The actress is the only Nigerian on the internationally acclaimed production.
Nollywood actress Ashionye Michelle Raccah has starred in the critically acclaimed Netflix series, ‘Wednesday’.
The actress is the only Nigerian on the internationally acclaimed production.
DID YOU KNOW-Ashionye Raccah is the first Nigerian actor from Nollywood to star on the hit Netflix series Wednesday. She stars alongside Thandie Newton and Jenna Ortega
Ashionye Michelle Raccah has always been a fan of the Addams Family. Her first encounter with the famously atypical fictional family, featuring devilishly funny characters like Morticia, Gomez, and the moody Wednesday, was in the 1991 film ‘THE ADDAMS FAMILY’, starring Angelica Huston.
Ashionye Michelle Raccah is the first Nigerian star from Nollywood to star on the hit Netflix series “Wednesday” channeling her Nollywood grits on a Hollywood set, starring alongside Thandle Newton and Jenny Ortega.
Now more than two decades after watching her first Addams family film, Raccah herself got a chance to star in the remake of the well-known classic. But just not any remake. Raccah stars in the second season of “Wednesday”, the smash hit Netflix series produced by Tim Burton.
he actress made this known to her fans on Instagram when she announced her feature in the anticipated series.
Ashionye starred in the third episode of the second season of Wednesday, ‘Call of the Woe.’
“It’s showtime!! # Wednesdayseason2 let’s go. Catch me play minister in episode 3. Being on the set of Wednesday was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. Directed by Paco Cabezas in a Tim Burton production.
“PS: I have proof that Wednesday smiles… sometimes. It was an absolute pleasure to share a scene with @jennaortega,” she wrote on Instagram.
With the announcement, the singer-turned-actress joins the ranks of Nollywood actors, breaking into highly rated international productions.
For instance, actress Diana Yekini starred alongside Gal Gadot in Netflix’s 2023 movie, ‘Heart of Stone’.
In 2024, Somkhele Iyamah-Idhalama was featured in ‘Star Trek Discovery’ as a progenitor.
“I have always been a fan of the [Addams Family], when I heard [about] Wednesday season 1, I was intrigued. I watched the show, it was amazing.” Raccah says.
In the third episode of the second season, Raccah plays a minister officiating the funeral of former Sheriff Donovan Galpin. Dressed in pitch black priestly robe with her hair pulled away from her face, Raccah’s character officiated the sombre and sparsely attended the funeral with the stoic–faced mood that permeates most of the sensibilities of the series. Raccah acts in the scene alongside the great British-Zimbabwean actress Thandiwe Newton and South African star Luyanda Unati Lews-Nyawo.
“It was pleasant to work with Jenna, Thandiwe, and Unati. I got to share moments between takes with Thandiwe and Unati, having conversations with them,” Raccah says.
“That day on set involved Costume, Make-Up, Pre-Shoot, Rehearsals, and a meeting with the director, Paco Cabezas, after which she was whisked back to her trailer.”
About an hour or so later, we were put back in the vehicle and driven back to the sets. They were ready to shoot. It was quite an experience, as I believe they only shot two scenes in 12 hours of filming that entire day. It was a short, sharp, interesting scene, but it took a couple of hours. And to be honest, that experience being on set for that day changed my perspective” Raccah explains.
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Raccah had swell praises for the on-set experience, to her it was unlike anything else she has had as an actor. This is particularly regarding the level of care and the extent to which a big budget can make the lives of actors like her, no matter how small their role on a project might be absolutely worth it.
“For that one scene, I had about eight (8) different costumes to try out in two different colours, you know four in black, four in grey,” She adds that it felt different from working on a Nollywood set where resources are often scarce and filmmakers use their sense of invention and grit to make block busters on thin budgets.
“We’re run by independent filmmakers. You know, every production is from an independent filmmaker’s pocket. In Hollywood, it’s a lot different. You have different people coming together, putting funds together to produce it.”
The experience, according to Raccah, was a reminder of the grits and dedication it takes to execute a successful project of that calibre.
‘Call of the Woe’
In the third episode of ‘Wednesday’ titled ‘Call of the Woe’, Wednesday Addams continues her intriguing investigation.
