Don't Tag Me a Yoruba Actor – Yemi Solade

He is a distinguished thespian who needs little or no introduction. With almost four decades in the movie industry, Yemi Solade speaks as an authority. In this interview, he opens up on a myriad of issues ranging from his thoughts on politicians using his colleagues as instruments of campaign, his dislike for being stereo typed, why he has never been attempted to vie for elective office and other interesting revelations.

How have you been able to maintain this youthful appearance and your fitness level despite your schedule?
I think I’m lucky to have this kind of frame and to be physically and mentally fit as well.  I grew up being these. Although I don’t do much again these days in terms of physical fitness, I however mind what I eat, drink and only take what’s good for my body. I don’t indulge unnecessarily. I have always taken my life very seriously. I take very good care of my skin. Once I’m not on location or doing anything professionally, I’m always indoors and that saves me a lot of stress. You don’t find me on every red carpet because I select the events I attend, and that helps me keep healthy. It’s also hereditary. Looking young runs in my family. I come from a family where people don’t look their age, and generally, I just feel I’m lucky and blessed because remaining young, even though I am 55 years old, recently landed me an acting role. I don’t fall sick too, because I practice preventive medication.  I had to quit certain things like smoking about 15years ago and now I take little alcohol. I also have peace of mind in my home. I am married to one woman who understands me inwardly and outwardly and will not give me unnecessary pressure. I don’t run a large family as I am comfortable with what I have. I am also one person with an orientation to always look my best everyday no matter what I am putting on. I can call myself a fashionista in the sense that I design what I wear.

Are you planning to have a clothing line or do you already have one?
May be in the nearest future I may decide to have one because I have my name embedded on some of my clothing items. I give my local tailors the designs I want and they just sew it. The real truth is that I know how to combine colours and different clothing items

You said looking the way you look now, landed you an acting role recently. Would you mind sharing what the project is all about?
First let me say that I always like to keep a beard because of the mature look it gives but I decided in 2015, to wear a new look . I recently went for a reading without my beards and shortly after, I got a call from this production outfit, Ebony life Television and as soon as I stepped into their conference hall, they were like ‘Yes! This is the face of Revered Oluwatobi.’ I have since gone for several photo shoots as Rev. Oluwatobi.

You are hardly ever seen featuring in Yoruba movies these days. Would it be right to say you have deliberately reduced your appearance in the Yoruba movie sector?
Even the world knows that I have. In the last  seven years, I have minded the frequency with which I work with the Yoruba movie practitioners. I have my reasons. I discovered that a lot was going wrong in the area of boosting the image of practitioners in that sector.  Besides, I just wanted to let the world know that I am not solely about Yoruba movies, I am a professionally trained dramatist from the University of Ife. I refused to  join any group to be under any boss for apprenticeship. I have a degree which I did not acquire by being taught  in Yoruba language.  I am always embarrassed and sometimes, speechless when movie producers walk up to me and ask if I can act in English films.  I expect any movie producer to have done his home work properly; Google me or ask around, before trying to engage me. I let my work speak for me. I don’t attend all ceremonies like others do or run around politicians like house-flies. All I want is to do good, act, go home and relax then wait for the work to come out and for people to enjoy it. So yes, I act more in Soaps.

Considering your level of strictness and professionalism, do the Yoruba scripts even come at all?
Yes the scripts come but when I say come, it doesn’t come in standard formats, they come like what I can’t explain to you. Don’t even let me go there at all. Even what they consider a script, to an average producer of a Yoruba movie, it’s crazy. They just write some lines and expect you to improvise. Although some producers are trying to change all of that by writing good scripts, using dialogue, scene descriptions, but the percentage of such producers is still minimal, so what we still have is producers expecting actors to improvise. One annoying aspect of some Yoruba movie producers is that they can go as far as wanting to telling you the story lines via telephone conversation and what I do to such set of people is to disengage their calls. I want to be arrogant to people like that, who do not want the industry to progress. Somebody like Tunde Kelani, Tade Ogidan, Kunle Afolayan won’t tell me I am arrogant because they have also set their own standard. I am the police of the industry, I police them. They don’t understand it and they are quick to conclude that I am arrogant. You tell me to take red wine for a scene and you are coming with a tea cup to use and you expect me to shoot that scene? I will tell you to go away and get me a goblet. Do they even understand what a goblet is in the first place? And they think they are producing. What is their level of education and exposure? They don’t even know how to use or place the simplest cutlery.

