If Birdie is a film built on silence, then its performances are where that silence begins to speak. We spoke with actors Shelia Chukwulozie, Eniola Margaret Abioro, and Precious Madwanusi about building Celeste, English, and Birdie from the inside out.
Their reflections reveal how the film’s grief, restraint, and emotional intelligence were carried through observation, stillness, and deeply personal connection.
In Conversation with Precious Madwanusi
Actor (Birdie)
Q: Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background and how you became involved in Birdie?
Precious Madwanusi:
Hi everyone. My name is Precious Madwanusi. I was born in Lagos, Nigeria.
Growing up, I always loved film and television. I used to write and read a lot as a child. When I moved to the United States that interest stayed with me, and I became even more inspired by Hollywood and the storytelling culture here.
I wanted to be part of that world, but I also wanted to help represent people who look like me. When I was younger I didn’t always see people who looked like me in the films I watched, aside from Nollywood. That made me want to be part of storytelling myself.
That’s ultimately what led me to acting.
Q: How did your family react when they found out you were appearing in a film?
Precious Madwanusi:
They actually haven’t seen the film yet.
For my mum it still feels a little surreal. She’ll say things like, “You’re in a film?” It hasn’t fully sunk in for her yet.
But my family has been very supportive. When I was at Sundance I was FaceTiming them a lot during the whole experience and sharing everything that was happening.
Q: When you first read the script, what was your emotional reaction to the story and to your character?
Precious Madwanusi:
When I first heard about the project I was actually auditioning for the role of English. So when I read the script initially, I was reading it through the perspective of a very quiet and observant character.
Later it was decided that I would play Birdie instead. That meant I had to shift how I approached the story.
English observes everything, but Birdie is different. Birdie wants movement. She wants urgency. She wants life to change.
That shift made the role very exciting for me because it gave me a lot to explore emotionally. At the same time, Birdie reminded me of myself during my teenage years when I wanted to try new things and explore the world.
So I felt a strong connection to her.
Q: In what ways are you similar to Birdie, and in what ways are you different?
Precious Madwanusi:
One similarity we share is the determination to pursue what we want, even when there is pressure around us.
If I want something, I go for it. Birdie has that same spirit.
Where we differ is in how bold she is. I’m bold, but Birdie is even bolder.
There is a scene where she confronts her mother and says that her father is dead. Every time I watch that scene I think to myself that if I were in that situation with my own mother, I would never say it like that.
As an African child, I would probably sit down and prepare the moment carefully before saying something like that. Birdie says it immediately and without hesitation.
Q: Was there a particular scene during filming that stayed with you?
Precious Madwanusi:
We filmed a lot over four days, but one of the moments that stayed with me the most was the prayer scenes where the family kneels together.
It might sound ironic because of Birdie’s personality, but those moments were very vulnerable for all three characters.
When they kneel, pray and look at the cross, you feel hope, grief and uncertainty all existing in the same moment. Everything is hanging in the air emotionally.
We actually practised those kneeling positions several times because Praise was very particular about how she wanted the moment to look and feel.
Q: If you had to describe Birdie in three words, what would they be?
Precious Madwanusi:
Bold, explorer and girl.
She is bold because she pushes against the limitations around her. She wants more from life.
She is an explorer because she wants to experience new things and see what the world has to offer.
And I say girl because we should remember that she is still very young. Beneath all of her boldness she is still a teenager trying to figure out life.
Q: Birdie seems both fragile and resilient. How did you balance those two sides of her character?
Precious Madwanusi:
I give a lot of credit to Praise for helping guide that balance.
There were moments where I thought Birdie should be more playful in certain scenes. Sometimes Praise encouraged restraint instead.
At first I didn’t fully understand that direction, but when I watched the finished film at Sundance it made complete sense.
Birdie wants to explore life, but she is still a girl living in the middle of uncertainty. Her father is missing during a war. That emotional reality never disappears.
So even when she pushes forward, that weight is still present.
Q: If Birdie could speak freely without fear, what do you think she would say?
Precious Madwanusi:
I think she would say, “It will be okay. It won’t be like before, but it will be okay.”
Throughout the film Celeste and English struggle to accept what might have happened to their father. Birdie is the one who wants to move forward.
