Ernest Obi is the current Lagos State
Chairman of the Actors Guild of Nigeria. He
was the man in the eyes of the storm
when the dust was raised about the
eligibility of Segun Arinze to contest the
presidency of the association.
A seasoned actor cum director, Obi has
come a long way. In this interview with
Benjamin Njoku and Bridget Amaraegbu,
he takes a look at Nollywood and more.
Enjoy.
Tell us about your journey into
Nollywood?
I don’t know where to start from. I’m such
an old man in this business of make-believe
that if I should start from way back, we
might get lost in between.
But the journey so far has been good, very
challenging. But we ’re still there.
What has acting taught you?
I’ve learnt to expect the best at every point
in life, even when the worst is evident. I
have the ability to make the best out of
every situation because I ’m artistically
inclined. As actors, we’re able to look at our
problems and challenges squarely before
our own eyes, face it and in most cases,
overpower it.
Has this journey been rewarding?
We Africans like to look at reward from the
financial angle but I don ’t want to see it
from the naira, dollar or pounds angle. I’ll
look at it from the angle of what I’ve been
able to achieve and how I’ve been able to
impact on other people. And I can beat my
chest and say ‘yes’ it’s been rewarding
because I know I’ve impacted on a lot of
people, which is a huge reward.
Any limiting factor for you as an actor?
Whether as an actor, producer, director or
generally as a film maker, finance is our
major limiting factor. It ’s not as if we’re
suffering from artistic drought or
intellectual incapacitation.
It has become a trend for actors/actresses
to go into movie production …..
It’s not a trend but a law. The law of moving
to the next level has always been there,
even before I became an actor. In the
banking industry, some people start as
security men and later become managing
directors. I ’m sure if you have time to
interview them, you’ll be shocked at how
many managers or even CEOs that were
clerks before. It ’s the same thing in the
movie industry. After being an actor for
many years, you pay your dues very well
and may go into movie production later.
Probably because this actor wants to do
something better than what he had done or
because he feels he can do better as a
producer or even because he’s got enough
finance to be able to do his own story
which is not applicable when someone is
financing him.
And some go into directing like myself
because while in school, I majored in
directing. But my first calling is acting.
Do you think the quality of our movies has
improved?
When people keep talking about quality of
movies, I wonder because I think we have
the best story lines that any African can tell.
Our stories are stories that keep families
together all night in their homes. Even
people who do not understand some of the
languages we use in between the English
words like Chineke … ee or Mogbe… ee
appreciate these words and become part of
them. So, I don ’t think there’s anything
wrong with our stories. But as par picture
quality, I ’ll say we’re trying based on the
financial background we’re coming from.
Who are those sponsoring us? Private
individuals, who put in N5-6m and expect
immediate profit. Now, how can you
compare that with the “Avatar” where the
producer had to wait for about two years
for the technology that he used to be ready
or Titanic which cost more than $100m to
produce. It will be so unfair to compare the
picture quality of our movies to what you
have in Hollywood.
Obi
You haven’t featured in new movies
recently. Why?
Well, nothing happened. Like I said earlier,
there ’s always a transition in every aspect
of life, from being an actor to being a
producer. I ’m a film maker in totality. So, I’ve
moved to the next level but that doesn’t
stop me from acting.
And what it implies is that I’m not only
going out there to source for roles but I’m
also an employer of labour.
Aside that, I ’m also Chairman of the Lagos
State chapter of Actors Guild of Nigeria
which is a huge assignment on it ’s own. So,
I have a lot occupying my time.
I can only come out of my tight schedule if
there ’s a very good script for me. It must
not be a lead role like I’ve always said but it
must be a very challenging one.
How would you rate actors’ performance
generally?
I don’t want to start indicting anybody. I
would like to say we’re doing well but
artistically, we have not made a lot of
impact because nobody is laying emphasis
on interpretation and characterisation like
we used to do in the past.
Then, it wasn ’t about the money. It was
about making sure that your job/skills came
out better than that of your colleague.
