16th August, 2013
Top bilingual Nollywood actor, Yemi Solade, who was one of the students of the literature icon and Nobel Prize winner, Wole Soyinka, spoke with KAYODE APONMADE on radicalism, career, failed marriages and other topical issues
You actually dumped your course in Law for Theatre Arts in the university. How difficult was this decision then?
I was just a teenager; I didn’t think much of it then. I just wanted to follow a dream. It was because of Wole Soyinka who is now an icon. I wanted knowledge from him. I was a year one law student, I accosted him and told him I wanted to be his student and the only way was to abandon law, which I did. He was Head of the Department. For me, I didn’t think much about it, but any parent will think it is youthful exuberance. I did what I had to do and no regrets about it whatsoever.
What was the reaction of your parents, didn’t they frown at your decision?
I was ostracized from the family. They said since I could decide that on my own, I should fend for myself. That was the corporal punishment I got.
So, you sponsored yourself through the university.
Not really. In reaction to what I did, a lot happened. It was stormy but I survived it.
It was so strange back then that somebody would abandon a supposedly lucrative and noble course, law, for dramatic art that was seen as a course for never do-wells.
What exactly did you love about Wole Soyinka that made you take that decision?
Wole Soyinka was just an ordinary writer and lecturer back then in the University of Ife. He had not become what he is today. He had not won a Nobel prize. He was just a H.O.D. Drama, but just because I love his writing and there was this thing about him that I got fascinated about. I just wanted to tap from his pool of knowledge. This was a man that had just got a Bachelor’s degree and became a professor as far back as 1965. As a genius, I like to associate with people like that. Not only Wole Soyinka, but he was the closest I could associate with then being a student. And we all know what he has turned to be today, probably I had seen ahead of time back then. I enjoy it now when people ask me who taught me drama and I mention Wole Soyinka.
You are now a popular actor, but if it is possible to turn back the hand of the clock, would you still want to become a lawyer or an actor?
I want to become an actor, if I have a second chance, I would still want to remain an actor if I have the chance to come back to this world the second time. But I would like to do well in terms of my take home packages.
I love what I do. I am a consummate actor; I am very passionate about what I do. Otherwise, I have options. I have degrees in other fields, apart from drama, I studied other courses. I have three Masters in three courses. I have Masters in International Relations, Public Administration and Sociology. So, I could just stay in the corporate world, but I am somebody who does not like regimented kind of work. I just love to do my things in my own way. I want to sleep when I want to, wake when I want to, just do my things without anybody harassing me and I don’t want to be subservient to anybody. I don’t want anybody giving me query, I don’t want to attend meeting when I am not supposed to, and you know that’s what you find in the corporate world. I will love to do acting all over again. It gives me pleasure; I like what it does to my soul. For the fact that I am talented with what I do makes it easier. It is second nature and the beauty of it especially is when someone is dynamic the way I am. As an actor, you imitate, you impersonate other people in acting; this makes acting very interesting. But like I said earlier, the issue of take home pay is worrisome, but despite this I would love to do it all over again.
Apart from take home packages, what are the other challenges you face as an actor?
Well, I will say my privacy is being infringed upon. By the time one gets to a certain stage in one’s career and becomes famous, one’s privacy becomes mortgaged. But I still manage in my own way to be myself, I still go into the buka to eat and if I feel like peeing by the roadside I come out of my car and pee, this is the social content you find in Nigeria. I am not one of those actors that will tell you they can’t buy roasted plantain again. For me, I don’t suffer such. I am just myself. The other challenge is the area boys and the touts who will tell you that they buy all your movies and therefore you need to “settle” them every time they see you around. That alone pisses me off because I am not a producer, I buy these movies too. But there is nothing we can do about this. We would have to co-exist.
Why have you not produced your own movie?
Well, I do it kind of, but I am not in this profession just for the love of money. I am around what I do to make a statement. By God’s grace I have been able to make little of this statement, by the little I have done so far. I have worked with the very best in the land. And without producing a film, I am still very relevant. You see, what people do is, acting is what attracts everybody and when they come, they later discover that they can’t hold their own in acting, they run to production because they are not getting it right acting-wise. Producing is a business angle to the field though, because they are bringing in money, investing and providing employment.
