ANTAR BABATUNDE LANIYAN is a veteran Nigerian actor, director, and producer whose name commands respect in the world of film and television. The tall, dark and well-built actor and director of vast credit hails from Osogbo, Osun State, and was born on May 26. Though his earlier professional skills were from his days as a member of the Kaakaki Arts Ensemble led by Ben Tomoloju, Laniyan studied Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, where he further honed his skills and laid the foundation for a successful acting career that has spanned almost four decades professionally. Featuring in stage plays and features including ‘Everybody Wants to Know,’ ‘Sango,’ ‘Saworoide,’ ‘Agogo Eewo,’ ‘Oleku,’ and ‘Outkast,’ amongst many, Laniyan stands tall as one of the very few in the professional class. In this interview with ASSISTANT EDITOR, GBENGA BADA, he opened up about his career, industry ethics and how he missed his child’s birth and father’s burial.
You are a trained theatre arts practitioner, how do you feel about the belief that Nollywood has no strong gate-keeping for entry point?
First of all, I try to avoid mediocrity as far as this job is concerned. I try to avoid mediocrity and I just don’t allow anyone to dabble into what I have a lot of respect for. Yes, it is true with what we have these days but I won’t allow anyone to bring anything stupid to my own desk. I don’t want to know how beautiful you are, if you don’t have it, I will not allow it on my desk or on my set.
Taiwo Aromokun once said you discovered her acting abilities after you saw her on set and she wasn’t an actress?
I didn’t just say are you an actress and bla bla bla. I must have told Bakky Adeoye to try her, maybe Bakky had said she’s good or capable, then I will say read. If she isn’t good, I will not use her. She did well and that was how she got the role and started her career.
Do you feel the new crop of actors and actresses have what it takes to serve the craft or even have passion for the craft?
Well, not all of them anyways; but those who have it, you can always tell. If you don’t have it, you will know. We are talking about something you will do and in the next 40 years, you may have the opportunity of still seeing. Of course then you will see your stupidity. But if you are good, people will want you to express yourself so. If anybody just comes in to say ‘I can act,’ and without trying to actually determine if they can or not, I say ‘get on set’ and I just record it the way you have given it to me, and I release the film like that; what that means is that 20 or 30 years down the line, if I see it and I don’t like it, I will blame myself. So to avoid that, I don’t allow it.
You are known to be a very disciplined professional, how do you manage artists especially when it has to do with punctuality?
The young talent will go back. I will not mind starting all over. You will go back unless of course you give me a very good and valid reason for not being punctual. For God’s sake, I didn’t attend my father’s burial because I had committed myself for a set and collected payment and the Igbo producer would not allow me to go. I had to find a way to send my younger brothers there and made sure they recorded it on VHS at the time, so I could see how it all went. When my wife was having Ife, our daughter, she was supposed to go through a caesarean section but I had to leave her to go and film ‘Strange woman,’ because I had people like Joke Silva and many other big names waiting for my arrival. My wife understood and urged me to go, saying nothing would happen to her. Andy Amaenechi was the director and he had to rush my scenes, so I could leave. I left around 12 midnight and trekked from around Ojuelegba because that was where the location vehicle could drop me, to Mushin. I met my mother there crying and asking why I was moving around at that time of the night. I remember Andy, Joe Dudu and Joke Silva praying for me to get there safely. If I could do all that, I don’t want to know what has delayed you to come late. You will have to go back, except the reason is genuine and valid. On my way to this interview, I was feeling uncomfortable when I got stuck in traffic but I had to make the call time. And that’s me. So, you coming late and giving me flimsy excuses? You will go back and I will send for someone else, who can do the same thing; and I won’t mind wasting an hour again because of the artist’s irresponsibility.
You have just expressed your stand as a director; what if you are an actor and the co-actor you want to act alongside strolled in late? How do you manage such a situation?
As an actor, it is not my business. I have been paid for two days and I will do just that; but if because you are the director and stupid and you cast someone who has no sense of responsibility and would come late or be unprofessional, you will have to pay more or pay for it. It’s true. You have to pay extra for that folly. There’s a lady in the United States now, Ranti Alore, she was on a set with me and she was asked to read a script and she began shaking even after auditioning. I just said ‘Go. Bakky give me another person.’ She said I will do it but I told her to come the next day because I had to do something else. There’s no way I would waste my own time. She came the next day and got it right and that was it. Today, she would readily say that Antar gave her the courage to face the audience even as a singer.
Let’s talk about some mind-boggling issues in the industry, such as some producers engaging in illegal activities aside filmmaking. What is your take on this because it is generally believed that the entry criterion for being a producer is being wealthy?
I will blame that on the association that we have around – the TAMPAN, NANTAP, AGN and all that. If we screen people, let money go aside; if you are coming in as a producer with finances, just give me the money and stay away from the set or production. I don’t want to know how you get your money, it’s your business and if you are arrested, they won’t even trace you to me or my set, apart from saying he’s a film producer and it is the money that he has that he is using to produce movies. If you don’t allow just anybody coming into your trade irrespective of their finances; that would be you avoiding mediocrity. I have been shouting about this thing for a long time – you don’t allow mediocrity in the industry. It is because of our lackadaisical attitude that we are where we are at the moment. The association should screen anybody who wants to come into the industry. I told the TAMPAN president that if we have a clean slate of 500 members who are professionals and we are doing well and everything is going on fine and people know us for purity and professionalism, then we are good. Mediocres don’t need to be in our industry because it’s not by force.
Is there a particular role you dearly wish to interpret, which you are yet to get in over four decades of your career?
Let me put it this way: there is no role that I have ever played that hasn’t been challenging. Even if you say ‘Antar, all I want from you is just to cough on my set or my film’, I will still go and rehearse that cough, so that I can cough perfectly. So, every role I have played has been challenging. If there’s any role that is coming that I have not done, I will still see it as a challenging role. I don’t allow fame to get to me or the love of the fans or because professionals have said I am good, allow it to get to me,, no. I still stand in front of my mirror to rehearse. If you give me a script now, you are giving me a challenge, because I will get home and be a mad man in front of my mirror; because I want to convince you such that you won’t think of giving my job to someone else. And that is because if that happens, it is a defeat for me. I will stand in front of my mirror, rehearse over and over until I am convinced that I will nail it again.
Even if it is a role you have done before?
I have to change it because people out there are not fools; they will say he has done something like this before. So you have to put one or two things to make it different. Our audiences are very intelligent people and they will be quick to point out that you have done something similar in the past and you still did it the same way.
What is your take on sex for roles in Nollywood?
If you say to me that I want to act and I say I have to take you to bed and you agree; it means you already had it in mind to sleep with me. I say so because you have the right to say ‘go to hell uncle’. So, I don’t see anybody forcing anybody, because you can always reject such an offer and opt for someone else, who won’t demand or ask for such in the same industry. Every female is at liberty to reject and refuse any sex for role advances. However, if you come out the room saying you were raped, then there must be evidences, which include torn clothes and struggle – because you know where to hit and the man would fall down. If I say you have to give me your body before getting a role, then it means you too also had ulterior motives.
But do you think it is morally right?
It is very wrong. It is very very wrong. Whoever is involved in that is not being a professional. That means that even if that person doesn’t have the talent, has no idea about the craft and can’t act, you would give her the role. That’s not right. It will also mean you will take anything from that female because she has given you her body, even if she can’t act.
