OC Ukeje appeared on the scene after he won the second edition of the highly-reputable Amstel Malta Box Office (AMBO) in 2007. His first movie, White Waters, received rave reviews and launched him into mainstream acting. However, since his debut in 2007, Nollywood seems not to have seen the best of OC.
In this interview with MERCY MICHAEL, the actor, who starred in Two Brides and a Baby, reveals the real reason he is yet to assume the ‘big boy’ status in Nollywood. He also speaks on his hopes for 2013.
YOU were part of the group for a stage production at the last Olympics. Tell us about your experience?
I actually started acting on stage from 2001 in the university.
Which school was that, and what did you study?
I schooled at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). And I studied Marine Sciences. So while I was doing Marine Sciences, I was also doing stage plays. I did a small play which was seen by an organisation called ‘Rhythm of a Blackman’. They later invited me over. That was how it all started. For four years, I was with them until they disbanded the group. At first, they wanted me to play a small part which required me playing Omo Oba. Eventually, they said to me, ‘you know what? You will play Omo Oba and you will play the King. We will do you up’. And after they disbanded the group, I started doing independent stage productions. I graduated in 2005, and the next thing was how to get into the mainstream and start doing stage and screen together. But I’ve always been doing stage plays.
Why did you study Marine Science?
Well, there was a time in my life, believe it or not, I wanted to do Medicine or nothing. Honestly, it was going to be Medicine and Surgery. But after the first year, they gave me Microbiology; I started studying it because I wasn’t getting younger. Initially, I wanted to go to the University of Ibadan (UI), and there was a problem with changing… But somehow my name came out in UNILAG. Again, JAMB in Abuja didn’t rectify it. So when it was time to give me Matric Number, they didn’t give me, so we had that whole back-and-forth. Eventually, I decided to leave, write JAMB again. This time, I got Marine Sciences, and I thought to myself, just study it. But all along, I was doing music as well.
Really?
If I did say so myself, I will do it well. And this was part of the reason for the movie Hoodrush. It was a musical and they needed people who could sing. So it was easy to cast me. As I was saying, at that time, when the opportunity to act came up, I tried it.
Can you recall how it all started?
I finished school in 2005. I did my youth service programme in 2006. That same year I heard about the 2nd audition of AMBO. My friends thought I should try. I was skeptical, but eventually I gave in and I won it. The first movie, White Waters, came out, and it made some rave reviews. So that really put me on the right path. But with that, I was still doing stage anytime it came up.
You said that AMBO helped put you out there. But like most of your fans, I expected you to have gone beyond this level now. It’s as if you’ve relaxed…
Here’s the thing, it wasn’t that I relaxed. You win the competition; you are signed to them for one year, meaning for one year, you can’t do anything. So the whole of 2007 I wasn’t working, I couldn’t work. And we shot that movie in 2007, it came out in 2008. But even after it came out, apparently in Nigeria, winning a reality TV show doesn’t guarantee anything. You win a reality TV show, and at the end of the day; you still have to figure a way to get into the mainstream. Which was where the problem was, and then I did my best to get in touch with directors, producers and everybody, but they all wanted to know what you’ve done.
Some people think, ‘yeah, you’ve done one movie; it was good; it doesn’t mean you are an actor’. Only one or two people who had seen me do one or two things gave me an opportunity. So between 2008 and 2009, I did a total of only three movies. But when I was going for my training in 2009, I said if I go and do this workshop and I come back and nothing changes, then I know that I have tried my best for acting here.
And you were going to call it quit. What other thing would you have done?
I had no idea what I was going to switch over to. Just that I know that I have tried.
Truly, were you going to call it quit?
Well, maybe. But you know how some people would call you and if you are available, you do it. But largely, the amount of time and attention I had put into it, I decided if I got there and I came back and nothing happened, then I will just change or look for something else. Plus lots of people were saying, ‘OC are you sure this is what you want to do? It will be difficult. Are you sure? How many jobs have you done? See what your mates are doing?’ But luckily I came back and things did change.
