Okechukwu Ukeje is an award-winning
critically and commercially acclaimed actor.
His star has shone further brightly recently
and he is on course to becoming one of the
country’s greatest actors. He however tells
ENTERVAGANZA that he also has a huge interest in music as well as fashion and TV
production aspirations. Why did you go into acting? The interesting thing is that I stumbled on
the arts. I watch movies a lot and when
watching them, I am convinced I can do the
things the actors in them do. But it is one
thing to know that one can act, and another
to have the opportunity to do so. Acting on stage for the first five years
helped me a lot because it was a learning
platform for me. In addition to that, when I
felt it was necessary to acquire additional
skills, I embarked on an eight-week
workshop at the New York film Academy, in Los Angeles. I spent quite some money; it
cost over $10,000 including fees,
accommodation and other bills. You became an household name when you
won the Amstel Malta Box Office acting
talent hunt show. Do you think you would
have been this successful in acting if you
didn’t win AMBO? That is a question I have asked myself
before and I’d be honest with you, I don’t
know. The reason I say that is because of
the way the industry is here in Nigeria. I
know that winning AMBO did a lot for me
and I thank God. Maybe without it, I may still have been scratching the surface. It could
have been anything, but let’s just say that
I’m grateful that it happened. After winning AMBO, was it tough trying to
prove to movie producers and directors that
you could fit well into the industry? I have to be honest, it was really, really
tough. Reality TV shows are good concepts
here in Nigeria but I think the part the
organisers have to work on is how they
incorporate whoever wins into the industry
at large. We just win and we think that, yes, the world is going to bow at our feet but
then we realise that it really doesn’t work
that way. Not everyone who has won a reality TV show
has lived up to the expectations of people
who watched them during the competition.
What do you think is responsible for this? I guess that for some people, when they
were getting into reality shows, they did not
have the bigger picture in mind. But I did. I
have a very unique and specific design for
my life. I guess for some other people, it
was just about fame. And for some, persevering and determining to break
through was not for them. And then for
some, it was just a flash in the pan. Trust
me, I would not knock down anyone who has
attempted because Nigeria is difficult as it
is. What do you do apart from acting? I host social and corporate events. By
extension, I’m very interested in TV
broadcast. I really hope to be able to float
my own TV shows in the near future, and
these are shows that I’ve started designing
with partners. I have a large interest for hospitality business and a line of T-shirts
designed by me. And, of course, I have a
huge interest in music. So it’s true that you used to be a
performing musician? I joined a music team in the university. I was
also the only singing member of a rap group
and we used to go to churches, get invited
to gigs and stuff like that. Most of the
people who went to University of Lagos with
me still ask about my music. What I’m doing now is concentrating on my acting and from
that, I’ll open up a market for my music. You won the best actor category at the
Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards earlier
this year. Was it a big deal for you? The last award I won was in 2010, and that
was City People’s. But there is a difference.
This comes from the work I have done. It is
interesting because, even though I have
done about 13 movies, there are about just
three or four in circulation. For me to win an award for the few that I have done, when
people would expect that I should have shot
more than 50 movies before I would be
qualified is a good signal. Which actor or actress do you admire most? I admire Aunty Joke (Silva) most. I
remember during my first flick, we had
different interpretations for the character I
was supposed to be playing, and we were
looking for the best. When we were driving
from Abuja to Nasarawa, she picked up her phone to call a doctor friend of hers, and
she was on the phone for 30 minutes, doing
research for my own character. That was
simply amazing.
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