Iyabo Ojo is a popular actress who has carved a niche for herself as a successful thespian. In an exclusive chat with Sahara Weekly, she opened up on her career, family and love life. Excerpts…
What Has Iyabo Ojo Been Up to?
Iyabo Ojo has been busy shooting, producing movies, I just finished shooting another movie of mine, yet to be released. It’s called Black Valentine, that’s my third English movie production. It’s a movie about love and the situation that go on in marriages; a lot of people get married and forget all the romance that came before. It’s a story that deals with how people deal with pain and reasons why we get married, sacrifices that comes with it basically.
This is your third consecutive English production, what informed this switch in genres?
I started with the English sector, but I made my fame in the Yoruba sector which I’m grateful for. I’m not totally living the Yoruba industry. Right now the Yoruba industry is experiencing a shakeup, and since I’ve started producing good movies I do not want to drop my standard. I’ve always said it that whenever I make my return to the English movie industry, I would like to do so with a bang; produce my own English cinema movies, and that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. I am trying to realize that dream. I’ve got Silence, it’s been in the cinemas- Silver bird, Viva cinema, and it’s going to be released in the market very soon. Silence is about child abuse. Beyond disability will also be going to the cinema very soon. My distributor is at the moment looking for a suitable date. Once that goes to the cinema it would also be released in the market. Black valentine is still in the post production stages.
A lot of people have been saying silence did not have a good outing, and that you did not do enough publicity for it, what can you tell us about it?
I think there is enough publicity for silence, because I ran into a lot of people who always wanted to know when the movie would start showing and when we would be releasing it. Yes it had a little bit of an hiccup at a point. I had a personal issue with the owner of E24-7 and he decided to attack me with his professional pen. He wrote about silence not doing well at the cinemas, and thank God a lot of people went to check the movie out. Initially, we had an issue with the time slot that was allocated to us at the Silver bird cinemas because silence was placed in the mornings and a lot of people go to work and they want to see the movie in the evening, but in the second week they gave us a better slot. Apart from that, the movie did well and it’s a project I’m very proud of.
How was the experience of shooting an English cinema movie With A Mixed Cast?
I’ve always said I’d love to mix cast, that’s bringing Yoruba and English actors together. We also spoke a bit of Yoruba though we had more of English speaking in it. The experience was beautiful, having to work with a lot of different actors that haven’t worked together before, and having a fantastic director like Alex Mouth come do justice to the story. It was beautiful. It’s a story that I also got to play a very unique role not my regular kind of roles. It was expensive, but was fun.
The Movie Stared Your Daughter in A lead Role, How Were You Able to Mix the Role of Both Mother and Colleague?
Yes, my daughter knows that once she’s on set its not mother and daughter anymore. She has to do her job and get her lines right. She’s a professional now and she also desires to study theatre arts in the university. Sometime, she’s as passionate about it as I am. Luckily for her, I’ve been able to create that platform for her. So when she’s working, she’s working and when we are off the camera we are back to mother and daughter relationship.
She’s Been Getting A Lot of Accolades and Appraisal Lately, How Do You Help Her Manage All the Attention and Her Education
I do try to keep a balance. For instance she doesn’t use her phone from Mondays to Fridays. She’s only allowed on weekends. So she still has her full concentration on her studies, and she is also doing well in school. She’s a social prefect and she’s coping very well. I’m someone who knows how to manage everything that comes my way, and I would say she learnt that from me. She is not carried away by the fact that she’s an actress. She doesn’t even remember. Sometimes, she says people try to take pictures with her and I have to tell her it’s because she’s a bit popular. And she’s oblivious to that. If she wasn’t doing well in school then I would certainly have a problem with it. She’s in all of my three movies.
Asides Your Own Movies You Have Also Been Starring in a Couple of English Movies, What’s The Major Difference You See between the Yoruba and English Sector
Lately, I have been invited to star in some cinema movies, and when you are shooting for cinema its quite different from when you are shooting for straight to DVD. So to compare would not be appropriate because I have not had the opportunity to shoot a regular English movie. But for a few that I have seen, I would say we in the Yoruba sector are also doing well. The only difference I would say is that we do not pay ourselves very much like they do. We put a lot of sentiments into it, they don’t do that, it’s very professional. Once you are done, you can go back to being friends. Yoruba has been doing so well. so I would not say the difference is that much.
How About Problems with Ethnic Difference?
Funny enough I have not been able to work with people whom I have noticed any tribalism issues going on with, it’s been good, I have worked with Jessica on her set and I was well appreciated, I have worked with Halima Abubakar and I was treated right, I have worked with Desmond as well so I really haven’t had a bad experience so far.
You Are Always Busy with One Project or the Other, Even Asides acting, how do you juggle all of your many projects together?
