INTERVIEW: Why I’m disappointed with Nollywood’s growth, by Wole Ojo

Wole Ojo is a Nigerian actor whose talent and versatility have earned him roles in various productions, including films, TV series, and stage plays. He has been featured in several Nollywood projects including ‘The Child’, ‘Maami’, ‘Coming From Insanity’, ‘Brave’, and ‘Cellmate’. In this interview with TheCable Lifestyle’s DEBORAH BODUNDE, the 40-year-old movie star reflects on his acting career, industry trends, and YouTube as a transformative platform for filmmakers. Ojo also critiques what he describes as the “disgustingly slow growth” of Nollywood while sharing his views on the sexualisation of movie characters.

Deborah Bodunde: Can you talk about your childhood?

Wole Ojo: My childhood was straightforward and humble. I’m the firstborn of three children. I grew up in Victoria Island, Lagos. My dad is from Oyo state and my mum is from Edo. I attended Police Children Primary School in Ikoyi and St Gregory College, then I studied theatre arts at the University of Lagos. I am from a humble home, nothing crazy.

Deborah Bodunde: Were you always interested in acting, or did you have other career aspirations as a child?

Wole Ojo: I was interested in a couple of things and some of them I will still chase when I’m towards retirement. But I have always wanted to be an actor and a filmmaker. From a tender age when my father saw that one of the ways I learned was through TV, he made sure I had access to TV, all the materials that were educational and musicals for children to help me study growing up.

Deborah Bodunde: How did winning the Amstel Malta Box Office competition shape your career?

Wole Ojo: Well, it helped in a way. Amstel Malta did what it could at the time. I think whatever disappointment I have is personal and not on the brand. I had some restrictions on what I could do being the winner but in hindsight, there is a whole lot that I could have still done that was within the boundaries of my contract with them. I think I didn’t utilise the opportunity well, I didn’t maximise what it could have done for my career. I was the winner for a year, I did the movie and it didn’t go that far but it got me an Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nomination for Most Promising Actor in 2010. I feel like I could have gotten more from the platform about how far it could have driven my career.

Deborah Bodunde: What was your first major acting role, and how did it feel stepping into Nollywood?

Wole Ojo: My first major acting role came at age nine. I worked with NTA for six years for a kiddies programme. I also worked with AIT and quite several television stations as a kid. The major one that everybody knew about was the Amstel Malta movie ‘The Child’. But I had played the leading male in many soap operas and series with the likes of Wale Adenuga. I featured in ‘This Life’, ‘Super Story’, ‘Village People’, ‘Fun Time,’ and more.

Deborah Bodunde: You’ve worked in film, television, and theater. Which medium do you find most fulfilling, and why?

Wole Ojo: I have worked in TV and theater, even as a child actor. For me, it is not a question of medium but a question of the production, and that entails the story, the purpose, and the reward. Personally, it’s about the success of the production in totality in regard to my performance, the output of the project, and how it is received by the audience.

Deborah Bodunde: What’s your opinion on the evolution of Nollywood, and where do you see the industry heading?

Wole Ojo: It really can head anywhere it wants to head, if I’m being honest. It all depends on how it is managed, how it is structured, and how policies are made, it’s a lot. Nollywood is a representation of the economy and the environment which it finds itself, which is Nigeria. Yeah, Nollywood has grown in some ways but at what rate is it growing and is the rate satisfactory? Can we do better? Can we earn better? Absolutely yes. There is a way that you look at growth depending on what your target is. The growth rate is disgustingly slow because of the information that we have available to us. It could be excused way back in the 80s and 90s because of the things we had available to us but now with what we have, there is no way the rate shouldn’t be bigger. And kudos to the people who are even championing it, who despite the restrictions are breaking bounds.

Thanks to AFRIFF, AMAA, and AMVCA for giving Nollywood filmmakers a platform to be awarded and recognised to do more. Thanks to producers like Mo Abudu, Niyi Akinmolayan, Kunle Afolayan, Jade Osiberu, Funke Akundele, Toyin Abraham, Femi Adebayo, Tunde Kelani … the list is endless. These people, despite Nigeria’s shortcomings, are still finding ways to make things work. Even the guys on YouTube because if not for YouTube, hunger dey hunger dey o. To the guys who opened the YouTube market, God bless them for exploring that platform to give actors opportunities.

Deborah Bodunde: What is your take on the recent YouTube trend amongst actors and filmmakers? Especially when there are other platforms like Netflix and Prime Video.

