Barely days after featuring in Professor Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy, which the Nobel Laureate also directed, Olarotimi Fakunle was off to London to take part in Thespian Family Theatre’s production of Ola Rotimi’s The Gods are not to Blame. In the interview with Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH, he talks about his life in drama.
How did it start?
Funny enough, I wanted to do veterinary medicine way back because I grew up with pets. I had all sorts of pets as a child. But I realised that from my primary school, I was always into poetry recitation. And when I got into secondary school, from my JSS1, I started representing my school in literary and debating competitions.
I used to do what is called performance poetry, not spoken word now. It’s like poetry in drama. I take your poem and make it more dramatic; that was how it started for me. And I always took the first prize. So, basically, what I did was, pick all those traditional poems like ‘Osun’, ‘Esu’, ‘Ogun’; and look at the dramatic elements in them. But I didn’t even know what dramatic elements were then. But I know that when I was reading the poems alone in my room then, I would see the images of the things I wanted to achieve in my head. So when I got to JSS3, I said I wanted to do science, it was a tug of war in my house because I had three other brothers who had done science.
You said you didn’t want to do science?
I wanted to do science, though I was already into the arts. My parents said “No”; that they wouldn’t let me do science. They said “All your three elder brothers are science students; do something different.” And I said, okay maybe I’ll do commercial (studies).
But then, I thought to myself “If I won’t be allowed to do medicine, why not just do a combination of arts and commercial subjects?” That way, I know that I can’t read medicine and I’ve been doing arts and I love it; that way I’m in the middle. They didn’t know in the house, but that was it eventually for me. And I was able to pass through that phase and then when I came to Lagos (we were in Abeokuta then because my soldier father) in 1996/97.
I told my mum that I wanted to go to the National Theatre to start a formal training. It was a thug of war, and they defeated me.
But they didn’t want you to do science either?
They wanted me to be a banker. They said: “If your brothers are doing science, why don’t you do something through which you can make money and be more responsible?” But I made up my mind on what I wanted to do. I saved my offering for four Sundays and was able to get some meaningful amount from it and went to the National Theatre. I joined a group. I met a couple of people. I met Victor Thompson Iyang, Mufu Onifade, Shaibu Husseini, Victor Eze. I fell into their hands.
Which group was that?
That was at the NCAA (National Centre for Arts and Culture). That was how I started. I got involved with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for children because I was still very young. I was doing a bit of outreach programmes, drama programmes and that was it.
Which NGO?
Child to Child Network. It was at Adebola Street (in Surulere area of Lagos). We were working closely with UNICEF particularly.
What did you study eventually?
I studied theatre at Lagos State University (LASU). I did my diploma in theatre in 2003 to 2006. I had to pay my way to school because they didn’t want me to study it.
This wasn’t from Sunday offerings, was it?
I had to work. I had to do some menial jobs. I hawked. I sold groundnuts, sachet water. The only thing I didn’t do was steal. You know when sachet water just came out, it was a boom. I learnt how to seal sachet water. So I was able to save and then I left the house. I bought my form and I got a bit of support from some people outside. So I got my diploma form. It was pretty expensive, but I paid for it and then I put money together to get hostel accommodation.
All this while, I just told myself that I wasn’t going to collect one naira from them at home.
Are you saying that passion was important in your decision?
It was. In fact, for me that was the drive. The fact that this is what you really want to do. You know there’s always this thing about first love and second love. For me, theatre has always been it; I just wanted something by the side which was why I wanted to do veterinary medicine as well.
Then artistes were not seen as good figures in the society. They were not well-to-do and they lived very reckless and careless lives.
So when they said I couldn’t do medicine, I said, “okay, let me do what I have always wanted to do”. So I paid my way to the school. I love my parents.
But you completed your veterinary studies.
No I didn’t. But it is one of the dreams I still hope to achieve. I still keep pets. I still train dogs. I still have my cats.
How is your relationship with your parents now?
We have settled. We settled way back. When they noticed I wasn’t coming home to take money. I come from a very traditional family and when they feel that you are not getting anything from the house and are surviving, they are always scared that their child might be into robbery. I grew up from that kind of home.
They started seeing me in the papers as at 2001, when I started out as a dancer. I learnt choreography. The Guardian published me in 2002 or so and my dad was still in the army then. He saw it and was like “This is my son” and he took the newspaper home. Then I went to church on Sunday, that was how they saw me and requested that I come back to the house.
It wasn’t still smooth sailing from there. But my mother began to support me from that point not with the knowledge of my father though.
Still I didn’t collect a dime from them at home because I wanted to make my own way, so that at the end of the day, it won’t look like I’m a failure. That was why I am coming home to get some cash.
Do you realise that you look like Kunle Dada and Femi Brainard?
Actually, Kunle Dada is one of my mentors. That was why I went to LASU. I saw him at a performance in Heaven’s Eyes at Glover Memorial Hall. Then I told myself that in whatever theatre school this person is, that is the school I would go to.
Fortunately, we still talk. But I feel bad that he is not on stage anymore. Sometimes also, you need to direct your energy towards some other things, because, trust me, it is not easy and man must survive as well. But the stage is not paying much as it should.
But you don’t look like one who is not doing well on stage?
Yes, I won’t lie to you that I have been fortunate. I said I have not been able to make the kind of money my contemporaries make or people who started after me and went into television. But I am not wretched. I am only happy and grateful because I know that everyday is a step in the right direction, a step towards a better height, a step towards better living for me.
Some people say that people who cross over from stage to television tend to over-act. Do you agree with that?
I don’t agree with that. I am a director for the stage as well, and I am trying to learn TV directing while I am doing television as well.
I also do think that in acting for stage, you can do anything. It is easy for a stage actor to adapt to television.
So there’s a tendency for a stage actor to over-act on television?
You have to learn the characteristics of television acting because it deals with fewer gestures. It is subtle. Stage is larger than life; that’s how we call it, but television is more subtle.
It is an industry joke that if you haven’t done Tinsel, then you have not done anything in the industry. Is that true?
Well, because Tinsel is the biggest television production right now. I grew up in the days of Cock Crow at Dawn, Village Headmaster and those were the things I was looking up to.
Tinsel, yes, because it is the biggest television production. I am on Tinsel, fortunately, so I cannot say anything against it. But seriously, it is the biggest production right now in Nigerian television production.
For you to be on Tinsel, yes, you must have gotten somewhere in the industry. But I won’t agree that if you are not on Tinsel, you are not on anything, because before I got on Tinsel, I auditioned and auditioned.
I used to criticise Tinsel in those days because I believed they were doing more of facial casting. They dealt with models instead of using real actors. But then it is television and the camera has to love you for you to be in it. The camera has to be your friend, the same way the stage has to love you because no matter how good you are, sometimes if you’re disciplined, if your body chemistry does not agree with the stage, it won’t work. That is how it is. But eventually I am on Tinsel.