“Letting Go Of ‘Scar’ Was Hard” – Chidi Mokeme

Since the debut of Netflix’s Shanty Town, Chidi Mokeme has been the recipient of plenty of praise for expertly bringing the character ‘Scar’ to life. The veteran actor has made recently made some shocking revelations as to how much trouble it took to pull it off.

While on an interview with BBC Pidgin, Mokeme provided a detailed description of some major changes he had to undergo to perfectly execute ‘Scar’.

“Some of the body modifications I did to enter into the character of Scar was to shave off my hair completely and go bald,” Chidi revealed.

“Some days too, I didn’t take my bath before going on set. That it felt like we are street, we belong to the street. And so that when they say it was time to do something dirty, you do it without flinching because you weren’t even clean in the first place.

“Sometimes also, I didn’t brush my teeth so that when I opened my mouth people would have great cause to wonder the kind of human being I was. One that couldn’t take care of himself how then would he be able to take care of everyone else?

“I don’t smoke but I had to smoke about three packets per day to make my eyes portray that scary look. Cigarettes aided me in cracking the show in such matter,” he added.

Chidi revealed that even after he completing filming, letting go of ‘Scar’ was a bit of a struggle.

“So me and the character, we were one and it took a while before Scar could leave my body. It wasn’t a ln easy thing. Scar and I begin contesting for ownership of my body.

“I said to Scar, ‘Leave me, we are done’. But Scar was adamant claiming ‘I woke him up and he wasn’t going anywhere. We are going to remain like this.

“So, it took a while before I could get out of the character. But if it were up to me, I’d willing remain Scar,” he revealed.

Shanty Town follows a group of courtesans attempts to escape the grasp of a notorious kingpin – but political corruption and blood ties make freedom a near-impossible goal.