Eleanor and Mathew met on the set of The Hostel, and have never left each other even for a bit since. The celebrity couple, who chose to ‘do things their way’ open up about sweet 8-year-love story.
You are both on set together, almost all the time. How are you making it work?
Mathew: I would say, on the contrary, it’s easy for us. It’s easy for us because it goes back to our relationship. Working with a friend is always enjoyable.
Eleanor: Also, we respect our boundaries, like if he is production, producer, or director for the day and I am like, acting or something, I usually see him as my director, not Mathew. We are colleagues (laughs). So we give each other that respect with boundaries like “that’s your zone” and “that’s my zone.” As long as we are at work, we are as professional as possible. Everybody is doing their role.
Two Celebrities married and making it work is not a walk in the park …
Mathew: For some reason, I think it’s easy for us. I think it goes back to us being friends. You see, the challenge with many people, especially in relationships, is that they are together but not exactly together. Do they love hanging out together? Is that the thing? She wants to go hang with the girls. That’s where challenges come in. She is looking all stunning and hanging with the girls daily. She is going to give an opportunity to other people to say, you know. Then with us, you find that we hang out together.
Eleanor: As celebrities, we have tried to keep it real. You know what I mean, like, we don’t have to pretend to fit in or to be what we are not. We are ordinary parents, ordinary husband and wife, and we go about our daily lives as any other person would.
So you don’t have that celebrity…?
Eleanor: No, there are so many times when we are like Let’s just dress up normally for events only to get backlash from social media. People saying that we should have dressed a certain way. But, this is what was in my closet. I just don’t want to show up pretending, yet the clothes aren’t even mine. We keep it real and live within our means because if you’re going to pretend to be someone else, you have to meet the demands.
You talk about having kids quite early.. What motivated the decision.
Eleanor: Yeah. I wanted to go back to TV. I also wanted to get my kids before I got to 30, because I heard that after 30 it becomes hard getting back in shape. I needed to get back to TV and have a family as well because I love babies. The plan was to do it really fast so that the kids grow together with us as we work.
How did you meet?
Eleanor: We met on the film set. It was one of those mornings when I went for auditions. I think it was a read through because I had actually got the role and he was there and I was there, and we were not always on the same set because he was Gilo and I was Hope, the Christian girl, and he was the player, so we would never really meet at any one time. It was until later when we had a scene to do together where the player hits on the Christian girl. It was so priceless because then, we had a thing for each other, so we became friends first, then good friends, then really close friends, and more than friends, started dating, and then he proposed (laughs).
Wow! What a journey! How long have you been married?
Eleanor: 8 years, making nine this year.
Any challenges….
Mathew: There are tiny, little challenges.
Eleanor: Like timekeeping (laughs)
Mathew: From day one, we have been open with each other. We do not hold anything back. We are very transparent and we communicate a lot, and even if I anger her, she can’t hold back being my wife because I annoyed her, and I can’t hold back being her husband.
Eleanor: When we have a fight, Mathew always says, “You know what, babe, either way, we are in this for a long time, so you might as well just talk to me now.” (laughs)
Mathew: We talk about it and deal with it. We probably disagree, but life moves on. I can’t annoy her, and she says she won’t give me breakfast.
Eleanor: No (laughs)
Mathew: She will give it to me and I will be like, “Hey, the mood is not…” But you know, you just did it and you’re like (both laugh) I am sorry. This is the reason I did it. (both laugh) We talk it out and it’s done.
Is that advice you give other married couples?
Don’t hold back when you’re angry. The moment you create the opportunity of silence, it grows, and the more you are this way, the more you get wrong ideas in your head and boom!
Eleanor: And yeah, I also think not speaking in the moment immediately because then you might say something you might not have said. First calm down before you speak, something I tell couples because you might get really angry and say I can get a divorce from you right now, yet you didn’t even mean it.
Mathew: There is also an element of trust, you know, trusting the other person. If she is going to hang out with the girls, let me trust that she is going to hang out with the girls. But if I start to doubt that, then I am going to start looking for things, and when you look for things, you will find them. So it’s important to have an element of trust and let people be.
Eleanor: Transparency
What are you doing on Valentine’s day?
Eleanor: I don’t know… You know, it’s a busy month for us. The 4th is his birthday, the 24th is my birthday, and then in between is the 14th, but we are going to go to a hotel anyway. Spa is already booked and then… We will celebrate earlier because February 14th is a Monday and we have to work, but there’s still Monday night (laughs)
Nabwiso Films is doing great…
Mathew: We love doing films. So we do it and give it our very best, and we also look at it as a business. So if it’s a business, what do I have to put in place to make it grow? I’m doing films for Ugandan standards or doing something that a person in New York is going to watch. Somebody is going to watch and say, “Wow!” So we set our bar really high, even with or without a budget.
Eleanor: Because with quality, anyway, you tap a wider market. Most people forget when they are producing that you need to have quality to sell on the best platforms around. We have had a chance to sell our movies to iFlix, Showmax, and other platforms. These are platforms that only buy quality, by which I mean Multichoice and others. So we produce quality to get a good market. So also to maintain the whole film thing, we have kind of had this dream to inspire people and also to create films that change people’s lives. We tackle topics that are uncomfortable to talk about for example gender-based violence and early marriages. We have chosen to change people’s lives using film, which has helped us tap into a huge audience. Our content is consumed by both the young and old.
Did you get any training in film?
Eleanor: Actually no, I majored in science in information technology, from which I graduated with a degree, and Mathew did business administration. There is no way we can say we went to school for film. Most of what we do is self-taught, and I chose to learn most of my work on YouTube. I follow most of the best directors, producers, and cinematographers, so I learn a lot from YouTube. There are a lot of classes there because school film back then was not an option.
And also, back then, we did a series called “The Hostel,” which had over 300 episodes, so I chose not to only be an actress on set. I chose to learn. I learnt so much on that set because Nabwiso Films was born immediately the series was wrapped.
This story is a collaboration between @kais_divo_collection X @natna_natural_hair X @satisfashionug X @Walter_photography_ug
Makeup: @agysmakeupofficial
Styling: @kais_divo_collection
Hair: @natna_natural_hair
Photographs: @walter_photography_ug