Wole Ojo: I think it is a good thing. It’s a means to an end, and for the producer, it’s a more accountable and quicker means to an end. When producers sell their movies to some big platforms, it takes forever for the movie to be verified before they get accepted, after which there is a long process you go through before getting paid. Some of these platforms also want to buy the project off the producer and they will have no claim to it. However, YouTube has given producers another option: they can own their movies forever. YouTube also pays monthly based on the views and this money is yours for life. I don’t think any producer is cutting deals on YouTube, everybody gets paid off for a project because in fairness the amount isn’t so great. It only becomes great depending on so many factors. It’s more like a numbers game. YouTube is just another means, it doesn’t mean that producers still don’t produce for other platforms. It has given producers more options to spread their tentacles.

Deborah Bodunde: There is a belief that women make more money than men in Nollywood due to their material possessions. How true do you think this is?

Wole Ojo: Women will be women. They like the finer things in life and they like people to see what they have, it gives them joy. Some women flash, some don’t. Everybody can’t be the same and so, that trickles down into Nollywood. When a woman acquires something she is happy to show off, men on the other hand don’t flash as much as women do. It doesn’t mean the men don’t have their own thing going for them. I might be naive but that is how I like to look at it. Some quite several actors have built their houses, bought cars, and flown business class— they don’t post it. To each his own.

Deborah Bodunde: On your 40th birthday, you posted an open letter to your future wife, calling her out for not finding you yet. What inspired you to write that?

Wole Ojo: Nothing inspired it, I was joking and playing but Nigerians decided to blast me online. It was just a random video that I saw and liked the night before my birthday. So I said this is how I’m swagging into my birthday, you know, dear future wife… it was just jokes. We have a lot of angry people and the post is not that deep. There was no thought to it, I was having fun.

Deborah Bodunde: In a previous interview, you mentioned your interest in marrying an older woman. What influenced that preference, and does it still hold today?

Wole Ojo: The people who ran that interview twisted my words. They asked me which set is more mature between older and younger women, it wasn’t about who I marry. And I answered the question by saying that in numbers there are more mature people among older women and that is just a function of age. For the younger ones, it doesn’t mean there are no young and mature women. There are some women that if they’re 19/20/21 they’re more mature than a 70-year-old woman. I didn’t even cite anybody, I said maturity can come from both ends but it is more on one end because of the functionality of age and experience. But when the interview came out, they twisted it saying Wole Ojo prefers older women. And many typical Nigerians didn’t click on the interview to read they just saw the headline and came to my DM to insult me.

Deborah Bodunde: You have been in the industry for a long time, have you ever been in a romantic relationship with any of your colleagues?

Wole Ojo: Oh yes absolutely, I have dated an actress before but I can’t share who it was. It was a very private relationship and it is none of the people they speculated that I’ve been with. Infact, the people they’ve speculated about sometimes I’ll be with their man, all of us will open it and start laughing together. You’ll never guess the person because we didn’t give any room for anybody to think and even people in the industry did not know.

Deborah Bodunde: Since this is something that has happened before, do you think dating a colleague would happen again?

Wole Ojo: I will date anybody that I fall in love with whether she’s an actor, a soldier or an astronaut. I’m not one of those people who say they can’t date from certain fields. What matters to me is finding the right person for me and also being the right person for that person. If we are aligned like that, then sure.

Deborah Bodunde: Have you ever experienced sexual harassment from men or women in the industry?

Wole Ojo: Well, it’s a topic I am not talking about. Thank you. I don’t like trouble, so I avoid any question that will disturb my peace of mind. But concerning sexual harassment, everybody will be okay.

Deborah Bodunde: What are your thoughts on the sexualisation of women in Nollywood, particularly the portrayal of sex scenes?

Wole Ojo: Is it only a woman shown on the scene? For a sex scene to happen there is a man and a woman. This should be more about the sexualisation of some characters in Nollywood, not just women. I’m not saying Nollywood hasn’t portrayed some female roles in a certain way but I’m just concerned that when this question is asked it is usually one-sided. I think sex in movies is a function of what the world has become, it is not just about Nollywood. The world is now a lot more flexible towards these things, children are now being exposed to what they’re not supposed to be exposed to, and parents are now mandated to have certain conversations with children.

Deborah Bodunde: Do you see yourself venturing into directing, producing, or other areas of filmmaking?

Wole Ojo: Oh absolutely. That is another thing I’m not going to talk about till it’s ready. Just keep your ears to the ground, something is coming.