But the primary focus for me is to do my acting well. However, I am not shying away from producing. My mind is ready to produce now. I have my story in this home. But I want to come out and get it right. I don’t want to produce the way lots of people produce. For instance, where I major, Yoruba-English sector – I call it that because I don’t really do the core Yoruba movies like the one they do in the village, the core Yoruba traditional movies. What I do, I tell people, is the amulumala kind of (mixture of Yoruba and English languages); this is because in most of our movies, we put on English dresses, so, that’s cosmopolitan drama. And the language is high tech.
I look at it that I am doing well in acting, but in producing, it’s highly proliferated. There are no rules, no regulations; it has become all-comers affair. It makes people like me an endanger species; people say that I am too expensive, I can’t imagine, I can’t fathom that. Let’s relate it to music -you want to hire the service of Sunny Ade, you know why you are calling him to your event, you know he will give you the best; so don’t say he is too expensive. If you want the best you must be ready to pay for the best. How do you want me to understand with you that you don’t have much money when you are expecting the best from me? But that’s the thing about Yoruba cosmology; we are a lot liberal people. It’s rub my back I rub your back kind of, but this works for people that produce all the time. I don’t produce. If I do that for everybody all the time, when it is my turn to produce, am I going to bring everybody to my picture? I don’t think this is an ideal thing, but this is what is obtained, we can’t contest that for now. I tried to raise my voice many times that I ended up running into trouble with my colleagues, they said I am high-handed, but I would continue to speak up because I am a consummate artiste who knows what he is doing, a trained dramatist and this is my field. A lot of people are encroaching probably because they don’t have anything to do or because they want the popularity for the sake of it. But I am doing it because it is my calling. It is what I was trained to do.
If I had ended up being a lawyer, maybe I would have been like Femi Falana, because the radicalism in me won’t leave any field, even if I had been a doctor, maybe I would have ended up being like Beko Ransome-Kuti.
Yemi Solade is assumed to be arrogant, high-handed and snobbish. How exactly will you describe yourself?
I will describe myself as somebody who knows what he is doing; generally, I am very professionally minded. Anybody that says anything contrary to this does not know me.
Go and ask the producers I have worked with, any producer that I worked with and had problem with, maybe as a result of not being professional. For instance, on a set where I had to use wine as prop and you are bringing tea cup, I won’t use it. This is where I can be too high-handed, because they don’t know. I am a trained dramatist. Who does not understand the component of drama? Characterisation I know. This beard a producer asked me to groom it for him. I will do it for Kunle Afolayan because he knows this job, I will do it for Tade Ogidan, I will do it for Tunde Kelani. But I won’t do it for some producers because they are not professional. I am a professional actor; I don’t care about what they say about me. I am not apologetic about it. I am who I am. But what is instructive about this is how do people see my act? If I am known as an actor who doesn’t act well, let them leave the other side and that’s the radical part of me. I don’t think I have received money from a producer without honouring our agreement. I would do your job, if I have problem there I would complain, but I would do your job as a professional. Anyway, this doesn’t bother me because you can’t just satisfy people.
People don’t just want to study my person and say he is principled because he knows what he is doing. I will speak up until we do it right, those who are criticising my radicalism where are they today? They are nowhere to be found in the industry. My speak-up serves as checks and balances in the industry -these are what Wole Soyinka taught us in school.
You see, nobody is an island of knowledge. People do correct me when I make mistakes on set and I accept. But many people don’t see it that way; they will ask if you are the only one who went to the university. But I don’t care. Let my work speak for me. I can’t go into oblivion, I am a thorough bred actor; I have no regret for my outburst. I have my shortcomings though, and I am working to improve on all that. But nobody can tell me not to open my mouth because I am an authority in what I do. I am a certified artiste.
Last year, you contested for the post of the president of Association of Nigeria Theatre Arts Practitioners (ANTP) but you later backed out. Why did you take that decision despite the fact that you were among the favourites?
I sat down three years ago and I was wondering about this ANTP thing. I felt the way it was being run was bad. I also realised that I didn’t participate in the running of the association and lots of policies coming out of ANTP were affecting me directly, and this is one of the problems I was having with those running the association. Also, anytime I complained, they will tell me to come over so that we run it together. They will say ‘don’t just stay out there and complain to the media.’ So when Jide Kosoko replaced Bayo Salami and said well, that was an improvement in terms of power of articulation. I thought he would be more articulate than Bayo Salami going by what we celebrate in Nigeria; the art of English speaking, it is the person that speaks English language that people celebrate in Nigeria. So, I thought that when Jide Kosoko was leaving, who will replace this man? And I talked to myself that I can be of a good replacement, then move ANTP forward to the corporate world and that was the impetus, the driving force and I told Jide Kosoko himself and he was the first man to oppose it. He told me bluntly that it wasn’t my turn.
