Undoubtedly, one of
Nollywood’s favorite actresses, Omotola Jalade
Ekeinde shares in this interview her experience growing up as well as
how she has managed to balance her marriage, career, and kids.
Let’s talk about your latest
flick, Last Flight to Abuja. Tell us about the significance of your
character in it.
My character was Suzie. It’s one of those type of stories where you have
different mini stories running side by side, and then they all have a
common ground, and that common ground is a plane where we all met. My
own story is, I’m a young lady working in Abuja, in a relationship with a
guy who stays in Lagos, and we’re having issues because he thinks I’m
too career minded, so I decide to pay him a surprise visit and I get
into the plane to Lagos to do that. So, there are different stories of
different people all on this flight to Lagos. I think what I want to
celebrate in this movie is that in life, spend every day like it’s your
last; you just never know when, though our hope and future is bright and
promises for us to be great, but you have to love people, say the
things you need to say, and live right the best way you possibly can.
Prior to your getting the
script, have you had a similar experience, with your husband being a
pilot and you being a regular flier?
Luckily no, I hope never to have such an experience, but I remember
my husband had something close to that, there was a little crash, and he
flew that day, and I think he dropped the plane that eventually
crashed, which our friend Captain Adebayo took away and then
unfortunately crashed, so I don’t know if that gives me any kind of
credence or any kind of extra emotion for this movie, but just to answer
your question that’s the closest shave I’ve had to that kind of thing.
Still talking about planes, you
got married in one, what was that like?
I got married in 2001, and we thought of something that might be
different. My husband and I are kind of crazy people, we’d been married
at the registry for a while and we were planning the white wedding and
we thought we couldn’t just have a usual wedding and then go to church
and all of that, so let’s just really do something different, so we were
thinking of a destination or a very nice cool resort to celebrate
everybody, to invite different couples, but we thought about logistics,
and then my husband just came up with the idea ‘What
if we did it on plane on a destination to somewhere?’ We started
the whole process and it was very tough getting the papers right, and
even to get approval, it just had never been done before. Soon, people
started saying are you crazy, are you people serious, but the end of the
day, thank God, we did it and it was a beautiful wedding
So where did you fly to?
It was Lagos to Benin. We couldn’t get
approval for anything farther and we actually wanted to do an
International flight but the procedure and the cost was enormous.
Sixteen years down the line, how
has the marriage fared?
Thank God it’s been wonderful, I don’t
like to talk too much about it, but again, why should I be ashamed to
talk about something good? And maybe I could just be encouraging
somebody out there. It has been very good, I have a very wonderful
marriage and I give most of the glory all to God who I depend on,
because if everything was up to me, things would have been downhill and
secondly, I would give most of that credit to my husband, because I
think I’m the difficult one. To keep up with my career, my schedule and
everything, he’s been very supportive, extremely supportive and I thank
God.
How about your kids?
My first kid is going to be fifteen
years old and I have a fourteen, twelve and seven year old.
How do you juggle your busy
career and taking care of the growing kids?
I’m a very hands-on mum, but my kids think I’m extremely strict. I was
raised by a very strict mum, an Egba woman. She used to sit on me and I
don’t even sit on my kids. I grew up with a woman who was extremely over
board with the discipline and I have to cut back a little bit of those
things and infuse some of the modern things, I use most of the verses
from the bible, I always tell my kids that the bible says spare your
kids of the rod and in future they will come and hit you, so basically
if I hit you, it’s not because I don’t like you or that I’m doing it out
of anger, it means you need correction, so that’s the way I trained
them. I tell them I could be your friend just a little bit, but my job
is to be your parent.
From all what you have said, you
seem to be enjoying a stable home, coupled with your booming career.
Would you say at this point, you are successful?
Oh no I’m not, I think when you are fulfilled, then your job is done and
you might as well start packing up to go to Heaven. I’m not
fulfilled, I’m content and I’ve always been, even when I had nothing. I
learnt on time that if you give God the attitude of ‘so why haven’t I
gotten it’? I think it pisses God off because everything you have,
somebody has none of it. There is something you have that somebody else
needs desperately, so if we can just look back and be grateful for
everything, those other things will come, because God knows you are
going to be grateful for them when they come. Even though I want more
and hope for more, I don’t act like its hurting me, I make do with what I
have and it has always worked for me.
You are associated with a couple
of NGOs, Amnesty International, Shell and your own OYEP. How did you
come to be a part of it?
It would have been a waste if I am this
fire brand and I don’t use it for anything other than to talk, so I
thought the best way to use that is to help other people. It’s just
wonderful when you don’t have to campaign or win elections before you
can make influences. I realised that when I tried a little bit, people
were reacting to it and it was blessing to people, so I just went on and
on. I started working with the UNWFP, we were able to influence
different ideas and raise money for food for children in Somalia,
Liberia and other countries in Africa. From there, my passion grew, so I
decided to have my own NGO, which is OYEP. It was supposed to be a
movement, but we couldn’t register it as such, so we had to develop the
less activist side of us and made it an NGO. There is also a softer side
of OYEP, which is the ‘Give and Lets Give’ which is what we do every
year, and then Amnesty International approached me. They said they had
seen some of my work and needed a female that could advocate for some of
their beliefs.
Where does Occupy Nigeria occupy
in your activist roll call?
Occupy Nigeria was actually in
conjunction with OYEP. I got a call from Chude [Jideonwo] and Adebola
[Williams, both of RED Nigeria] and asked that I get on board.
