Why women send nude photographs to me – O.C Ukeje

How did you get the viewers to vote for you in Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award, AMVCA where you won the Best Actor-Drama for the movie Two Brides and a baby?

I can’t tell you that I did some work. I only sent a broadcast from my blackberry and that was three days to the end of the voting, I also had a couple of friends who campaigned for me, and I also voted for myself.

Were you surprised you won?

Yes, I was surprised, but I also knew that I have a bit of goodwill with people, and have built a strong relationship with people across the entertainment industry, and even with people who are not really close to me both in the industry and outside.

You studied Marine Science and surprisingly you are doing well as an actor

The interesting thing is that I feel like I stumbled into it. The point is that I’ve watched a lot of movies, and when you see these things, you have a feeling that you can do it, and another thing is to utilize the opportunity that comes your way. Doing stage performances for 4-5 years, I learnt a lot, and I had formal training with people that have been in the industry which helped me to prepare myself for the screen. But it got to a point when I felt I should go for formal training, and I did an eight weeks workshop at a movie academy in Los Angeles.

How did you get into the academy, were you sponsored?

No. I raised the money myself because they gave me a provisional admission. It was over $10,000 because you pay your tuition and accommodation fees as well as other sundry bills. It costs quite some money.

Most challenging role 

I think it was White Waters because it was my first movie, I have only been doing stage plays before that. I am glad it came out well.

You’ve abandoned Marine Science

No! The plan is to invest in fish farming because there is need for one to diversify, it’s very important.

In real life, how would you handle the situation you found yourself in the movie Two brides and a baby?

In real life, if you hide anything, somehow it’s going to come out, but I think that Bankole Badmus’ character was dodgy, and I cannot do that in real life. I will level up things with my fiancé and let her know that I had something with another girl before her so as not to be envious if she sees her on the road being nice to me.

Experience on stage

It’s probably the best experience and it prepared me for what I am now. It also made me a disciplined actor because I realized that as far as stage is concerned, some level of discipline is required. 

When you work with some people on set and you see their nonchalant attitude, you ask, is this the way this works? 

However for me, the stage experience has helped me to handle my work effectively, and have a focus on the way I want my work to be.

Let’s look at movies you’ve been in. Which movie will you say you enjoyed so much being part of?

I have been in about 13 movies: White Waters, Comrades, The Visitors, Sara’s Choice, Two Brides and Baby, Hoodrush,  The Awakening, Half of the Yellow Sun, Gone Too Far, Black November, Confusion na wa, Alanposer and others.  I have done about 13 movies from 2006 till date. All of them have their unique experiences, I worked with Joke Silva and Rita Dominic in White Waters and I was really scared to work with Rita Dominic because before the first day of shooting, I didn’t know who it was, and then I saw Rita Dominic, and it was like, ‘oh my God, the diva is here’, but she really made it easy for me. For Joke Silva, I had already worked on a stage play with her before then, and so we had a bit of a relationship.  I worked with Ramsey Noah on set of Confusion na wa, though we didn’t appear on same scenes directly, but I had met him before then, so he already knew who I was and it was easy for us to adapt. For Stella Damasus on Two Brides and Baby, I did a stage play with her in 2004, so we already had a working relationship, it was therefore, not really difficult. Bimbo Akintola is amazing because the woman is good at her work, the standard she sets for you; you really have to meet up. All of them have their unique experiences on me and I cherish them. I have worked with Chiwetalu Ejiofor, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Sarah Wayne-Callies and Hakeem Kae-Kazim among others.

You didn’t lose your balance the first time you knew you were going to act alongside Rita Dominic

I lost my balance; you know how these things happen when you see these A-list female actors, and you hear all these things about them because the night before we hit set, I hadn’t known the person. I knew there were talks about Genevieve Nnaji and Dakore Egbuson, those were the people they were talking about initially, but nobody talked about the person they picked before first day of the shoot. When they called us together and I didn’t see any of these people, I thought we were going to shoot the movie without  the female character and the next thing, Rita pops up, and I was like, ‘oh my God’.  It’s such a thing that makes you think what you are going to do.

Did you know they were going to give you the lead role in the movie White Waters?

That’s the arrangement especially for AMBO winners; once you win you start with a movie, and the movie was from Amstel Malta.  They usually select the story that revolves around the lead actor because there are a couple of stories pitched to Amstel Malta, but they have to pick the one that works best for their winner.

You are humble, how did your upbringing contribute to this?

I think my mother raised me well, and the things I have been through in life also helped me realized that there are important things in life, and you have to place priority on those things. You see, everyone is important in some level, and so you can’t look down on anybody because we’ve seen people who were somebody before, but after a while, they were nobody, and somebody who was nobody suddenly becomes somebody. So, in life I have learnt not to take anybody for granted.

 I know there are lot of demands from ladies, how do you handle them?

It’s part of the occupational hazard and I am the kind of person who thinks about the energy that women take from you; I think it requires a certain level of discipline to get to a level and stay there. My personal opinion is that women draw your strength; they take a lot from you especially when you are doing this kind of business. When you have a lot of women throwing themselves at you, it’s easy for you to lose focus, balance and your creativity, and those are important to me because those are the things that got me to where I am  today; you can’t be giving all your powers to women. It’s killing.

Any particular experience

Yes, there have been some nasty experiences’ they send you nude pictures.

To your Phone?

Yes! Completely nude pictures and some nasty text messages, and for me, it’s not a big deal because I have been dealing with this for many years. They call you saying all sorts of things, but when they begin to send their nude pictures to you, they are taking it to different level.

Why do you think some of your colleagues can’t really prove themselves, acting wise? Is it because they don’t have that basic training from stage or because they just want to act at all cost?

Well, if you look at even the international scene, you will see that it’s not everyone who is an international actor that does stage performances. They have their reasons because stage and screen have their peculiar demands. I know that some of us are in the business for the showmanship, so they don’t really care about being professional with the job, they are only concerned about being popular. However, there are categories of those who are good actors, but as far as stage is concerned, there are other things and rudiments of the game one need to know, and there are lots of us that didn’t study Theater Arts in school, but we have passion for acting.  I was fortunate to be exposed to stage, and it helped model who I want to be, but there are people who never got that exposure on set but are good actors, and that does not mean they are lazy. It’s like the one you don’t know, you don’t want to put your hand in it. You’ve been on screen for many years, and eventually they invite you to come and do stage; this is a country where you may not have access to a private tutor who would want to put you through. Again, it can take you up to one month for rehearsals, and nobody has that patience to take people through that stress. 

Where are you from? 

I am from Umualaocha, Umuahia, Abia State, and I am 31 years old. I studied Marine Sciences at the University of Lagos. I have an older brother and a younger sister. I have been in this business for 13 years. I started in 2001, when I was on campus, and I did stage plays for five years, after graduation in 2005, I continued to pursue my acting career before AMBO came. I became part of it, and later I did my first movie and since then, it has been like that, I have been acting with independent producers.

Growing up 

It was hard and really difficult because I lived at Orile Iganmu for 13 years before moving to FESTAC Town, and I attended a boarding school. There were seasons we had to live with relatives because it was not really easy and in that circumstance, I lost my dad, and my mother had to assume the responsibility of taking care of three kids- two in the boarding house, but after 1998, things began to pick up for the family.