No doubt one of the masters of the art in Nigeria. YemI Solade is in a class of his own despite focusing on Yoruba movies. He is however highly sought after by producers of TV dramas in the country as the actor has carved a niche for himself as a master of Soap Opera in Nigeria and has for while now been scarce in Nollywood movies while he plays more lead roles in a countless number of TV series. Morakinyo Olugbiji had a chat with the actor.
You were recently honoured with a lifetime achievement award, how do you feel?
I didn’t expect a life achievement award. I didn’t know I have done so much to be elevated to the level of legend, because you only do that to legends. I am just a season actor, I know I have done like 40 years in acting and I wouldn’t want to agree easily that I should be given a life achievement award. It is a challenge for me to do more and I will forever be grateful for the award.
What do you do aside acting?
I take care of my family. I’m a husband and father, and I run the family (laughs), I work so that I won’t go hungry.
You do more of soap opera nowadays
I will say it’s a matter of choice, I decide what I want to do at any particular time. For 20 years I dominated Yoruba movies and I felt I needed more challenge and mind you, we all started from TV. We started from series, soap opera and we started Nollywood in 1988 and I felt I have catered for a set of people and I needed to open up more and English language being the Lingua Franca of Nigeria, so I decided that my fans who are not from the Yoruba speaking part to enjoy my artistry. So what I do is to blend both. I swing like a pendulum, I criss-cross, I shoot Yoruba movies and I select those ones I feature in. For the last 9 years now, I have been selecting Yoruba movies but I do more of television drama like u have pointed out.
Let’s talk about piracy….
Piracy is a phenomenon we can’t kill but can only fight it and how much of fight that we do will be determined by the government of the day. Piracy is as bad as smuggling and armed robbery; because these pirates are armed, they go with arms, they can kill. Yes, they carry guns. So it’s only the government that can help arrest them. When president BuharI came in, he made an announcement that the military should team up with the entertainment industry to fight piracy. I don’t know what the leaders in the industry are doing. I don’t have an office as an executive of any association but as an individual, and I don’t do producing, so I don’t have any product in the market that are being pirated but as a stakeholder, I can lend my voice to the fight. Once we have the government behind us, then we can begin to fight piracy the way it should. We hope the executive members of all professional bodies will key into what president BuharI has said. I am not in any executive position to do anything. Anything the association say, I key into it.
Although there are many brilliant actors in the Nigerian movie industry, many have criticised the poor quality of acting of a lot of our actors. How can we ensure quality control in the industry?
Quality control can come about if we sanitise the system. I don’t believe in any practitioner not undergoing training. When I say training, I’m not talking about going to learn acting as an apprentice under another actor. I want everyone to attend a formal training programme, either in a University, theatre art school or a Film school that is approved and notable. We have a few of them around, but the youth these days are just mentally lazy. They want a shortcut. They just want to start moving around with an established face and the next thing is to claim, they are now also in Nollywood. Talent is not enough. I’m not saying you must spend four years. But then what is four years. Being an actor goes beyond acting alone, it is also about the ethics, art of public speaking and many other life skills. You can’t get all that from just being an apprentice.
You seem to have kept a clean record of bad press especially with your family which many consider one of the most enviable celeb families in Nigeria. How do you do it?
I won’t say that I haven’t had my share of bad press. I wouldn’t say I have not had what anyone would term as scandalous. I have, but they are all laughable ones because the characters I was linked with are people I have never set my eyes on. I don’t know them, but they want to have a forceful friendship with me and when i’m not interested, they went to the public to assassinate my character and unfortunately, Nigerian bloggers felt they should celebrate them. But then, I had to let it go. Those things don’t pull a single strand of hair on my body because I know who I am. I run a lovely family which is like a model family. A lot of people envy what they see.
Despite acting in English soap operas, why do you feature in Yoruba movies only and not English movies?
My brother, there is nothing Ike English movies in Nigeria. We shoot Nigerian movies. Let me define Nollywood. There is a sector called ‘Igbonglish’. That’s a fusion of Nigerian English and Igbo dialect. When you watch these movies, you will hear them speak Igbo dialect. together with Nigerian English. Is that English? Nope! Someone is talking and his gesticulations are a reflection of his dialect, that can’t be English. When you hear something like “Eh! Over my dead body” that is not English because the Brits will not do that. And then even with the pronunciation, you will know where this set of people come from. So it’s not English. There is also the “Yorubanglish” part of it. There is the “Deltanglish” part too. There is also Kannywod. I have been in England where we were watching the so called Nollywood English movies, and the Brits were asking me, “Yemi, why wasn’t this movie subtitled?It should be subtitled.” You see, the owners of the language could not comprehend what our actors were saying. We watch movies from even America that are subtitled, because the English language in America is acculturated. So we have Nigerian English. Nigerians would say, “come and go and buy”, that’s Yoruba English. “Let me come and stand up and go”. You don’t call that English. Because see, I had A1 in English language. I have a PhD in Drama and Society. YemI Solade is one of the most educated Actors in Nigeria. I made bold to say that. I have three masters in three different fields. I am one of the most educated. I’m bold to say because I know. I had A-one in English like I said, I had a PH.D in Drama and Society. My decison to shoot in indigenous language is because I’m proud of who are I am. I’m proud to be a Yoruba. I am very pan African. I eat in Bukas.I don’t eat in all this funky restaurant because i’m not fake. I don’t try to change my name to sound foreign like some Nigerian actors. Why would I want to bear Frank Johnson. My name is YemI Solade.
Do you have any plans to go into politics because seriously you look like one?
Well, what I can tell you is that I’m a chief from Abeokuta, Ogun state. I don’t know how politicians look and I don’t go to meet with them. I know a few of them, but I am never subservient to them. They are my servant, they come to serve me and go. Yemi Solade remains. For the good ones, EFCC will not chase them about. EFCC will never chase me because I don’t eat from the national cake. Producers pay me and I feed from what they pay. Nobody will ask me to account for that. Now, asking me whether I want to go into politics; politics is not a profession. I just think it is a hobby. If you ask me who Babatunde Raji Fashola is, I would tell you he is a lawyer. Ask me who Bola Tinubu is, I will tell you he is an account. If you ask me who Lagos state governor Akinwumi Ambode is, I will he is an account also. Anybody can be a politician, there politics is not a profession. Even graduates of political science don’t go into politics. How many people who studied politics are actually practicing politics. I knew of only Dr. Chuba Okadigbo who had a Ph.D in Political Science.
How do you keep looking good and young all the time?
My look is genealogical. We look like this in my family. It runs in the family. This is how God created me. I’m over fifty now, but this is how It is in my family. Even the beards. I only maintain it by shaving and I try to keep general hygiene for my skin. I think I’m loving myself the way I am.
