Not All Young Nollywood Actors Are Unserious – Ronke Oshodi-Oke

Veteran Nollywood actress Ronke Oshodi-Oke has said that discipline, professionalism and consistency remain key to sustaining a successful career in the Nigerian film industry. She recently had her say during an interview with Saturday Beats, and fans have been reacting.

Addressing perceptions about younger actors, Ronke admitted that not all young actors are distracted by social media as is often suggested.

The moviestar added that actors like Timini Eguson deserve praise for staying committed to their craft.

Her words, “It’s not all of them. Most of them are serious. If you are doing something and you are not serious about it, you will face the consequences. We are not joking in Nollywood.

If you come and you want to pose, you want to come and play, you will face the consequence. Take Timini, for example; he is a very lovely boy and takes his job very seriously.

I see each and every role as an opportunity. So when I am acting, it is not me; it is God. When I am acting, I am always in that script. I always want to give the best. It’s mixed feelings.

I don’t do anything; it has been God all the while. How many producers will I call? How many people will I say, ‘please come and give me jobs’? It has just been God, and also hard work. Even if I am given one or two scenes, I take it seriously.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.