Adetola Abdullateef Adedimeji is a Nigerian actor and filmmaker. He gained popularity with his first major role in Yewande Adekoya’s 2013 movie titled ‘Kudi Klepto’ and has acted in over 100 Nigerian movies since he began acting 15 years ago. Recently, he sat as an executive producer of a Yoruba historic film, ‘Lisabi,’ currently streaming on Netflix, and he took out time to discuss about the film as well as how he met his wife in this interview with The NATION’s ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, GBENGA BADA.
What necessitated your decision to shoot a big historical film rather than a regular feel good film?
For me, I am so big on culture. I am so big on asa ati ise (customs and traditions), which is very key. And then I know how much we Nigerians in this part of the world celebrate heroes. And then what happens to our own heroes, we have a lot of them here, even as Nigerians, don’t even know their history. We don’t know their story. We don’t know anything about them.
So I feel it’s high time we started telling stories of those people and then after ‘Ayinla’ which is a biopic about the first biopic that I did, I came to that conclusion of telling biopic stories of people who are alive that have contributed a lot to the society. Or those that are gone that we don’t even know about.
After ‘Ayinla,’ I did about four other biopics. I did the one for the sitting president, I did ‘Ige.’ I’ve done biopics of people that are living. I’ve done about three people that are living and then ‘Ayinla’ is the first one about somebody that is no more. And ‘Lisabi’ is the second about someone that is no more and ‘Lisabi’ is quite big. That is the person that gave Egba the very first independence. It was the war that Lisabi fought that stopped the owo ori (tax paying), and that was the very first independence for the people of Egba. So I feel we should tell the story. I didn’t even know who Lisabi was until I started conducting the research. I just know that they will say, “Egba Omo Lisabi Egba Omo Lisabi (The Egbas, children of Lisabi).” I was like, “Who is this?” I thought it was one orisha (deity) or something. Well, when I dug into the story, I realised that this is somebody that lived and did all of these things. (I was like) “let’s tell the story.” and I’m glad a lot of people are accepting it. For so many people that do not know, they are getting to know that this is a real person and this is a reality.
I know you and your wife were producers on the project, was it your original idea or your wife’s idea to shoot ‘Lisabi’?
Yeah from the very beginning we had a film that we wanted to shoot at first but I thought to myself, I have done something that is from Ogun State which is ‘Ayinla.’ I feel I should still go back home and do one more if at all I’m gonna move ahead into telling some other stories. So, when I told her about ‘Lisabi’ she was skeptical at first, but I said, this is a story that would go far. This is a biopic and she loves the idea of me doing a biopic. I’m trying to create a niche for myself in that line and just do biopics of people that have been, those that are no more and all of that. And she was like, “It’s not a bad idea. Let’s try it.” and then that’s how she bought into the idea. “Okay, let’s do ‘Lisabi’ now. No problem. If that is what you want to do I know when you are bent on doing something there is something about it that you want to bring out.” And then we went ahead.
Did both of you involve in the casting of characters and what informed the choice of each character?
The casting was done by Mo Bimpe, myself and then Niyi Akinmolayan the director. From the outset when we thought about Olori Ilari from the writing of the story, we knew and we were certain that he was going to be Ibrahim Chatta because I know he is the one who can pull that character for me. It’s just about him. So from the outset, I knew he was going to be Ibrahim. Me and Debo, we have a very close relationship. If you go back to ‘Ayinla,’ you will see that it is the same line of friendship, we just flow naturally.
How does it feel that the movie is not on the international scene?
I think that is what we’re still working on. I have sent a series of emails to Netflix because it’s supposed to be a global release. So why they released it in Africa and not in the global world yet is what we don’t know. I’m sure from our mails and from a lot of people that have mailed them and asked them questions, I’m sure they should be able to give a reply to whatever. People are very angry, and I wrote to them and told them “this movie is not just for Africa. It’s our story. The global world needs to see the story. And we have a lot of Nigerians in the diaspora that really want the story.” People were even swearing for me and I was like, “I’m not a streaming platform.”
You mean the audience took it personal?
My mail is full of “What nonsense are you doing?” It’s just normal. I know that’s because there’s been a lot of excellent reviews. And then it’s painful to them that they are seeing this review and they can’t get to watch. So it’s just normal for that to happen, which is fine, so it’s not a problem. I’m sure they’ll work on it, and then they will do the needful.
How were you able to ensure the cast spoke Egba dialect when they aren’t all from Abeokuta?
Yeah, we had like two people who were always on ground for every major character. It was going to be a problem if you cannot speak Egba and we now have to force you to speak it. You get to be speaking the wrong thing. But there are some certain words that once you say it people can tell that it’s Egba. So we made sure that all of those keywords, people get it correctly. So we had coaches on set all the way down before each scene. They will listen to you. They will tell you okay “Okay, ti o ba le so eleyi legba ti o ba le so eleyi, so eleyi legba (If you cannot say this, say this in Egba) like that because it’s an Egba story. It won’t make sense for us to be telling an Egba backstory and we are speaking another dialect. Yeah, you know, so we have to pay attention to these things to bring it to life.
Read Also: Lateef Adedimeji: Casting Macaroni, Chatta was intentional
You apologised to some of your colleagues after the film was released, what was the reason for that?
When you’re shooting a big project, there is no way that you won’t offend some people. A lot of people that wanted to be in the film weren’t able to make it and weren’t able to be there. It was because the time was not just working and then I couldn’t move my timing to work with theirs because I had a particular time that I needed to shoot and I just needed to go ahead and film. So, in some situations like that there are some actors that could not meet up with the time that I had to be like “We need to move forward and look for somebody else. We need to move forward and look for somebody else because if I wait, it will delay the shoot. It can cause a lot of things for the shoot. So we just have to keep moving. We just have to keep moving so that we get to do what we have to do. But it’s a success story. So we have to do just that to make sure that everybody is carried along. We try to carry everybody along, but some couldn’t make it, some couldn’t meet up with it, but it’s not a problem. That’s why we have to just be like, “apologies to people that couldn’t make it. Apologies.” You know, it’s just a normal thing to do.