As a veteran in the industry, when do we get to see you produce your own movie?
I have actually done one and for two years now, I left it languishing in the studio. I am not the regular movie producer, I take things one at a time. Like I said, I shot the movie in March, 2013 and I hope to complete it this year. I titled it then, Bi Ogiri O Lanu but it’s not going to come out with that name again as some producers have already used that title but that is not a problem as I can always get a new title. The funniest thing is that I did not even feature in the movie. I am not part of those set of people who will write, direct, produce and even act in their movie because they want to force their popularity on people. When I am done with the other things delaying the productions, I intend to premiere it, and do business with it because I intend to recoup my money. I’m taking my time as a producer. I do less acting these days because I select the films I do and works that I feature in now. If it’s not going to be worth my while professionally, I don’t think I want to be part of it, regardless of the financial rewards. I’m a career actor and I can’t just be found doing anything and everything.

What is your take on the much touted Nollywood and Hollywood collaboration?
I think it’s healthy and should be encouraged. It is a platform to project the Nigeria film industry on the globe. If for instance, I run into an Eddy Murphy and we speak and along the line, we become friends and a film project keys in, so be it. Next, there will be headlines like ‘Yemi Solade and Eddy Murphy stars in new flick’. It is also good for our credibility because the actors abroad are better known than us here in Nigeria, so collaborations with them is on good side for me.

We’ve seen a lot of entertainers publicly campaigning for political parties/candidates across the country recently. What’s your take on this?
I don’t have any problem with anybody doing anything he or she likes. There’s freedom of association and freedom of speech. This is why we live in a free society, but one should live within the confines of the law. I don’t see anything wrong in what my colleagues are doing, but I may not join them in doing same because I mind what I do. Those things don’t really matter to me. I would rather we come together as a set of people who form and shape opinions in the society, and encourage one another to serve this society beyond just showcasing our talents and entertaining the public. Some of us are well rounded and suitable for such positions too. Some of us can be governors, senators, ministers, and commissioners too. So I don’t see any big deal in what they are doing. I just think that some of us don’t really appreciate who we are, and we limit our potentials and what we can do. If we can produce an RMD who is a commissioner in Delta State, then that shows that this industry can still produce many more RMDs. But, I think the activities of my colleagues boil down to the ‘X’ factor: Money. Some of us just don’t know where to stand and are undisciplined when it comes to money. Some of us don’t think very wisely when we do all these things. I won’t dance behind any politician because I don’t have any reason to. I can work with a politician, but I will not dance around any of them because I’m even better known and I think I stand a better chance of affecting the people because what we do transcends every strata of the society. We are not caged or confined to any organization within any religious or ethnic affiliation. We’re generally for the people. So, I don’t think I want to segregate myself by pitching my tent somewhere and getting stigmatized. When these same characters that we’re jumping around get into office, you won’t have access to them anymore. Politics is not a job, it’s just a way of life. It isn’t a career. How many of those that studied Political Science in school are in government now? Anybody can be a politician, so I guess it’s just their own way of coming out to have their share of the ‘national cake.’

