How playing a bipolar character changed me - Sharon Ooja

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Nollywood star Sharon Ooja has shared how demanding it was to take on a role portraying a woman living with bipolar disorder, describing the experience as one of the most mentally taxing points in her acting career.

During an appearance on Arise TV, Ooja explained that the role pushed her far beyond the usual demands of acting because it required her to shift rapidly between contrasting emotional states within single scenes. 

She noted that playing someone whose moods swing unpredictably meant she could not simply settle into one tone or energy for a scene the way she might with other characters. 

Instead, she had to stay alert to constant emotional pivots, moving from tears to rage to laughter sometimes within moments of each other.

She admitted that the intensity of the role left her drained in a way that differed sharply from physical exhaustion, and said she came away from the experience with a deeper appreciation for what people who actually live with mental health conditions go through daily. 

According to her, inhabiting even a fictionalized version of that instability gave her a new level of empathy for the disorder and the people who manage it in real life.

Ooja also revealed that staying in character was so difficult that her director occasionally had to step in during filming to correct her when she began slipping out of the bipolar persona and reverting to her natural personality. 

That detail, she said, showed just how much concentration the part demanded, since even brief lapses in focus could pull her performance away from the emotional register the role required.

Reflecting on her body of work, Ooja ranked the part among the toughest she has ever played, placing the psychological weight of the role above the physical challenges she has faced in other productions.

Ooja's career took off after she relocated to Lagos in 2013. She first appeared on screen in the series Gidi Up before earning wider attention through her portrayal of Shalewa in Skinny Girl in Transit.

 Since then, she has built a substantial filmography that includes King of Boys, The Bling Lagosians, Coming from Insanity, Òlòtūré and its follow-up Òlòtūré: The Journey, along with Who's the Boss, Glamour Girls, Dead Serious and Hijack '93.

On the personal side, Ooja married Ugo Nwoke in 2024, and the couple welcomed their first child, a baby boy, in May 2026.

Her comments add to a growing conversation among Nollywood actors about the psychological cost of playing emotionally intense roles, with several stars in recent years speaking publicly about the preparation and recovery such performances demand.

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