Actors Are Like Mirrors

Popular and award-winning fashion icon, Funmi Ajila-Ladipo has spread her tentacles to the motion picture industry, with her first role coming from a soap opera, The Valley Between. Surprisingly, the fair-skinned mother of one at the beginning of this year didn’t imagine herself being an actress, and as you read this, she is not just on the set of the soap opera, she also has a couple of scripts waiting for her already. With her good looks, fluent English and diction, Funmi will very likely go places with her newly found love —acting. NollywoodReel caught up with her on location and she bares her mind on certain issues.

Many of your followers as a fashionista will be surprised to see you cross over to acting?

Well, I will say Barrister Tunji Bamishigbin has made it very simple for me. Firstly, I got a lot of inspiration and encouragement from him. He never told me that I can’t do it. He saw something in me and believes I can do it. You see, that is how life is generally; there is always an untapped gold in everybody, but sometimes, you just need someone to stir it up, and that is what he did. My experience as an actress is not bad, may be because I’m an artiste, I was flowing with it.

Before now, did you envisage to go into acting?

I never thought I would. I have a lot of friends who are actors and actresses, but I never thought of being on the screen one day acting.

What kind of impression did you have about actors/actresses?

As an artiste, I don’t have to be biased. I see them as mirrors of the society. They show people why they should not be gullible through their movies. They teach and inform with their films, so I see them as models reflecting the society. For instance, under normal circumstances, you won’t see me in a herbalist’s place, but through the movies, you can know what the place looks like and the fact that people actually patronize them. We would actually be in the dark without the actors; that is the way I see it.

Now that you have made a debut as an actress, do we see you taking more roles?

Yes, I’m going to be working on other jobs. This is like an eye-opener for me and I’m glad because it will make me give something back to the society somehow.

What role did you play in The Valley Between?

I’m a lawyer, a woman married to Chief Oluma who is a politician. The character I play is Aisha.

What is the uniqueness of the production?

It is being produced by one of the best hands in the industry. Besides, everybody on the set knows what they are doing and they are professionals.

Generally, what are you working on now?

Well, I’m a fashion designer by profession, and whatever I do, I try my best to make sure things are done properly. In many productions, you will find out that clothes are not being worn properly. You could see a lady going to the herbalist wearing dangling ear ring or micro mini skirt. When people go to such places, I guess they cover their faces because they wouldn’t even want people know they are there.

What is your take on the craze for western styling of dressing, particularly the ladies going almost nude now?

I think they just need to be educated. Even in America, you don’t see people dress like that. There are different clothes for different occasions. On a normal day, you can’t wear what you are supposed to wear to a beach. You can’t dress like a call girl and expect people to address you responsibly. For me, you dress the way you want to be addressed, and I think a lot of people are getting it wrong. There is no value in indecency. When you throw something out, it doesn’t have value any longer, but when you cover it up, it has value. In those days, it is only mad people that dress like that. But now, it is even difficult to differentiate mad people from normal human beings, so I think they need to be educated.