The much-anticipated crime thriller titled "The Black Book," featuring Richard Mofe Damijo was released on Netflix today and has quickly gained significant online attention.

Directed and produced by Editi Effiong, this movie led by Richard Mofe Damijo revolves around the story of a Deacon who takes matters into his own hands, confronting a corrupt police gang to clear his son's name after he is falsely accused of kidnapping.

Notable Nollywood stars such as De Laoye, Sam Dede, Alex Usifo Omiagbo, Olumide Oworu, Shaffy Bello, Ireti Doyle, Taiwo Ajayi Lycett, Ikechukwu Onunaku, Patric Doyle, Bimbo Manuel, Femi Branch, Denola Grey, Kelechi Udegbe, and Nobert Young delivered outstanding performances in "The Black Book."

Richard Mofe Damijo, in an Instagram post, shared insights into the personal sacrifices he made for this film, revealing how he increased his daily press-ups from 4 to 40 as part of his preparation.

“What a journey it has been. Not done this for a while but let me give you some background so you can appreciate the film a lot more when it drops.

I met @editieffiong at a restaurant. Had lunch and he talked me through his film. I’m interested and I agree to do it. We shake hands and he says, “Baba you’ll need to lose some weight” wait did this young man just call me fat? Deep breath, and I go, “Oh sure, if you will pay for it”! He agreed. We shake hands again and he goes “You need to be fitter physically sir.

You need to hit the gym a minimum 3 times a week for some months before we shoot” I’m looking at this young man and his audacity, about to protest but I looked down at me and I knew he was right. I had sort of let go at the time and was precisely 120kg. We shook hands on it and this time I walked out and didn’t hear him say anything else.

I confess that it was when I started training that I knew this wasn’t for just the film but my own life. I couldn’t do more than probably 2 or 4 press-ups. Weights? I was a mess.
Slowly but steadily my journey began….

The weight came off finally and I found the character I was looking for. From single-digit press-ups to 40 at a stretch. From doing 10kg dumbbells to 50kg or so. Uzi threw in some boxing too and before long I was ready. I could jump, fight, run, etc”

He further spilled on how he went melanin in color for the movie shoot.

“Truth be told, even though there were tough days during the preparations for the shoot nothing worried me more than how dark the character had to go.

When I say dark I mean it in every literary sense. No smiles. No romance. No sweetness nothing. As in to conspire with the overall darkness, nature used to align with us.
So we were shooting in Apapa on a Sunday after by the docks and the sun is out in all its glory. No jokes it was probably 36 to 38 degrees at that moment and I was about to step out into it to shoot. I did.

Then we cut after the first take and I was sweating buckets and I joked about the sun being capable of driving anyone mad at that intensity. I don’t know what made me ask the make-up artist for a mirror to look at my face but what I saw made me scream. My face was so dark I didn’t recognize me. But for the timely explanation of the makeup artist, I would have thought something was terribly wrong.

Funny