In the episode, Wednesday is desperate to regain her psychic powers to solve her vision of her friend Enid’s potential death.
She attempts to reclaim her ancestor Goody’s spellbook, which Morticia has taken from her. She promises to give it to her only when she has mastered her abilities.
Meanwhile, Ashionye plays the minister, who delivers his final rites, at the funeral of the former sheriff, Donovan Galpin.
“May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be at your back. May the sunshine warm your face. May the rains fall upon your feet. May God hold you always. Amen,” she says in her breakout scene.
Journey through Landing the Role
Emphatically, the journey to landing the role was riddled with false starts. After being asked by her agents to send in tapes auditioning for the role, Raccah was told that although the coasting directors loved her audition, they went with someone else. The same thing happened for another role she auditioned for. It wasn’t until the third try that she got a positive response.
For that third try, Raccah says that her young daughter, who is a fan of Ortega, and the show, helped her prepare.
“We go into the room, and I set up everything. She tells me what to do as I run through the lines. And she’s like, ‘No, no, no, no. I’ m directing you. You are doing it this way, you are doing it that way. Move your hands like that. Look at the side.’ I was like, why is my eight-year-old daughter directing my self-tape? But I took her directions,” When Raccah got the call that she booked the role, she was over the moon.
Making the move
Entering Hollywood as an actor, who had mostly worked in the Nigerian film industry, an ecosystem funded not by high-powered film studios or corporations but by independent filmmakers and modest private companies, was at once exciting and eye-opening for Raccah.
“I had to learn and relearn things that I had learned in the Nollywood.” Raccah says. “I had to go to drama school. There are certain things I had to learn to be able to find my place over here,” Raccah explains.
Being in a constant learning mode has also helped Raccah reshape her sensibilities and approach to work. When she moved to Europe, she began taking drama classes, and has invested in working with an accent coach to help make her a more malleable actor.
“I’ m presently working with one to help me with other accents that I presently don’t have. And that’s me trying to grow myself as an actor on an international stage. Because here is the thing, it doesn’t matter how talented you are as a performer, if a role calls for a certain accent and you can’t achieve that accent, you’re probably not going to get it.”
The ability to morph, as Raccah sees it, is an incredible helpful tool for actors from the continent looking to expand their craft on the international stage.
“You should be able to morph into a character once you get it or when you’ re auditioning for it,” Raccah says.
On the whole, Raccah is feeling optimistic about expanding her resumé beyond the continent.
Wednesday
An American supernatural mystery comedy, ‘Wednesday’ was first released on Netflix in 2022.
It follows Wednesday Addams’s antics as she attends Nevermore Academy, a school for outcasts, where she masters her psychic abilities, investigates a murder spree, and unravels a mystery connected to her parents.
The series is a spin-off of ‘The Addams Family. ’
It blends mystery, the supernatural, and dark humour, as Wednesday navigates social dynamics, supernatural threats, and her family’s history.
Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jenna Ortega as the titular character.
According to available data, the first season of ‘Wednesday’ had the second-most pre-release followers of any Netflix original series on the platform, behind only ‘The Witcher’.
It holds the record for most hours viewed in a week for an English-language Netflix series, with 341 million hours watched in its first week of release.
“This project means a whole lot; it’s is a step towards achieving my dream as an actor on a global stage. This is not just every Nollywood actor’s dream, but every African actor’s dream to be on a global stage and to have such an opportunity to, like we say in Nigeria, sell our market. I am a proud representative of not just Nigeria or Nollywood or not just Nollywood and Nigeria, but Africa.”
In addition, Nielsen Media Research reported a combined watch time of six billion minutes within its first week of release.
This makes it the second-biggest streaming week ever recorded by the firm.
Three weeks after its release, it became the second-most-watched English-language Netflix series in the platform’s history, reaching an estimated 150 million households and totalling 1 billion viewing hours by December 2022.
With a career that spans over two decades, Ashionye has been in a number of era-defining productions like ‘Journey to Self’ (2012), ‘Kpians: The Feast of Souls’ (2014), ‘Hell or High Water’ (2016) and ‘Breath of Life’ (2023), among others
