The Exclusive Chat With Actor OC Ukeje
Bring up the name O.C Ukeje in any conversation and you immediately invoke images of a groom whose past comes out from nowhere to hunt him or think back to a young advertising agent whose strange dreams are actual premonitions to real life events. Two Brides and a Baby and The Awakening are only two titles out of the many films that the popular and hardworking O.C Ukeje is known for. The award-winning actor was gracious enough to grant TW Magazine some of his time, and answer a few questions regarding his personal life, career and being successful.
Interview By Ope L. Akinyemi
TW Magazine: What are some of your earliest childhood memories?
O.C Ukeje: Some of those memories were really cool eating ewa agoyin on Saturdays with my dad even though we knew my mom didn’t like it, because she didn’t just like food that wasn’t home cooked; playing football in the compound and shattering the windows of my house and neighbors’ and just knowing that was the end of my life (every time); Strategizing to get rid of the cats we saw around the house at night and just knowing for sure that my neighbor’s wife (who owned the cats) was a witch! (Laughs). Some interesting memories.
TW: When and how did you get your first big break as an actor?
OC: My first big break as an actor happened in the year 2000. I worked with an organization on campus at the University of Lagos, and they decided they’d do a play in one of the semesters. I was asked to audition but I wasn’t really interested. I only did it because I was asked by my superiors. Boy, aren’t I glad now? (Laughs). So I auditioned and got the male lead role. We staged it and a bigger organization, the now defunct Rhythm of the Blackman, thought I was decent enough to join their troupe, which I did. And then we started staging plays around Nigeria. And they used my face and one of the female members for their posters. That was an interesting time and our plays were very successful.
TW: How has being an actor made you a better person, and how difficult is to balance a personal life with the life of an actor? Do relationship and family suffer?
OC: Being an actor has made me a better person because I get to explore the ideas of stories and characters and that requires reading, researching and being exposed to as much material as possible and travelling and listening more and keeping eyes open. There’s nothing better than being a balanced individual who can understand varying personalities and their motives. It makes you a more conscious person.
It’s really difficult however, to balance work with my personal life. Friends and family suffer. You’re almost always committed to something (at least nowadays) so you miss out on a lot of family time and celebrations. The idea is to consolidate the image and strength of work and in this phase, you have to make sacrifices. When the consolidation is decent, then one can decide on what is more important per time. For now, I do my best to not fix work-related stuff around certain dates or around pre-informed family/friend functions but you do what you can.
TW: What’s your selection process like, when it comes to choosing a movie role?
OC: Well, I think the script/story is the first most important element. More the script than the story really because we have very many stories that aren’t well told. Those scripts are so bad. So that catches my eye first. If it’s something I believe, I might be willing to jump on it. Then again, you can have a good script and have a bad director so that the film falls flat on its face when it’s done. The director makes all the difference I tell you his idea of the film and his vision for execution. You also want to check out who your colleagues on the project are because it’s through them that your brilliance can shine as well. These are some of the elements that are important.
TW: What do you think are the most important attributes for being a successful actor?
OC: I think the first thing is to know that you’re gifted for it. It makes everything else easier to go through. A knowledge of who you are and what you can do starts it all up the chain of success. Then, you have to define your ethics and work within them no matter the geographical location. Work ethics help stand you out. Then, be a hard worker. Work hard at understanding your craft and being really good at it and work hard at selling yourself as a brand that matters to people. It’s good to be a good actor. It’s better to be that and be celebrated. Finally, prepare for varying scenarios in the business.
TW: What advice would you give your teenage self just coming of age, if you could travel back in time?
OC: Hmmm….I’d tell him to start earlier. I’d tell him to decide earlier. I’d tell him to live a little, enjoy the teenage years a bit more…yes!
TW: What’s the hardest part of being a celebrity?
OC: Um…somewhere between the loss of privacy and the perceived invincibility makes it hard to be a public figure. You can’t enjoy your own space as much as you’d like to and people just think you can do anything or you have no fears or you’re always buoyant or you know every important person in the world. Yes. It is quite a difficult life.
TW: Tell us two things most people don’t know about you.
OC: I don’t know what people don’t already know. {Let’s see} I’m the only left-handed person in my entire family tree…and I actually play soccer pretty darn good.
TW: What film are you presently working on, and what message do you hope audiences will take away from it?
OC: I’m prepping for two new films that I can’t talk about in detail but the messages touch on self-discovery and its use; youth and its misplaced energies; fear and its conquests and generally taking advantage of the time at hand.
TW: Finally, if you could have a different career, other than what you are doing now, what would it be?
OC: I would most certainly be a musician! I might still be actually.
Photo Credit: OC Ukeje