotional changes throughout a production can be extremely draining.

She recalled instances during filming when her director had to remind her to remain within the emotional rhythm of the character after she unintentionally returned to her normal emotional state.

According to Ooja, the demanding nature of the role required her to constantly adjust her emotions and maintain the character’s behaviour, making the experience significantly different from portraying more conventional roles.

She explained that the experience helped her appreciate the difficulties faced by people dealing with mental health challenges and gave her a greater sense of empathy toward their experiences.

Ooja further noted that acting requires performers to temporarily step outside their usual emotional patterns, adding that the intensity involved in portraying the character made the role one of the more mentally challenging experiences of her career.