Kunle Remi: How ‘Anikulapo’ threw me off my comfort zone

Kunle Remi, the Nollywood actor, says starring in ‘Anikulapo‘, the hit movie, threw him off his comfort zone.

The 33-year-old reflected on his experience in the movie when he featured on Rubbin’ Minds, the Channels Television programme.

Remi played the lead actor in the Kunle Afolayan-directed movie, which has continued to enjoy global recognition.

The actor said his experience in the movie was completely different from that of other projects.

“It threw me off my comfort zone you know, the standard I have grown to understand or practice, it was completely different, it was a longer period to shoot. It was also a language film in Yoruba ijile. It wasn’t just the Lagos Yoruba,” he said.

“I had to learn that. Reading it was easier because you had to read it with your mind but saying it was a different ball game. The pronunciations and the mannerism. It’s not just words, it’s also with the body so it took a lot.”

Speaking on how he got the role, he said: “Working with the director Kunle Afolayan, I did a movie with him previously that was A Naija Christmas. So that was the first time working with him and I think then he was like ‘hmm this guy’.

“So after the film fast forward a few months later, he calls me and said ‘can you speak Yoruba?’ and I said ‘yes I can’. I actually didn’t get it until a few days later he just called me and said ‘I’m sending you a script read it let me know what you think I read it and yea, I’ll do the work.”

LACK OF CONFIDENCE AFFECTED MY EARLY DAYS AS AN ACTOR

During the interview, Remi also revealed how a lack of confidence made him struggle in his early days as an actor.

“I have spent a decade in Nollywood… before I won the Gulder Ultimate Search reality show, I was trying to get into the movie industry, so I was doing more of commercial modelling and going for movie auditions but I never really got a role because I was not so confident.

“Then, I do the church drama and that of school but in normal movies, I lacked confidence because it was totally different. After winning the Gulder Ultimate Search, doors opened but I still wasn’t confident enough so I have to go to film school and since then, it’s been from one movie to another.”