Hunk and actor, Yemi Black, hit Nollywood in 2005 and today has carved a niche for himself. Happily married to Remi Ibinola Olatunji, Yemi is a trained thespian known both for his stage plays and movies. In this interview with CHRISTIAN AGADIBE, the Theatre Arts graduate from the University of Benin opens up on his career among other interesting issues.
Excerpts:
I saw you performed at The AY-Show a while ago. People don’t know that you have talent for comedy. How did you come about that?
(Light laughter) People always have an impression based on what they think they know about you. And the movies I’ve shot so far have been rather serious ones too but I do have a very strong sense of humour. And funny enough, my wife wrote a comedy script for AY. We discussed my wife writing something for AY and AY was like ‘yeah, why not? So my wife got cracking and we shot it with AY a while ago in Ghana and today people really love it.
Wow! That is interesting. Is that one of the things that attracted you to your wife?
Of course, my wife is very talented and that was a strong source of attraction. I like people who are talented and intelligent and guess what, my wife is super talented and intelligent and she is a very pretty woman; beneath all that beauty is a superwoman!
How did you guys meet?
It was just mutual attraction. I liked her from the get go just the way she liked me from the get go.
And it just happened so naturally. We became friends because we could open up and talk to each other so easily and that was it; it was a natural flow. We actually met on location; she is a producer and she was shooting a movie back then so she called me up for an audithe get go just the way she liked me tion and bingo! Off I went and today, the rest is history.
How long have you been married to her?
Seven years.
Talking movies, what projects are you currently working on?
Right now I am shooting with AfriNolly. It is a movie entitled President For A Day. I just shot my first big budget Yoruba flick entitled The Blessings of Olofin. It is a story about the origin of Lagos State. Meanwhile I am also involved in a project in The Gambia; I’m going to shoot in The Gambia at the end of this month. However, some movies of mine are coming up too. One of them is Uwvre, which was shot in Benin and directed by Frank Raja. Another is A Place In The Stars, which would be shot in Abuja and Jos and directed by Steve Gawkers.
It seems that these days you select scripts because we have not been seeing you in movies like we used to. What really is happening?
You see, I’ve decided to take a break from the regular because I want to live my footprints in the sands of time as far as Nollywood is concerned so that in the next 20 or 30 years, my works would be a point of reference for the industry. People will say that yes, here is a guy that did movies differently. Whether we like it or not, posterity always judges and I want to be in the good books of posterity. I want to look back years after and say yes, I have impacted society with my works. That is the reason why I am very picky these days.
Do you have any plan of going into producing just like your colleagues are doing now?
O yes! That’s it; you are on target. My wife and I have been working on these for a while now. We have a production company and we are soon going to start reeling out movies.
How do you relate with your fans?
It comes with the job; you don’t even know how but you find out that it just happens. Before you started acting, no one knew you; people didn’t even recognize you. But before you say Jackie Robinson, people are mobbing you where ever you go once you are known.
What is the craziest thing a female fan has done to you to date?
I was chilling in Abuja a while ago when this lady showed up at my door completely naked; I mean stark naked taking me completely off guard! I wasn’t at the door so I got someone to open the door. And then the guy was like huh! We were shocked out of our wits because our lady visitor was in her birthday suit; she was totally naked!
What is your assessment of Nollywood at 20?
Nollywood is growing and it is not going to take one day to get there. We are very far from where we started but it is also a far cry from what it should be. But I know that so far so good. In the next 10 years, we will be amazing! We will be competing with the biggest movie traditions in the world.
Asides acting, who is Yemi Black?
It looks like he is a father, a husband, a writer, a singer and a poet.
Wow! You mean you are all these? How do you create time for family?
It’s very hard and it could be quite challenging I must confess. Sometimes you have to be away for like 96 per cent of the time. However, what I do is that I try as much as possible to spend quality time with my family whenever I am around. It is not about how long you spend but it is about how well you spend that time; I am talking about quality time. I make sure that when I am home, I am really home.
How are you managing fame?
The thing with fame is that you eventually get used to it as time goes by. After a while you just realize that you don’t even notice it anymore; it kind of creeps up on you. When you start shooting movie, no one knows you but after a while, you go somewhere and one person out of a hundred get to say, ‘hey! You look familiar and you realise that people are beginning to take notice and before you know it, people are mobbing you where ever you show up! However, it comes with the job so I am not letting it get to my head.
Where you born with a silver spoon? Did you ever believe that you were going to be big?
I always knew that I was to going to be an entertainer and there was no way I was going to do anything but entertainment. When I was younger, everyone thought I was going to be a musician; I am talking about people who knew me from way back.
You sound like it has been a bed of roses all the way. What has been your most challenging experience?
While growing up there was a time things got bad for the family that all we had to eat was eba and okra soup. And when I mean okra soup, I mean just boiled okra so I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. We weren’t exactly very poor so we had our highs and lows. At a point it was really bad but we picked up. My parents were not the Dangotes or whatever of this world or anything like that but they could eke out a living and they gave us the very best; they are retired now though.
What is your advice for youths looking up to you?
What I will tell them is that if they want to come into acting, they should first of all make sure that they have talent, passion and the dedication to follow up. Once you have that, trust me, nothing can stop you.
Without formal training you have become so big in the industry. What makes a good actor?
It is the ability to study life and replicate it. You look around, you study a lot and then you replicate what you see and once you are good at that; acting becomes a piece of cake. Acting is pretending; you are pretending to be what you are not and who you are not.
When you watch your past movie, do you think there is a particular place you need to improve?
Yes, and it happens most times. I remember that when I started acting, I talked really fast and that was my natural self. But I realized that it was something I had to work on and I did and so, when I shoot these days, I make sure that my words are clearly stated so that everyone can hear me.
Details on sun
No comments:
Post a Comment