Simplicity is what make you stay away from trouble-Kehinde Bankole

When it comes to top-notch acting and bringing a character to life, Kehinde Bankole knows her onions. The former Miss Lux who also had a stint in modeling has starred in countless soap operas, movies amongst others. With her acting prowess, Kenny as she is sometimes called has equally won laurels for a job well done. In this chat with MUTIAT ALLI, Kehinde spoke takes about how it all started, keeping off scandals, dream roles, what attracts her to a script amongst others.

 A lot of your female counterparts has delved into movie production/directing amongst others; does Kehinde also have that in the works?

There is a possibility but not immediately now I can’t tell if it a yes or no and can’t tell if it is now… I mean anything is possible so long is your evolving and you are growing and it making you more money so long you are doing so many great things everybody wants an elevation everybody wants to go to the next level.

What keeps the Kehinde brand going?

My faith, believe in God, my believe in life, my respect and understanding of time. There is no time to be wasted you have to respect the fact that time is time, is not going to wait for you or change things because of you it will only bring you opportunities, you’ll have your time when is your time, just use it and that drives me a lot.

Do you still have dream roles?

I have many dream roles, and I haven’t even started with so many of them, I still want to play a drug addict, I want to play the serial killer, I want to play the physically active woman who has action, there is so much I want to do, I have just started, am very eager.

In the course of you going into theatre, were your parents in support?

Yes, because I started through the church drama, they use to see it like am spending so much time, there is church service, there is choir rehearsal, drama rehearsal, they were interested in me doing acting but they didn’t want it to take too much of my time because they were concerned for other things, WAEC exam was coming then, jamb and other things, they were really concerned, but once I got into the university and they saw that I have crossed that hurdle, the rest was easy for them and they accepted.

You have a twin sister, people get to wonder why we don’t get to see her too in movies, is it that she is not showing interest or you are not carrying her along?

She is not an actress, she is an event planner, she started out acting before me, as her career grew she made decisions to focus on her event planning business, but that is not to say if she wants to come back she won’t.

Which will you consider more challenging, being a stage performer or a normal actress?

Both of them are challenging, stage is very disciplined, very challenging because you don’t have a second take, there is no rewind and let me take it again and so, what you give at that time is what the people are going to get, it is important you make your decision for stage like in fraction of a second, you have to decide how you want to deliver that role within a fraction of a second, and once it’s done you can’t take it back, it helps you to focus, people think acting a movie is simple but it is not, it is also equally challenging, the opportunity you have to act a stage play once is not like that of a film, you might have to re-do like 30 times, think about rewinding a particular emotion, the stress of having to put yourself on the same level of that emotion for about 30 times, especially if there is a crowd in a scene and you have to re-do a scene plenty times and have to sustain the same level of energy, if you have to remember something bad that made you be in the mood, you have to remember that over and over if you are ask to act the scene over again, so it is equally challenging if not even more, it’s a lot of hard work.

What do you look out for in a script before you consider the script worthy?

The direction the story is going, there are some stories you will see and you will understand what they are saying but you don’t understand the direction it’s going, that is what I look out for, I want a good story, apart from the story being good I should be able to understand the direction, there is a theme, a message the story is trying to pass, whatever happens to me the first time I open a script will be happening to the people watching at home, we serve as the bridge between the people at home watching the movie and the person writing the story.

How have you been able to keep off scandals?

I keep things simple, simplicity is what make you stay away from trouble, when you keep everything simple it makes whatever comes back at you simple

Take acting from Kehinde who is Kehinde Bankole in real life?

I joke a lot, I like to laugh, when am in the mood we crack jokes and laugh and also have a good time, I love to cook, I love spending time with family, loved ones and friends, I like to make people happy, and I can be very strict.