Even if she does it in a messy way, she believes that life can continue and that the family can still build something new.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced while working on the film?
Precious Madwanusi:
Sometimes it was the difference between how I imagined a scene and how Praise imagined it.
But those conversations were actually very helpful. Praise and the producers created an environment where actors could share their thoughts and discuss ideas.
I’ve heard stories about productions where actors are not encouraged to contribute creatively, so I really appreciated the openness on this set.
Q: Do you see yourself continuing to pursue acting?
Precious Madwanusi:
Yes, absolutely.
I’m actually starting my first acting classes soon. Working on Birdie was such a fulfilling experience and it confirmed that this is something I want to keep doing.
I want to continue telling stories that inspire people and that help people feel seen and understood.
Q: Any final thoughts you would like to share with audiences?
Precious Madwanusi:
I hope people support Birdie and take the time to watch it.
It’s an important story about immigration, displacement, longing and identity. Those themes are very relevant today, especially in the current political climate in the United States.
Stories like this deserve to be seen.
In Conversation with Shelia Chukwulozie
(Celeste)
Q: Before we talk about the film, could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background and how you got into acting?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
I’ve kind of been doing this my whole life in a way. Since I was a child I’ve always been drawn to storytelling.
I have three siblings, but they’re much older than me. The one closest to me is seven years older, so growing up it often felt like I was an only child. Because of that I spent a lot of time creating worlds for myself. I would make little plays with objects in the house. My mum sold shoes, so I would go to her store and create whole theatre scenarios with the shoes and bags. Typical childhood things, but I was always building worlds.
That love for world-building stayed with me. I realised that acting was one way I could use my body and presence to communicate stories and ideas.
When I went to university I studied theatre and dance, but I was also pursuing international relations and political science. At one point my design professor said something that really stayed with me. She said, “You don’t actually have to do all the other things. You’re very good at this.”
As an African child, my instinct was to resist that idea. I thought I had to do everything and not waste opportunities. But eventually I realised that what I was doing in theatre wasn’t so different from what I was doing in political science. Both are about understanding the world and the relationships between people. The difference is that in one you write an essay, and in the other you build a world on stage or on screen.
That’s really how I came fully into acting.
Q: When you first encountered Celeste in the script, what stood out to you about her? How did you begin building her world as a character?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
When I first read the script, I didn’t just read Celeste. I saw her.
I’m Igbo, and the film takes place within the historical backdrop of the Biafran War. That history has always interested me, especially the ways it continues to live in the lives of people who weren’t directly part of the war but come from families shaped by it.
Growing up I observed the women in my family very closely. They often carried two versions of themselves. There was the outward self that handled responsibility and survival, and then there was the private self that appeared when no one was watching.
When I saw Celeste on the page, I immediately recognised that duality. I knew this woman.
In many ways she reminded me of the kind of mother I sometimes fear becoming. I saw elements of my grandmother in her. My mother often told me stories about how my grandmother raised somewhere between nine and eleven children during the war. Even without a war, raising that many children would be overwhelming. Doing it in the middle of conflict is unimaginable.
There were stories of my grandmother having to leave her children temporarily to return to cities that were under threat because she needed to retrieve materials for her work. Those materials were how she earned money to support the family.
So while she wasn’t fighting in the war, she was fighting another kind of war, one centred on survival. And in that context, the relationship between mother and child changes. Children stop being simply children. They become almost like soldiers in the struggle to survive.
That emotional reality helped me understand Celeste deeply.
Q: Celeste feels emotionally complex in the film. At times she is guarded, and at other moments deeply vulnerable. What do you think she wants most, and what is she most afraid of losing?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
I think Celeste wants what many people want. She wants love.
But for her, love is inseparable from safety.
Before the war she likely came from a relatively stable middle-class environment. Suddenly she finds herself in rural Appalachia, starting again from nothing.
She also has to confront the reality that this new world is not a meritocracy. No matter what her background is, she is still a Black woman navigating America in the 1970s. That reality limits the safety she can create for her family.
Because of that, she prioritises survival above everything else. If she can just make it through another day, maybe tomorrow will bring news about her husband. Maybe tomorrow they will hear that he is alive.
In some ways I think she would rather return home than remain in Appalachia. But without her husband there is no clear path back. Waiting to hear from him is not just about love. It represents the possibility of returning home.