You said you also sing. When it seemed acting was not working for you, why didn’t you plunge into music?
I’ve been recording different materials. And there are quite a number of people I’ve known as friends. In fact, I’ve been recording with Cobhams since when we just finished secondary school. And people like Don Jazzy; we finished from secondary school together. When Don Jazzy came back to Nigeria, he came to UNILAG. He came to see most of us that went to school together. And we knew what he wanted to do. The thing is that everyone has the way they are running their own life and you need to figure out how you fit in.
So I was recording materials. But here’s the thing, music is more difficult to plunge into because you spend a lot of money. You have to get to the studio to record. You have to get to radio stations to see DJ’s. You have to do all of that. And then, at that the end of the day, you have to shoot video and let people see. So it costs you a lot of money to do that. But with acting, you just come do what you have to do, you get paid and then you do what you want with the money. So to plunge into music, people like Cobhams were friends, so they do it for you. But even if you record it, you now have to cross the hurdles of getting it on radio and circulating it. That’s why it wasn’t easy to just plunge into it.
What particular training did you go for in 2009?
It was an acting workshop at the New York Film Academy. But I went to their Los Angeles campus because of Hollywood, I just wanted to see the place. I was there for eight weeks and I took an extra month just to look around town and get a feel of what their industry was like. But after I was done with that, I actually met Jeta Amata there. It was when we were doing the workshop that I met Dimeji, the director of Hoodrush. He was studying filmmaking at that time. And then the movie I did with Jeta Amata, Black November, it was from there that he kind of already figured it out that he would put me in the movie. And I came back and we shot that with Hakeem Kae Kazeem, and the likes, and the movie grew further from there. And then, people started calling me for projects and things started changing. So now, we are getting a bit of limelight again.
You have this look of a quiet, reserved man. Do you socialise at all?
Well, the truth is, I know that people can miss-understand that. I’m not exactly the quiet or reserved person. It’s just that it took some time to try and understand the industry that I was working in. A lot of people are making sacrifices that I’m not sure I can do you know. Those are things you have to think about. And obviously, some people want to know how badly you want this thing. But I have my values. I have my own principles. And I don’t think everything in life is a do-or-die affair.
So you have to decide how much further you can push. As far as hard work and all that is concerned, I’m more than willing to make sure that I push my best because it has always worked for me. But I mean, people paying stiffer prices and doing…I’m not sure I can do stuffs like that. So people can misunderstand that. And then generally, I’m a kind of guy who probably will be lying in his room, watching a movie with my laptop, as opposed to what’s happening. But then again, for the kinds of job we do, we already have a lot of functions that call you out. So I already do that. But as a person, I would probably just be at home. But normally, people invite you for all sorts of things. There is always after parties, and I’m almost always doing that.
For someone whose value comes first above anything else. It appears you do other things that fetch you money…
Well, the thing that has managed to keep me, especially in those years when I was not exactly doing movies, was performing as MC at events. I used to do that when I was in the university. And I remember the first professional one I did. And after that, I did a wedding, somebody gives me his card at the wedding, and said: ‘call me’. It turns out that his daughter was getting married to Mike Aigbe’s son.
That must have been a juicy deal?
It was supposed to be a juicy deal, but I wasn’t hired by Aigbe. I was hired by the bride’s father. But I mean, it kept going on like that. This was TBS, and I was doing with Sony Irabor. And I was like, ‘okay that means this thing can actually work’. I’ve been doing this for weddings, award ceremonies, fashion shows and so on.
Yes I remember, you actually emceed one of the editions of AMAA alongside Jimmy John Louis, and it was brilliant. There was so much chemistry between you.
First of all, I thank people who have gone ahead of me, but can manage to remain level-headed. I thank them for those things. For example, when I did the wedding with Sony Irabor, I was scared, because this was Sony Irabor. But when he came, he sat down and said, ‘what do we have?’ We looked at the programme together, and he said, ‘okay, this is what you will do. I don’t think we should do this. We should rule this out.’ And then when we started, and he said, ‘today I’m emceeing with blablabla. That gave me the time to say my thing.