A Federal High Court in Lagos recently annulled the election that ushered in Ibinabo Fiberesima as AGN president. What’s your feeling on this as a stakeholder in the industry?
I don’t think it’s a good omen for the overall picture that we are trying to create. There are too many splinter groups within the fold and the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) is just one of them. It would interest you to know that AGN does not have that kind of geographical spread. If you look at the structure, you will notice that AGN is populated by a sect of actors. First of all, I’m a Nigerian before being a Yoruba man, and I am an actor of international repute. I ply my trade all over the world. You journalists have tagged us; ‘Yoruba actors’, ‘English actors’. But I have not seen any English actor among us all. It’s either you’re a Yoruba actor, or you’re an Igbo actor, or a Warri actor. RMD is a Warri actor. When you tell me he’s an English actor, then I have a problem with that. He went to a University and studied the same course as I did. He was in Uniben while I was in Ife. We’re both graduates of the same profession, and I did not learn Dramatic Arts in Ife under Wole Soyinka in Yoruba language. But, I’m a Yoruba man. I don’t know where that definition of actor is coming from. I am an advocate of that re-orientation of the nomenclature that has been tagged us. We’re all Nigerian actors but some of us ply our trade in indigenous languages; Ibo, Efik, Yoruba, Hausa, and we still do it in the official language as well which is English. So, I’m not going to subscribe to that school of thought that calls me a Yoruba actor and calls Olu Jacobs an English actor. I think there’s something fundamentally faulty in the journalistic definition and that needs to be checked. Now, the AGN is populated by the ‘Igbo-English’ and ‘Delta- English’ actors, and it’s not hidden. You’ll get to understand this better when you even tune into your cable TV and you’ll see different channels offering movies in different languages. I have never been too happy or favorably disposed to the happenings in the AGN. I am a dormant member of the Guild, and I was not trained to be tribalistic. I’ve played different roles in my life as an actor for close to four decades. I’ve played the role of an Igbo man and a Benin man successfully and so convincingly that even the owners of the culture and languages were impressed. I’ve played a Ghanaian in a movie too and it was well loved by Ghanaians. An actor is not supposed to be confined to any religious, ethnic or cultural norms. But since the advent of ‘Nollywood’, the practitioners decided to classify themselves and now we have so many associations; Theatre Arts and Movie Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN), Association of Nigeria Theatre Arts Practitioners (ANTP), AGN and others. Given all of this though, AGN is just a guild, it’s not a mother-body. It’s just a collection of specialists in the field of movie making, and not a body of general practitioners. So, it’s just an arm of the body. We have bodies that cover the entire hemisphere. TAMPAN, for instance, covers everything. You can find actors, producers, writers, directors, technicians, costumiers, and make-up artists, all in one body. So AGN,  Actors Guild of Nigeria, I don’t know if it’s of Nigeria because it does not cover everywhere.

You are currently the ambassador of the Nigerian Entertainment Health Insurance Scheme (NEHIS) but it is a known fact that Yoruba movie entertainers put up a nonchalant attitude towards their health.  How do you intend to propagate the benefits of keying into this laudable initiative in your capacity as the scheme’s ambassador?
I actually started last year to sensitize my colleagues. I have invited the scheme organizers to the national meeting of TAMPAN,  in September, some six months ago while I was the pioneer head of the association but now Dele Odule has taken over as the president. I just hope that he will continue from where I stopped. On my own part, I am not stopping. I just collected some of the health scheme forms which I will distribute to the state chapters. I think people should stop their traditional beliefs on health issues. I am pained when I see some actors taking a shot of concoctions, praga, to be specific, on location, some in funny colors and only God knows what must have been mixed together to come up with the mixture. I am not cut out for all this traditional things they indulge in. I am a typical Yoruba Man, I dress the Yoruba way and I cherish my culture as I always project that anywhere I go; so who will say he is more Yoruba than I am. But when it comes to my health, I don’t joke with it. I will not subscribe to taking a shot of some concoction that has no dosage or guide on how it should be ingested. I have never seen any orthodox medicine that is alcohol based. If you want to take gin then go for it but don’t tell me that if you add this and this together, then you will have this concoction and when you take it, you will be okay, one time. Ordinarily when you take alcohol you get high, then when you have malaria and you take gin with some sticks of whatever thing they put in the mixture, what then becomes the outcome of the illness you are trying to cure?

But some of your colleagues take the local herbs as an aphrodisiac.
Taking local herbs as a form of aphrodisiac is a different thing, but for me I can’t use it, it won’t work for me because I know the aphrodisiac that will work. There is Viagra, I can control it because there is a guide on how it is taken. I won’t take local herbs because you never know where they may have cut the stick from, may be from the cemetery and they put it in one pot and just add schnapps. Ordinarily it may work for them but I am so sure it will never work for me.

How do you unwind when you are not on location?
I exercise and try to relax a lot. One thing people don’t know about me is that I dance Shoki a lot because I move along with what is applicable with the trends. I dance to other legendry music like songs from Sunny Ade and a host of others. I use all the slangs available and I have all the fun I want.