I've been changed for ever

British Oscar hopeful Wunmi Mosaku on Sinners film role

- BY FRAN BOWDEN

Sinners Warner Brothers film has string of Oscar and Bafta nominations

Actress Wunmi Mosaku bursts with excitement as she relives the moment her agent told her that director Ryan Coogler wanted to speak to her.

"Whatever it is, I'm in!" she recalls telling him. The call turned out to be about the role of Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners, a horror film that went on to gross £273million and win her Oscar and Bafta nominations.

"I went on Zoom and thought it would be for half an hour, but it was for an hour and half. My brain...everything kind of opened up..."

It took just seven pages of script to convince the Nigerian-born actress - who moved to Manchester aged one and grew up on a tough estate - that Annie was a part she would covet.

Working with Coogler on the vampire movie turned out to be an experience she would never regret. Wunmi, 39, says of him: "He's such a wise and lovely and loving person.

"I read these seven pages of Smoke and Annie, and that first scene in the shop, and I was just blown away by the quality of the writing.

"I auditioned with Michael B Jordan two days later and they offered me the role in the room, and that was it.

"Oh wow, it was bonkers! It happened so fast and was so amazing"

The momentum has continued, with Sinners making Oscars history with 16 nominations, as well as 13 Bafta nominations.