And with Jimmy, when we met, we got along quite easily. And then we did quite a number of rehearsals before the show. For me, those things are important, especially because we didn’t know each other from Adam. But I mean, it was good for him not to come with any ego. Jimmy was straight forward, simple, easy to work with, and I was very glad about that. And I think we did well.
Back to your acting career, now that there seems to be a kind of stability in the industry, when should we expect you at the very top of the ladder?
I know that a lot of people have been wondering what I have been up to. But it’s amazing how it’s only two movies now that are officially out. Since 2007, I’ve had only one movie out, White Waters. It wasn’t until last year that they premiered Two Brides and a Baby. And then it came out on DVD. So in all this time I’ve been around. So people have been wondering, but I’ve been working. This year alone, Hoodrush is going to come out. There is another one called The Visitors, which I shot in 2009. It’s going to come out. There is Alanposer, which I shot late last year.
There is Black November, which I shot with Jeta Amata. He plans to release it this year. There is The Awaken, also planned for release in November. This year too I shot a part of Half of a Yellow Sun. So, it’s just beginning. Things are just really starting. I mean, it’s been quite many years. People are wondering what I’m doing. There is also The Rubicon that I shot in the UK earlier this year. They were hoping they will premiere this year, but we don’t know yet.
I mean if you have five movies this year, you’ve not done badly. And there is Half of a Yellow Sun for 2013 already. So I just know that it’s just the beginning. All the years of silence are just about to start paying off.
You have a resemblance with Chiwetel Ejiofor, I’m sure you must have heard that several times…
I have heard this statement a lot of times. I actually played his cousin in a movie recently. When I initially heard he was part of the movie, I was excited because people have said; ‘maybe your career is going towards the line of ChiweteI.’ I was initially auditioning for the role of his house boy. And I read the script, and I knew that it was written from their perspective.
But when they pulled the list, because of all my beards and all that, I got the role to play his cousin. It was a small role. But I was more than willing to do it because I knew they were not going to yank it from the movie. And also, in the scene there were Chiwetel Ejiofor , Thandie Newton and Onyeka Onwenu who plays his mother. I mean, you couldn’t ask for anything better than that. We got on set, and I met him. We shot the scenes; and everybody was really nice, really easy. It went really well.
I’m sure your patience is really paying off.
All those years of silence are really beginning to open up now, and I’m grateful for that. I have senior colleagues who have wondered, ‘OC, are you sure about this thing you are doing?’ Then, I looked like a crazy person. But when you start seeing how things are unfolding now, then it’s only a matter of time before the more sensible ones begin to happen. So I know that people are saying, ‘see what Joseph Benjamin is doing. OC what are you doing?’ But everyone is running their own course. I know the difference between Joseph and I. But I’m worried because here is the thing. When I’m forty-five I will still be looking young. So I can play some younger roles.
You played the lead alongside Gabriel Afolayan in Hoodrush. What was it like?
It’s easy to cast both of us. Gabriel is someone I know, I’ve seen him do stuff. He’s a very serious actor. So I didn’t think we were going to have any problem. And he’s a singer as well, a very good singer.
What about Bimbo Akintola, who was also in the movie?
Bimbo I had known for many years. But we had never worked together. I’d met her. She was one of the judges when I was in the AMBO House. Working with her now wasn’t going to be anything difficult. Plus, she was also on the shoot to the UK for the stage play. So working with Bimbo wasn’t a problem.
How far can you go with acting?
I cannot play gay.
Not even if the money is right?
Truth is, I’ve seen gay roles where they didn’t have to do anything serious. But they just lead you towards it; you realise they are supposed to be partners. I can consider that, but detailed…I can’t.
Tell us about love life as a celebrity.
Well I’m generally a one-woman person.