I don’t know if you have told the story many times but how did you meet your wife?
We met on set. I met her on a set but the first day I met her, o baje (she was mannerless) because she saw me she couldn’t greet me. Mo de so point-blank (And I told her point-blank), mo ni taleleyi, ni bo ni won tiri eleyi ti o mo eyan ki (I said, who is this, where did they find this person that does not know how to greet people?) I told her point blank that day. And I just walked away. That’s me. Because Yoruba ni ti o ba ri eni to ju e lo, wa a ki. (Because as a Yoruba, if you see someone that is older than you, you will greet.) And I just walked away. So I think she was gonna shoot her second film and then they called me for the film. Me, I would always ask questions. “Who is the producer?” They said “Mo Bimpe.” I said “Who is that? Is that not the girl that does not greet people?” They said it was her. I said I will charge her. This is how much I will collect. And then they paid my money and I did the job. For me once I get to work, no matter who you are. No matter what it is, it is work first, I just face my work. And I realised that I got on set. For me, I’m gonna be acting alongside you and she was the first person I called “Hey. How are you? Don’t worry, don’t fidget, don’t do nothing. I’m sure you can do this. We can work on this together and we will achieve a good film,” and all of that. “We started filming and that’s where that’s where we became friends and the rest is history.
Your wife was your love interest in ‘Lisabi,’ what necessitated that role that she had to be your love interest? I’m just curious. Is it for the money to remain in the family?
It was not her role, oo. That wasn’t her role. I dumped the role on her two days to the day we were gonna start shooting. It was just a situation where the actor could not make it. And I could not wait and I could not look for another actor. I was like, instead of you playing the role that you wanted to play before, lo wo aso (go and wear the costume) you will play this role. I can’t wait any more. And then even if you played the role, I will save money again. So abeg jump on the role because we’ve been rehearsing, we’ve been doing fight stunts and all of that. She was just my jinja. More like. Let me not put too much load on you. I’m executive producer, I’m supposed to be producing and then I can’t put all the load on you. So you take some off the load. So she was basically doing all of that. But at a point the show must go on. That is theatre. And then when I told her you have to play this role. She said, “Yeah, no, I can’t. I don’t think I can.” I was like “You will do it. We don’t have a choice at this stage. We have to move on.” And that’s how she had to play the role. So it wasn’t like that from the outset. The situation had happened. We must go on, so switch, play the role.
With your schedule, how does creativity come? How do you have time to create other things?
It’s not always easy, but there is a reduction in the way I shoot now. Before now, I didn’t always have the breathing space, but now I do. But those times that I’m supposed to be resting I don’t joke with them because those are the little times that I have to create a lot of things. The luck I have is I married somebody that is also in the same line with me. So, most of the time I just do things. I just do things. She tends to notice them and then record me unknowingly to me and then show me later that you did this at this point. “Look at this character. Don’t you think this is what you should build on? Don’t you think you should build on this?” So that’s the luck that I have. I just do my thing and she just tends to notice and be like “this is another character that you haven’t explored before. You should explore this character and then we will probably build the story around it and all of that.
How do you manage to still be a husband and cope with your wife?
So most of the time, once I’m on set and I’m spending more than three days and all of that, I’ll carry my wife, even when she is not working. “I’ll go and work. I’ll come back at night and I’ll meet you there.” If she’s working and then if we are close by, and our work is at different places, we’ll meet at the same hotel. We’ll just get the same hotel for the two of us. So we would go and work and come back at night. We’ll meet at the same place. So we’ve been able to make it work that way.
What do you think practitioners in Nollywood should be doing better?
For me, I think we have gotten to that stage where we need to think out of the box. We need to do it like we really want to do it. A lot of people are here because some just want to be known. For me, I don’t just want to be known, I want to be known for something. Known for what I do. That’s what I want to do. I just don’t want to be popular for anything. If you can’t remember my name, you should be able to point at the things that I have done and be able to say that to link up with my name, which makes a lot of sense to me. So that’s how we should be thinking now in Nollywood.
For me I’ve always wanted to do films and all that. She has produced a lot of YouTube films. I’ve only produced two in my entire career. One in 2014. And the very first one was in 2007 and the second one was in 2014, that’s all. Because I’m always of the opinion that I want to do a big film and I don’t know if it’s gonna work out, but I have to do it. And if I have to do it, I have to go all out, and when I said I was ready for it, she knew I was ready for it. Because I knew it was going to be stressful, it was extremely stressful. We practically built everything from scratch, every set. I said I didn’t want existing villages. If I’m shooting a 17th century movie, then let me build it to fit into that 17th century. Niyi Akimolayan directing, and then working on the post-production collaborating with them, they understood the vision that we had and then they were able to bring it to life. That’s how every entertainment person should be thinking in this Nollywood that we have today because that’s how we can put ourselves on the global map. Now people can start comparing what we do to a bit of what people in the global world do. That’s how we should be.
I’m sure you’ve heard that they’re remaking ‘Things Fall Apart,’ and that Idris Elba is playing the lead role. Is that not a slap on Nollywood?
My honest opinion about it is that I’m sure it is not because we don’t have actors that can play that role, I’m sure there is something else. It may be because they want an acceptance of a global market or something. So I’m sure it is simply because maybe there is a feeling that if they use Idris Elba, they’ll have a global acceptance of the film. But it is never going to be because there is no actor (in Nigeria) that can deliver that role. No, that’s not it.