Q: Were there aspects of Celeste that pushed you outside your comfort zone as an actor?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
Absolutely.
This project was deeply emotional for me because I have been researching the Biafran War for a long time. The film approaches that history in a poetic way. It takes very difficult historical realities and expresses them through emotional experience rather than through facts.
The hardest part for me was placing myself emotionally in a space similar to what women like my grandmother lived through. I tried to imagine that Celeste’s children were my mother and her siblings.
In some ways it felt like time travelling.
One thing I did was place photographs of my grandmother and my mother within the set environment. If you look closely in the kitchen scene, there’s a photo on the cabinet that is actually my grandmother. There’s another photograph on the dresser that is my mother.
Seeing those images helped ground me emotionally during filming. They reminded me that for many people these experiences were not fictional stories but real lives.
At the same time, it was challenging to step back into the present after a scene, knowing that many people in history never had the chance to step out of that reality.
Q: The film relies heavily on subtle expression rather than dramatic emotional displays. How did you communicate Celeste’s inner life through such restrained performance?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
My theatre training helped a lot with that.
One of my acting teachers taught us about the idea of “radiating energy.” In theatre you can’t rely on a camera zooming in on your face. You have to transmit emotional energy across the entire room.
One exercise we practised involved observing how people move. For example, some people seem to walk from their head, some from their chest, some from their feet. These physical habits reveal aspects of their personalities.
When building Celeste, I thought carefully about where her emotional energy lives in her body. That physical awareness helps convey emotion without needing large gestures.
I also believe strongly that acting is not pretending. If it becomes pretend, it loses its authenticity.
For me acting is about stepping fully into the emotional life of a character and allowing that life to exist within my body for the duration of the story. In order to portray Celeste’s grief and resilience, I had to locate those feelings within myself and allow them to manifest physically.
Q: What do you hope audiences feel toward Celeste by the end of the film? And what did you personally take away from playing her?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
I hope audiences feel connected to her.
Because the emotions are expressed so subtly, it might appear at first as though nothing is happening. But I hope viewers are willing to sit with the pace of the film and recognise the layers of emotion beneath the surface.
Praise created something very delicate with this film. It is almost like a poem.
Personally, the experience reminded me that it is okay to cry. It is okay to express emotion.
One of the things I realised is that children are far more aware of their parents’ emotional states than we often assume. Parents sometimes believe they are protecting their children by hiding their feelings, but children are incredibly attuned to their parents’ emotional rhythms.
That realisation stayed with me.
Q: Beyond acting, did you contribute to any other aspects of the film?
Shelia Chukwulozie:
Yes, I collaborated on aspects of the film’s score.
More broadly, I see myself as someone who creates expansive worlds. Whether it is through acting, music or other forms of storytelling, I try to build experiences that can grow beyond the initial project and continue evolving through the people who encounter them.
In Conversation with Eniola Margaret Abioro
Actor (English)
Q: Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background and how you came to be part of Birdie?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
My name is Eniola Margaret Abioro. I’m from Nigeria and I grew up in Lagos. I’m Yoruba, and I was actually the only Yoruba girl in the cast.
I’ve been modelling internationally for about eight years now. Acting wasn’t originally part of my plan at all. I was focused on runway and commercial modelling.
The director of Birdie, Praise Odigie Paige, reached out to me on Instagram. At first I thought it was a scam because acting had never crossed my mind. But then my agent in Nigeria, Ms Bola, told me someone had been trying to reach me about a film role.
That’s when I replied to Praise.
Initially I auditioned for the role of Birdie, but she said no, you’re English. That’s the role I want you to play. And that’s how acting came into my life.
Q: Was this your first time acting?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
Yes. This was my first acting experience.
Q: If you had to describe English in three words, what would they be?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
Resilient. Selfless. Empathetic.
She’s resilient because even though she’s going through the same hardship as the rest of her family, she’s still trying to hold things together. She’s very young but she’s already navigating responsibility.
She’s selfless because she’s constantly thinking about the emotional state of the people around her. She wants to take away their pain if she could.
And she’s empathetic because she understands what everyone in the house is feeling. She gives them space to experience their grief but she also stays close enough to support them.
Q: Do you see similarities between yourself and English?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
English is actually very close to who I am.