Fine, I went out talking, I started talking to the press about my ambition, what I should do, my cardinal programmes, my objectives and all of that concerning the election. But before the election came we had the gladiators who always draw daggers, every time elections came up, we have Ashaolu, we have Dele Odule, they have become the traditional candidates, year in year out and I said why should this be.
But later, some elders like Jimoh Aliu and Lere Paimo called me and appealed to me to step down so it would be narrowed down to Ashaolu and Dele Odule and I looked at them in their 70s and said okay, if that is what you want. And they told me that they still want me in that administration. Jide Kosoko said a similar thing too, and I said well, I am dynamic, I wasn’t rigid about it. If people like that talked to me that way, I wouldn’t want to have a head on-collision with them.
Were you afraid of them or what?
Afraid? The worst that would have happened was to go to the election and lose. Why should I be afraid of anybody?
Maybe you were afraid of their power and influence.
What type of power do they have? They don’t have any power. Do they have more power than I have? I have more power because I can talk better and the whole world would listen. I later settled for another office which I even discovered that I would enjoy it better than the presidency. I thought that what ANTP lacks now is proper articulation and representation. ANTP needs an erudite spokesperson. I thought that if any of these old men become the president and I become the spokesperson, people would reckon with me better. So, I settled for the post of the National Publicity Secretary and the election up till now has no head way. Ashaolu went to Ilorin for election; I was in my sitting room when they called me that I have been voted as the National Publicity Secretary. So, I should be parading myself as the national publicity secretary of the association.
But because of the crisis that’s still lingering, I decided to chill out. I don’t want to be part of anybody’s crises because I didn’t create it and I should not celebrate it. So that is it.
My first home video was Oju Inu which was a Yoruba movie, and interestingly, I was trained to act on stage with the likes of Wole Soyinka, Osofisan, Ola Rotimi and their plays are written in English language.
You are a member of ANTP, NANTAP and AGN, and you actually started with English plays. Why did you dump the genre to associate with Yoruba movie sector?
Yoruba actor, and an English actor, I don’t understand that concept. I knock it off. Regardless of what film you do, an actor is an actor. I don’t know where the issue of language becomes a barrier and demarcation. I tell people that we don’t shoot English movies in Nigeria, but either Igbo-English, Niger-Delta English or Yoruba- English or Hausa-English movies, because what you call English movies you see one section of the region and this is reflective in the drama. So when people tell me they don’t see me in English movies, I tell them, maybe when Sean Connery calls me or Nicholas Cage or Brad Pitt call me I would appear in English movies. But here we shoot Nigerian movies. So, let’s stop fooling ourselves. I will not accept when you call RMD an English actor, he is a Delta actor, Olu Jacobs is a Yoruba actor, KOK is an Ibo actor.
Before you got married to your current wife, you’ve already experienced two failed marriages. What were the experiences like and why did you choose to get married the third time?
You see, when certain things are not meant to be, there is no amount of work you put into that will work. I was finding my bearing, I wasn’t stable. It was a lot difficult to run a home. But at the appointed time, I am speaking spiritually now, when God said, you are looking for a wife and you, you need a husband, okay, I give you this person and that was God who did it for me and that is why it is working.
When I met her, it was her beauty that attracted me to her, I like every good thing of life, my wife is beautiful, I said half caste, but I was afraid to talk to her because I don’t have that kind of money she may want, but when I summoned the courage to approach her, she shocked me with her simplicity and humility and we became friends and later got married.
A handsome man like you is presumed a ladies’ man, what were your experiences with female admirers back then in your school days and now?
Back then in school, I used to travel out of school with girls, I remember when I was in part one in the university, my father brought police to arrest a lady I was staying in her house. I started having girlfriend at the age of 13; older girls had taught me something about sex as young as I was then.
I just received a phone call on your behalf from a girl who is trying to date you. Is this what you encounter all the time and how do you manage it?
I enjoy it, you see when they call and tell me they like me I enjoy it, and I try to be civil with it because I know they like what I do and admire me, that is why they call me to tell me this. That person that calls might be somebody who may be useful in other areas, apart from sleeping with each other. I try to be calm and be civil, but when I realise this person is going too far. I will cut off the conversation.