Veteran Ghanaian actress Mavis Yeboah, popularly known as Maame Gyanwaa, has opened up about two frightening incidents on set that she says could have cost her life.

The actress recalled nearly suffocating after being locked inside a coffin during a late-night cemetery shoot and escaping possible electrocution during another scene involving a swimming pool.

According to Maame Gyanwaa, the coffin incident happened while she was portraying a woman who had been murdered. The production was being filmed around midnight, shortly after the death of former President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, and her co-star, Samuel Seth Karikari, popularly known as Mr Beautiful, was required to open the coffin after mourning his on-screen wife.

She said the prolonged delay left her exposed to the extreme cold inside the coffin until she lost consciousness.

“I was placed in a casket while acting. It is by the grace of God that I am still alive. This happened when Prof. Atta-Mills passed on. By the time it got to my scene, it was almost 12:00 AM at the cemetery. They fixed my costume and had even finished digging the grave. So I was placed in the coffin. Mr Beautiful, who was my husband, was supposed to open the coffin in a brief moment, but instead, he was crying, and it took a while. So while lying in the coffin, I felt the place was very cold, and I passed out,” she said.

The situation became even more unsettling when the crew later discovered that the footage captured at the cemetery had been corrupted and could not be played. Maame Gyanwaa said the team subsequently returned to the cemetery, met with those responsible for the facility and paid homage before attempting the scenes again.

She also recounted another dangerous moment in which she could have been electrocuted during a pool scene with Mr Beautiful.

She explained that she was supposed to be pushed into the water but had stepped aside briefly to pray before filming began. Moments later, the camera and lighting equipment reportedly fell into the pool.

“There was a scene where Mr Beautiful had to push me into a pool. So before we started that scene, I turned my back and prayed. Even the director shouted at me, asking why I had turned my back when they were ready. Before they could say ‘action,’ the camera and lighting equipment fell into the water. So, assuming I was already in the pool, I would have been electrocuted,” she added.

Maame Gyanwaa’s revelations highlight the risks actors sometimes face when attempting to achieve realistic scenes, particularly in challenging locations and conditions.

The actress believes she survived both incidents by divine intervention, turning what could have been tragic moments into some of the most frightening experiences of her acting career.

Watch the interview here:

Veteran Kumawood actress Maame Gyanwaa has recounted an eerie experience from her acting days when she had to be briefly buried in a casket while filming a cemetery scene.

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Source: Yvonne Nyarko Agyemang