Initially, I didn’t want to get involved because as an Amnesty
International spokesperson, I shouldn’t be practising Politics, and I
told them the only reason I will join this fight is if you add to your
agenda, the cause of the women in Jos, whose children were being killed,
so after a while, they did and I was able to join on that note, but it
ended up with Omotola in the forefront and after a while, they
said Omotola take over this thing. I guess I’m just too loud for my own
good.
Let’s delve into your career as
an actress. Your first movie was in 1995, titled Venom of Justice. Since
then, what are the things you think have changed about Omotola as
an actress?
A lot, I have grown, like everybody else
in any kind of career. When I started acting, I had no prior training.
The first set of movies that were out were the Ibo movies, so we were
like the first real movie stars, so it was very new to us. We didn’t
know how to handle it or how to react. Everybody was new on the job, we
didn’t have good costumiers or makeup artistes, so we had major
challenges and couldn’t sustain professionals in the industry as at
then. Personally, because there weren’t many role models, we didn’t know
how to act in public, it was however you felt. For me, it was even
harder because I think I’m the first actress who has actually gotten
married and had four kids while on the job. Also, I had them in quick
succession, so it was a lot for me to handle. I had a lot of issues to
deal with, my image and body changing every now and then, but you have
to grow and become mature and become your own self and that has helped
me a lot, and I’m still learning.
And 17 years after, you still
are in demand, so what will you say is responsible for that?
I wanna first give all the glory to God.
I’m not the prettiest or the most intelligent in this game. I’m not the
best actress and I don’t think I’m the one who has the best attitude or
PR, I always ask God for his grace to let me know what to do. You have
to always ask God for the manner of the present. Its new challenges
every day, so I ask God to teach me, and having said that, you really
have to work hard and I try very hard to work hard. I mean I’ve been
knocked down a lot of times, I can’t even start to telI the press things
I have to deal and contend with. I think I have had one of the biggest
battles in this industry to be here. I have been attacked a whole lot of
times.
Physically?
Physically, spiritually, so much. The
truth of the matter is you have to always remember that there is nothing
special about you. It’s just grace and you don’t want to take it for
granted and if God is doing His part, you have to do your part, because
there are younger, more aggressive people coming up. You have to be
consistent and be yourself and continue to work hard.
You have been acting for a while
now, any plan to delve into production?
I’m still trying to get my hands on
music, I can’t handle any more. If I can’t do it well, I won’t do it.
I’m so hard on myself that if I know I won’t do it well, I won’t do it
at all. I have struggled so much in the acting that I don’t think I want
to struggle again in the production aspect. I have done a soap opera,
which I directed. It was actually on Africa Magic. It’s a lot of work to
produce; I didn’t even produce my soap, I just directed it. Directing
is something I would love to do, but I don’t think I will anytime soon.
Away from acting, let’s talk
about your music.
I think people who criticise me have not
listened to my music. I call my music inspirational music, not
necessarily gospel. I sing about issues and my second album, which is
yet to be out, has been ready since 2010. I have been shooting videos
and if its not right, I am not going to put it out. If it was about
money, I would have given it to a marketer. Do you know how many
marketers are asking for that CD? I got a lot of money from my first
album, but I realised that was not my dream; it wasn’t done the way I
would have loved it to be and this second album, I wanna handle it the
way I want to.
Your last album had you playing
with different genre of songs. Will this forthcoming album be a more
focused one?
I consider myself a rock artiste. In the
first album, they didn’t let me do rock because they said nobody will
buy it, so I’m gradually getting back to what inspires me, which is
Rock, so I do pop-rock. Most of my songs have rock influences, but I
came out with more of it in this new album. Just a few of the songs are
hip hop, I did one with Vector and another with Mode 9, but most of my
songs have a rock feel.
So when will the album be out?
We are looking at it coming out before
the end of December. We are about to shoot three more videos. We are
shooting one with Clarence and working with Aje, which is what I think
was the problem with first album.
Do you have your husband’s
support with your dresses ?
My husband is extreme, I can’t wear some
things my husband buys for me. He’s an enlightened person. He’s one of
those who believes in the heart. Even with his kids, initially, I used
to think he was so obsessed with me, that’s why he doesn’t care about
anything but even with his kids, he trusts them a lot and that’s one
thing I have learnt from him. He watches all of my movies and supports
me.
And how does he react with the
romantic scenes?
I’ll tell you the truth, there are some
he does not watch. He would tell me do what you’ve got to do but
forewarn me. He will never say, I’m going to stop you for doing it, but
will rather say, if it’s that bad, I don’t want to watch it.
For somebody who has spent over
17 years in the industry, what is your take about their desperate
attitudes?
It’s two ways, desperation is not a bad
thing. It’s only when you apply it in the wrong way. It’s actually a
tool that should propel you if you use it well. I think the problem is
now they use it for bad, and I always tell the young ones, if you allow
your desperation to make you the things you are not proud of, it will
come out and put you in a bad place. By God’s grace, I can stand tall
today and say nobody made me. I worked hard to be whoever I am.
How do you react to the
impression that Omotola is proud and
snobbish?
I guess it was in those days when we
didn’t have social media and people couldn’t reach you and they thought
that. I guess I have this demeanour that makes people think I’m always
in my own zone, and for that reason they assume I’m a snob. I’m two
extremes, I can be overly bubbly and overly quiet, I am never really in
the middle.
You are one of the highest paid
actresses, so how much do you charge for films?
So that they will come and meet me abi?
On a final note, you got married
at the tender age of 18. If your 16 year old daughter tells you she
wants to do the same, what will be your reaction?
If he’s as good as my husband or better,
why not? If he falls short, then no.
or honey, call on Jesus to order the right
dude’s steps!
