1. Acting Rituals
Ajufo likes to connect to her characters through music. “I think most actors have their rituals when it comes to preparing for a role, but I feel like I'm pretty chill,” she says. “If I've been given a role, I will read the script with all my highlighters lined up, and I'm very much an annotator. Music is also something that helps me in developing a backstory – I'll create a playlist that I think would fit the character, or the story itself, and listen to that as I'm trying to annotate through. It’s probably quite cliché to say, but I really enjoy not having to tap into my own emotions for a while, so just delving into this other character that has their own story is very therapeutic to me.”
2. Mental Health on Screen
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Ajufo believes film and TV can be a great way to normalize mental health realities, and encourage open dialogue. “When I was growing up, so many things seemed much more like teen bubblegum, but the narrative has changed so much in filmmaking now–in terms of discussing mental health, and so on,” she says. “I absolutely love that, because there are so many people out there who think they are alone in their battles, but what great shows and films can do is open our eyes to the fact that people aren't alone... I strongly believe it's important to portray the average, or everyday, realities of how we all live our lives on-screen – people suffering from depression, or encountering racism, and things like that.”
3. Music and Acting
Ajufo absolutely loves music and live performances, and never planned on going into acting. “If I’m not on set you are bound to find me at a festival, concert, making a playlist, teaching myself how to DJ,” she says. “It’s either that or I’m stuffing my face at a new restaurant I’ve found, after I’ve taken the pic of course haha… I actually didn’t want to be an actor funnily enough. There was always an interest there I had shows and films I admired but I didn’t see the bigger picture of it being a career until I’d completed GCSE drama and attended Brit School… and had the little push from my parents. I went on to study musical theater there whilst being a part of Stratford East Youth Company and that’s pretty much where it all started to kick off.”
4. A Different Approach
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Ajufo enjoys TV shows because she has more time with the characters she plays. “I find with TV I grow into my character more and more as the project progresses simply because so many things change everyday whereas with film your character is kind of established already,” she says. “Yes yes there are changes but I feel they’re little in comparison to TV. So yes I do approach acting differently I guess.”
5. Her Definition of Success
Ajufo focuses on happiness and growth when it comes to defining a successful life. “I think success, for me, is just doing what I love and being happy with it, which is really about knowing that I've done the most I can with a specific job,” she says. “As long as I know that I've worked hard, I don't really care about anything else. I'm happy if I know that I killed it. I also think success is about just trying to do things, and telling yourself not to be doubtful of everything. I don’t take anything too seriously, because I think you can always try to be a greater version of what you were yesterday.”