My sister, I’m a workaholic. its only when you are one that you will enjoy doing so many things at the same time. And I’m a single parent, not a single mother of two, I have 6 children, two are biologically mine and four adopted. My mum is there, a lot of other people are there. So I have to work, I don’t have a choice. What I do is plan my schedule properly. When I’m busy shooting, I have professionals handling my business and once I’m done its back to business, except I’m called up to act in a movie. Now I’m very selective of the movies I star in. I’m a little bit sentimental when it comes to certain people I can’t say no to, because I believe when you are out there too much you lose value. I look up to people like Joke Silva and Bukky Wright. they are not in every movie yet they remain relevant. Thus, I try to emulate that. The most important thing is I plan my life. I leave the office by 6, and spend the rest of the day with my kids. Sometimes I can take off three days and stay home just to be with the kids. I try to give every single business and people close to me my attention. You just have to know how to balance things.
Would You Say the Fact That Being A Celebrity Has Helped You To Succeed More In The Spa Business?
Well, my face did help. if I say it’s not helping I would be lying. It has helped greatly. But it’s not yet where I want it to be; until I come in and everywhere is full all the time. For now, sometimes it is and sometimes it’s not. It’s still a growing business, Fespris is just a year and some months, but if I compare with other businesses of my friends that we opened at the same time, I would say God has been good to me and I try to maintain that pace. So yes in a way my status has helped.
You Are One Of The First People That Diversified To Other Businesses From Acting, Right Now It Has Become A Trend, What Would You Say Is Responsible For This?
Its good, like when I wanted to open this place a lot of my colleagues expressed their concern about how I was going to cover the expenses. But I kept telling them you have to be doing something else apart from acting. Especially we in the Yoruba sector we do not pay ourselves that much and you can’t keep depending on that. We have to survive. Thus, try and get something else doing. It’s something I’ve always preached. So seeing my colleagues’ take a cue is a good thing. There are so many people in the industry now. The industry is growing and there are so many challenges and movies are not doing as well as they used to because of piracy. And so people have to find other things. It’s something I really encourage, and that’s why you see that when most of them open their outlets I’m always there to support them.
Does Piracy Scare You From Releasing Dvd Movies?
It scares everybody, but I really don’t have a choice. We have to release the movies. But luckily for me, I have got a very good marketer who is handling the release. He’s really working on making sure when silence comes out we curb the piracy a little. We are still hoping and begging God that the government will really come to our aid. Entertainment has been a great source of income for Nigeria. It’s also giving the country a good name, considering the fact that we are the 3rd best movie industry in the world, and all this years of hard labor cannot go down the drain. The government needs to implement a more stringent and effective law against piracy, because its daylight robbery. A lot of people have fallen and never gotten up as a result. I’m just one of the very few lucky ones. Look at October 1st, 30 Days In Atlanta, what if this people didn’t have other means. They need to create a discipline body solely for the pirates, get them off the streets for good. Everyone is scared really.
There’s FESPRIS Academy, and The Pinkies Foundation, are they still in existence?
Oh yes they are and they are doing very well. Pinkies foundation has been in existence for four years now. We are going to be having our visitation very soon, doing what we do best, next year we will be five years and we are planning to have a big event for kids with disabilities. We are still very much intact doing what we do.
You are a very busy person, is marriage still in the cards for You?
Being busy doesn’t stop me from remarrying. It’s a different subject on its own, and I’m not someone who believes that compulsorily I have to remarry; I’m also not against it. If it comes fine; if it doesn’t, all well and good. I’m happy and that’s the most important thing. I’m successful with whatever it is I’m doing. My kids are doing well and that’s my greatest achievement. if its companionship I have a man in my life that takes very good care of me, supports my career to the fullest and takes care of my kids so I’m happy. If marriage comes out of it fine, because I’m not looking forward to having more kids. I heard a rumor that I’m pregnant. Hell no! I’m done with that phase right now. They don’t need to get a shrink to psych me to get pregnant again. Honestly, I’ve been out of child bearing for the past fourteen years. I have kids I take care off. So what more? Thus, to me marriage is the in thing, but like I said, never say never. Tomorrow my man may say it’s time to go to the altar, I could meet someone else, but whoever it is I’m going to get married to, we would have to court for at least two to three years. The reason is because I’m too busy to know too many things within a short courtship.
What’s next for iyabo Ojo?
I would like to open a restaurant. I like cooking and I’m still working on that. I’m just trying to put every other thing I’m doing now in place. I wouldn’t want my other businesses to suffer. When I’m well prepared I’m definitely going to do that. Also I used to have a dance school for kids. I’ve been planning to come back to that. Also in few years from now maybe have my own talk show. Basically I enjoy working. I also have Fespris outfit where we take care of event management. I basically use it to get ladies jobs and keep them busy.