Veteran actress, Opeyemi Ayeola, in an interview with SaharaWeekly talked about the main reasons she left the scene and why she relocated to the UK. She also made known her intention and plans she has for her career.
Excerpts below:
Q- HAVE you relocated to Nigeria?
R- No, I’ve not. I just come from time to time to work. I have my children over there.
Q- Is it not stressful to come and work here?
R- It’s not. It is not stressful at all. It is something I enjoy doing and I keep doing it and I want to keep doing and my husband is very supportive.
Q- didn’t you miss your fans and the industry while living in UK?
R- I wouldn’t lie to you, I did miss them but my children and husband have made up for it.
Q- Things have gone different now unlike before, what have been the challenges?
R- Well, things are now different. Sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way. It depends. Sometimes I feel good about it and sometimes I don’t feel too good about it so it depends on the angle I’m looking at it from. We have a lot of producers around unlike we used to. We now have a lot of youths that are doing very well which is the good part of i9t and we have too many people doing too many wishy-washy things. I think it is balancing itself. We have positive things and negative things.
Q- strangely, you still remain relevant..( cuts in)
R- I kind of feel it is grace. A lot of my colleagues can’t even leave for a year, they would want to die or something. I think it is by his mercies and grace of God. I have left for over 5years or more and I’m so honored and grateful to all my friends, fans, people who know me and those that don’t for accepting me back. It is just grace.
Q- The latest film we’ve seen you in was the one with Ibrahim shatta and it was wonderful. How have you been able to maintain that talent and zeal?
R- Well, it is a talent and a story in the bible says if you don’t use your talent well, God will take it from you. So, it is a talent I have to use to glorify God, glorify people God surrounded me with, and use it to entertain people. It is a talent and I’m not the kind of person that feels she knows everything. I learn a lot from new actors that are good and veterans. I’m back now and I have to try and meet up with the trends. It’s a second face for me.
Q- So, what are you working on presently?
R- Right now, I don’t have my own project yet because I just released my latest production and I need to give it sometime to sell. It’s a mixture of English and Yoruba. I’m a Yoruba speaking person, Yoruba films made me and I’ll never forget my root but this one is a mixture of Yoruba and English reason being that I want my message to cross every angle. Speaking English directly from the film helps a lot, it helps with the sales. It also helps in passing across the message to the audience.
Q- If you had the opportunity, would you take the decision of leaving the country?
R- Yes, I would because I’ve my lovely children. I never regretted leaving the country because my children are priceless. I had to take that break to have them. They are my joy, they are more than anything but maybe I would have done that differently and not go just li9ke that because I see it as fortune to come back and be accepted and that is why I said it is grace working for me. So, I would have done that differently rather than just going like that.
Q- why not stick to Nigeria because of your career?
R- You want my husband to send me out of the house? (Laughs) I come like three times in a year and I love it. I struggle. The weather alone makes me struggle. I’ve never lived in a posh place, never worked in a posh place. I’m used to the traffic, the noise, it makes me feel I’m living, I missed it.
Q- What has kept your marriage going?
R- The first thing is there is no smooth marriage. We have our differences and our times. I’m sure he has got times when he feels like ‘oh God, why did I marry this person’’? Marriage is two different people with different upbringing, different mentality, different religion, and different beliefs coming together. There will be clashes. What I think has kept my marriage moving is prayer. When you put God in the middle of a particular subject, it is going to go well. I’ve got times when I feel like packing my bags and leave; he has got times like that too. I tell people that celebrities marriages break, don’t blame the person involved. What about the other party? Do you know what he is throwing at that person? Let me give you a typical example. My husband met me acting, if not for acting, he wouldn’t have noticed me; maybe we wouldn’t have crossed part. Now we are married, you know acting is my desire and my dream and I have to do it but he says no more acting, it is cancelled. We are going to clash. Marriage won’t work. I’ll implore people to think about the other party too. I’m not saying my marriage isn’t going to last but if it doesn’t, don’t blame me. I’m human too; I’ve got flesh, blood and water flowing into my body.
Q- Though you are married, you definitely have male admirers, how do you handle your male fans?
R- I tell my husband that anytime I go out and nobody admires me, Forget the fact that I don’t wear jewel, then something is wrong with me. It is either my pancake isn’t working or I need to change my make-up or the way I dress or something. My admirers make me know if I’m still in the market or not so I tell my husband that he shouldn’t mess with me because if he does, another person will catch my fish. So I try my best, I’m a married woman. There is little I can do to help situation. If you want a relationship with me, unfortunately, there is nothing I can do concerning that. If you want to be friends with me, why not? I try to be as friendly as I can but everything has a limit. I have to consider my husband before doing stuffs with someone.