Everybody wanted to interpret roles better
than his colleague not about how fast I can
get off from one set to the other. If I earn
N800,000 on one set, I want to earn N1 m
on another set. Okay, this producer is
begging me with N1m, the other one is
begging me with N1.2 m and I want to
compact all of them and shoot like four
films in a month. At the end of the day, I’m
going to be jumping from one set to the
other and to the next. When you see the
film, it ’s like I’m playing Ernest Obi and not
the character in the script because there’s
no room for me to actually assimilate and
portray the real character I should interpret.
And I think that ’s a major crisis in the
industry. That’s the difference between
when we were doing the real job and now.
As a child, did it ever occur to you that
you ’d earn a living through acting?
I’ve always wanted to act from when I was
very young and everybody in my house
knew it. When I was growing up, they used
to call me photo because I used to watch a
lot of television. I was a comic freak, TV
freak and I loved acting.
Initially, my family wasn ’t comfortable
when I indicated my interest to go into
acting but they knew that was what I
wanted to do. Sometimes, when people
stopped on the road to say they knew me,
they ’ll be the one’s to say he’s my brother
and he’s an actor. But initially, that wasn’t
what they wanted me to do.
What did they want you to do?
Any other thing except acting.
Doctor, lawyer, engineer?
No, no, no. We don’t have that kind of hold
in my house. Everybody was allowed to
express himself as long as it wasn ’t acting.
Celebrity comes with a lot of prices. How
much price have you paid?
The first price you pay as a celebrity is to
lose your privacy. You can ’t go anywhere
to unwind without being trailed by critics.
The worst part of it is that people say a lot
of negative things about you and you can’t
keep going round to say it’s not true.
With due respects, some media people say
nasty things about one just to sell their
product.
Which of these stories from the media
affected you?
They’re all in the past now and I’ve gone
beyond them all.
How do you react to criticisms?
I don’t have a problem with it if it’s positive
and has to do with my job.
But the problem will be if you tell me that I
don ’t know how to handle my home or the
way I kiss my wife is wrong. Then I’ll tell
you it’s not your business.
If you tell me that there’s this movie I did
where my speech was not too good, I’ll
welcome that because it’s your right as a
pressman to look at my movie, preview and
review it and even criticise it positively.
There was this rumour sometime ago that
you slept with your own daughter. How
true is that?
I won’t answer that question because my
fiancee warned that I shouldn’t talk about it
anymore. And I won’t talk about it because
I’ve forgiven all the parties involved in that
scandalous story.
So, you are taking a second wife?
No, I’ve never been married before. I had a
woman who had a child for me but I was
never married to her.
Is the child under your custody?
That is my personal life.
When the rumour made headlines, how
did you react to it?
That was then and I beg to say no
comments on that issue.
Can you tell us some of your short comings
as a human being?
Oh, my temper. I had a major problem with
my temper. I could explode in anger at the
slightest provocation and I didn ’t like it. But
I’ve learnt to control it, thanks to my
fiancee.
So, why are you getting married this late?
It’s not late for me. I just discovered my
wife and my people say that whenever a
man wakes up is his morning. So, I have just
woke up and seen the sunshine, to the
glory of God. I am getting married in May
and I ’m happy.
Do you have any regrets in life?
No, I’ve lived well because I come from a
very disciplined home, a family of six. My
mother had 5 girls and I am the only boy in
the family. I was taught to respect life and
womanhood and it has helped me. It ’s still
helping me in the running of the guild. I
don ’t regret anything that has ever
happened to me. I take everything that has
ever happened to me as the way it should
have been. Maybe, if all those things didn ’t
happen, I would not have met my fiancee.
How did you meet her?
No, I’ll not discuss that with you. I know
how I met her and I love her simple. Maybe
when you come for our wedding, you will
find out how I met her.
What did you say that made her fall for
you?
It was love at first sight. I was taken in and
I ’m sure she felt the same way. That was
how it started.
So you didn’t see any of those qualities in
an actress?
You people keep thinking there’s a problem
with an actor marrying an actress but it’s
not true. The major problem with us is that
most times, we meet only on locations. The
last time I saw Rita Dominic was a longtime
ago on set.
That ’s why when they cook up stories that
this actor is doing that with this actress, I
just laugh because we don ’t see each often
other the way people think.
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