I married late because I was married to my work – Olu Jacobs

Olu Jacobs, no doubt, is an actor par excellence. He is a very strong voice in Nollywood and has quite a number of successful and up-coming players in the movie industry, adopting him as their role model.  He spoke with FUNMI SALOME-JOHNSON who met him at a location recently, on various issues including the crisis in the Actors Guild of Nigeria, his marriage and the recent spate of kidnapping of artistes.  Excerpts:

You have been playing quite a number of very mean roles in recent times. Why is that so?
I am an actor and I have to depict life and I try to do what ever it is that the character is supposed to do so that the play can carry the desired message.  This is because each play has a message or messages.  The ability to play different characters is what makes one an actor and it is always good to be versatile and I try to do that.  Whether it is successful or not is now in the hand of the public to decide.

Does this issue of kidnap not sometimes scare you?
Let us just hope that it is a mistake that will be corrected some day soon because I don’t know why anybody would want to kidnap us.  We are doing our job and heaven knows that we are not paid anywhere near enough and yet we are still doing it.  In movies, we play parts that portray us to be rich but that is not how we are in real life, they get the real life and fiction mixed up; that is the mistake most people make.  Apart from that, it is unnecessary but we just hope that this trend of kidnapping will just cease. It is sad because a lot of them are young people who are looking for work and I think it is most unfortunate that things have gone so bad  because a house that may take three months to build can be destroyed in one minute.  All the mistakes of our previous governments in over thirty years cannot be rectified within a couple of years, it takes a lot of time.  I think we should just try and see what the government is trying to do because everything is now being aimed for the young because the young is our tomorrow.   Our leaders have been wrong and they know it.  They are trying to rectify things hence all of us are in pains; we are older and we have seen some good times but the young ones are just coming up and they are anxious.  I will just appeal to them to have a little bit of patience.  I honestly believe that the prospect is good.

Would you say there have been changes in the movie industry?
There have been changes but the changes are slow.  As of now, I don’t think that the government has invested one kobo in our business as far as I can see; everything that we have achieved so far, we have achieved on our own.  We are now at the point where the government is reacting to a Wold Bank research that says that there is a lot of money in our business. Before the bank research, they did not have money to give us, they did not want to give us money.  If we wanted ten million, we have to get a surety of over fifty million, only to find out that they have been giving some billions to people with little or no security.  It is most unfortunate, it is very, very sad but I can tell you that we will succeed in spite of them, whether they like it or not.   If they do not want to be a part of us, we will leave them behind.  How we are going to do it, we don’t know yet but then nobody knew how we started in the first place.  I know this industry will grow and by the grace of God, while people like me are still alive, we shall continue to fight the good fight; we won’t take no for an answer; never.

What is your own view on the ongoing crisis in the Actors Guild of Nigeria?
It is a product of the society we live in.  Wherever there is money, however small, or there is the possibility of money, we will always find some people disagreeing amongst themselves.  It is a natural thing.  This happens sometimes out of suspicion and sometimes may be for some facts that have come to light but we will continue until we make sure that the law is obeyed.  If we have a constitution and it says it is two years, then after that two years whoever wants to run again, will stand for election and if it is only one term, then it is only one term.  It gets very messy but you will find that gradually these things will be sorted out.  A lot of people, even members, they do not understand the implications of what they are doing sometimes but as we begin to talk amongst ourselves, we try as much as possible to inform ourselves about what is happening; what they are doing or remind us about the effects of what they are doing and gradually people are coming together.  It will be resolved, that I am very sure of because even in England, we have a lot of such problems in the artistes union.  Once the industry begins to get more buoyant and there is more money for everybody, then you will find that all these problems will ease off gradually.

How is Lufodo Academy?
The academy is doing fine.  Sometimes late last year, it graduated its first batch of students, we thank God. A new batch is expected to resume this months andsse have people been with the academy?
I am quite encouraged with the attendants and more especially, the graduation was very well attended.  It was such a wonderful event and very successful. It is something that is needed, people need to know that serious minded people that are professionals are handling it and they too will have confidence that we could teach them all they need to know and build themselves within the industry. We are also telling them that they should not think that everybody has to be an actor; you don’t have to be an actor.  You can be a director; you can be a designer; you can be a lighting man; a sound man; costume person.  They are all part of the same business; we are all telling the story together.  A lot of people don’t know what they want, they just want to belong to the industry and the most visible is the actor because he is the one in front of the camera.  Meanwhile, there are so many people behind the camera who are equally very important.  But not until they come and see, they don’t realise.

If you were given an appointment to serve as a Commissioner for Arts and Culture in your state, would you take it?
I will feel most honoured but I think may be at my age now, I would rather go for advisory position instead of being at the frontline.  It is quite hectic being the one commissioning.  I am not going to pretend that it is anything else than hectic.  Unless you are close to them, you may not see how difficult it is to be there.  So, I will rather opt for an advisory position.  If such offer had been ten years ago, of course I would be delighted to opt for it but at my present age, I would rather serve in the advisory position.

Looking back over the years are there things you would have done differently if it is possible to turn back the hands of the clock?
May be late marriage.  I married late because I was married to my work.  May be if I had not travelled out of the country, I would have married earlier because when I left, I said I was not going to marry a non-Nigerian and I was not going to marry a Nigerian made abroad because there is a mentality problem that I vowed I would not allow happen to me.

Would you have married someone who was not an artiste like you?
Yes, I could have if I had not met my wife.  What had never happened to me before happened to me when I met her and I thank God for our lives together.

Source: Compass Newspaper