14th October, 2021
By Nehru Odeh
Nollywood actress, Joke Silva has debunked the story making the rounds that her parents were initially against her taking acting as a career. According to the multiple award-winning actress, her parents were never opposed to her acting career. Rather they supported her and made sure she succeeded.
Silva, who celebrated her 60th birthday recently, made this disclosure in an exclusive interview with TheNEWS. According to her, her parents were never opposed to her career choice but were a bit scared about the life that awaited her as an actress, adding that they wanted her to take acting as a hobby and something more stable as a profession.
“I don’t know why people keep saying that. It wasn’t that they didn’t like it. I think they were just a bit scared. They were scared that the life of an actor is very hard, you know. It is. And so they just wanted me to have something else, something more stable, to fall back on when the acting was not sustaining one. But I was a bit headstrong. And they also realized that it was where my passion was,” she said.
Silva, one of the most successful actresses in Nigeria and who is married to legendary actor, Olu Jacobs, said her parents were supportive till the very end.
“And they were very supportive, right till the very end. My father always came to every single performance that I did in theatre until he fell ill. He came to everyone.
“And my mum was the same. She came to every show that I did. She died at the age of 89 and she saw a show of mine, let’s say about two, three months before she died. She supported me all those years.
“As I said, I’m 40 years an actor this year. Right from the early years, they supported me. I think they would have preferred me to have it as a hobby. But when I insisted that it was going to be it, they said okay,” Silva maintained.