I lost my father a few years ago, and English is also dealing with the absence of her father.
When I moved to New York at nineteen, a lot of my motivation was about supporting my family. As an African child you grow up with that mindset.
So in many ways English and I are very similar. I would say we are about ninety percent alike.
Q: What would you say makes up the ten percent difference?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
The difference is that I learned earlier that sometimes you have to step back.
English carries everything for too long. She keeps trying to hold the family together even when it’s too heavy for her.
In real life I realised earlier that sometimes you have to give people space to grieve. I would still be protective like English, but I know when to step back and allow people to process their emotions.
Q: You mentioned moving to New York. Did you come there specifically for modelling?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
Yes. Before modelling I was actually a primary school teacher in Nigeria.
Then I was discovered by Ms Bola and eventually flown to Paris for Prada. After that I went to Milan for Prada as well. That’s how my modelling career started internationally.
Q: Coming from modelling, how did you approach a character with such emotional depth?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
That character already existed inside me.
When Praise reached out, I actually wondered why she chose me. I thought, what kind of energy am I giving that makes her think I can do this?
She told me she had been observing my work for a while and believed I had the right presence for the character.
Even though I keep my personal life very private online, she said she could still see something in my demeanour that felt right for English.
So when I started working on the role, it wasn’t about building something from nothing. It was more about controlling emotions that were already there so they wouldn’t overwhelm the performance.
Q: The film uses very little dialogue. How did you express English’s emotions through silence?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
Growing up in an African household, you learn silence very early.
When elders are speaking, you don’t interrupt. You observe.
So I drew on that experience. I thought about how emotions appear on someone’s face when they want to speak but cannot.
For example, how do you show anger without saying anything? How do you show sadness when you’re trying to hide it?
In many African homes people rarely say “I love you” directly. Love is expressed through actions. Someone might cook for you and say, come and eat. That is how love is communicated.
So for the character I had to return to that emotional language where feelings exist beneath the surface rather than being spoken aloud.
Q: There are moments in the film where English stands in the doorway looking outside. At first it seemed like she might be waiting for her father. What was happening in those moments?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
She wasn’t looking out for her father.
English already knows that her father is gone. She has accepted that reality before anyone else in the house.
When she looks outside she’s actually watching her mother and her sister. She’s observing their reactions and trying to understand whether it is safe to express grief.
In many African households the mother’s emotional state sets the tone for the entire family. Everyone watches the mother to see how they are supposed to behave.
English is constantly monitoring those emotional signals.
Q: So in a way she becomes the emotional watchtower of the family.
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
Exactly.
She’s always watching. Watching everyone’s emotions and trying to keep things balanced.
Q: What was the biggest challenge for you during production?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
The hardest part was separating myself from the character.
After shooting certain scenes I had to remind myself that this was a story and not my own life.
When filming ended, I actually went to therapy because the role had affected me so deeply. I stopped posting on Instagram for a while because I needed time to detach emotionally from the character.
Playing English required giving a lot of emotional energy.
Q: At the end of the film there is a scene where English walks up the hill alone. What was happening internally for the character in that moment?
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
That moment is a kind of clarity walk.
She leaves the house and walks simply to see how far she can go. It represents a small act of freedom.
But it’s also a form of protest. Because once she leaves, her mother will ask, “Where is English?”
That question has never been asked before. English has always been present, always watching over everyone else. When she steps away, the absence becomes visible.
Eniola Margaret Abioro:
Yes, definitely.
Immediately after filming I said I would never act again because I didn’t realise how emotionally demanding it would be. But over time I learned that actors can leave a character behind once the work is done.
Now I’m open to acting again and continuing to tell stories.
Conclusion
Across these conversations, it becomes clear that the emotional weight of Birdie rests heavily on the performances that bring its quiet world to life. For Shelia Chukwulozie, Eniola Margaret Abiru and Precious Madwanusi, portraying Celeste, English and Birdie required drawing from personal histories, cultural memory and emotional intuition to inhabit characters shaped by uncertainty and displacement.
Their reflections reveal how the film’s restrained style depends on small gestures, silence and internal tension rather than dramatic expression.
Together, their performances form the emotional core of Birdie, allowing audiences to experience the story not only as a historical moment but as a lived and deeply human experience of family, grief and endurance.
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