Entertainment which is well known to be a show business,
with its prose and cones .Popular Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu, often known
to acting roles of a wicked man in movies, who act such roles so real that many of his fans seems to believe that is his real character. In this chat with Showtime Celebrity, he
explains that the negative reaction of fans towards his wicked roles is what
actually led him into acting comic roles.
Read the interview below.
You seem to have an
affinity for comedies; why is that?
I wouldn’t call it affinity. Years ago, I found out that
most of the scripts that were brought to me didn’t have comic relief; I was
always given roles of a wicked man and I got to understand that most of my fans
were not pleased with it. Some of them felt it was something real, and the
consequence was that whenever I stepped out in public, I was caught in
embarrassing situations. I then decided to be infusing comic relief even when
I’m playing wicked characters because I’m a veteran screen writer. In the early 80s, we were
operating in NTA Enugu, which was formerly Anambra Television Channel 50, so
the talent is there, and I combined it with the wicked roles they were giving
me. The result is that when you are watching me play a wicked role, you will
still have cause to laugh, and ease your tension. In fact, I have achieved a
lot by doing that.
Can you share
instances when fans reacted to you with the belief that you’re a wicked man?
They have done daring things. Some of their actions look
like attacks, but with my experience as an entertainer, I will say I saw all
that coming, so I was able to manage all of them very well. But one day, while
I was on Onitsha ‘Head Bridge’ on my way to
Asaba, there was this traffic snarl that made us come out of the car. One
fan came to hail me and slap me on the shoulder in the course of appraising my
unique style of acting. Some other persons cautioned him, and he fired back by
saying, ‘Don’t you know this man is my all-in-all? He makes me happy; whenever
I’m not happy, I just slot in his movie, and I become happy.’ That was an
embarrassing incident, but I saw it coming because that was the period I was
playing evil diabolical roles. However, I also touch lives, because sometimes
when we shoot movies, it’s like we’re telling some people’s life story. You
know, talking about what happens in various families where wicked uncles deal
with their nephews and things like that. But like I said earlier, I thank God
that I have found a way of getting people to laugh at the same time they watch
me play wicked roles.
Is there any role you
would love to play that you’ve not had the opportunity to?
I am planning my own production outfit, and the name of my
company is Chukwuwetalu Films. By the grace of God, when we take off, I’m going
to be playing roles such as a true man of God, a romantic figure, and other
characters that people haven’t really seen me portray. My fan clubs all over
the world will then have the opportunity to see me doing well in those areas.
Some people say that
Nigerian actors are not properly trained; what do you have to say about that?
We can’t do without film schools. There should be regular
workshops where actors will be trained and retrained because all we have been
doing mostly came from no background. But I will still commend our people
because without a solid background, they have been able to prove their mettle,
and I know that everything is going to improve in terms of acting when these
schools start working and people go there on regular basis to get trained. It
will help the industry grow better.
Recently, a picture
of you grabbing the boobs of an actress, Anita Joseph, on a movie set went
viral; what really happened?
They are my daughters. It was a story, and we were playing
our roles. Maybe you didn’t have time to watch that movie to understand what
was going on. The main character in that movie was Ini Edo who was rascally,
and more of a tom-boy. If she fought with my daughters, she would defeat them,
so I did everything to prepare strong grounds for them to overpower her, but it
wasn’t possible. So I said since that failed, let’s look for another way to
prepare them to live their lives, so that any suitor who sees them will fall in
love and marry them. That way, they will be useful since they failed in
fighting a common enemy. The scene that went viral was where I was dressing
them up for a burial ceremony that was coming up where I expected men to see
them, and to find them attractive enough to take as wives. You know women’s
bust plays a very big role in attracting any man who comes as a suitor, but
people who wanted sensation made the picture go viral to sell their media. If I
tell you now that I help some children in the motherless baby’s home, it may
not be as sensational as when they say that I raped a minor.
But how does your
wife react to scenes like that?
If I have up to one million fans, my wife will be number
one. The greatest joy she derives is watching me act; no matter how negative
the role is, because she is the only person that knows me better than anyone
else since we live together. She knows how gentle and wonderful I am. She also
knows how philanthropic I am because I always love to help humanity. So when
she sees me in those kinds of scenes, she knows I’m just acting. Each time I
churn out a catch-phrase, byline or slogan, she laughs so hard that even the
person who is one mile away will hear the sound. She doesn’t find anything I do
in films embarrassing at all; the reverse is the case.
You mean she even
tells you to do it better if she feels it’s not good enough?
Yes, she chips in her own advice on how to make my acting
more comical. She knows I’m a very strong comic character; comedy is in my
nature, and that is the first thing that makes her happy that I’m her husband.
There are some husbands that always have hard countenances, and their wives
fear them, but I’m not like that. As far as I’m concerned, she is my biggest
fan.
Is any of your
children taking after you?
My second son is comical in nature. At times, he goes out of
his way to wear women’s dress to make caricature out of some ideas. Then my
first son; each time I return from anywhere, he greets me with the slogan of my
last movie he watched. One of my daughters is a fashion designer, and whenever
she dresses herself up, she looks more attractive and fashionable than any
other girl of her age. The creative nature runs in the family and I’m sure that
when they all come out of school, they are going to fit into my company because
it’s going to be a conglomerate by God’s grace, producing many titles, including comedy, tragedy, and many others.
I’m also going to be involved in distributing directly to houses and offices.
So you encourage them
to take it serious?
Why not? Their school fees come from what I’m doing, their
feeding, and everything about their welfare comes from this. They have shown
the flair already; all I have to do is encourage them.
How do you intend to
surmount piracy with your company?
I believe that the biggest problem in the industry is
piracy. About five years ago, I went to NIPOST in course of carrying out a
survey on how to make marketing work and beat piracy. I bought a book called
post codes from NIPOST, and it contains all the street codes and numbers in
Nigeria. After that, I went to the National Population Commission (NPC), Abuja,
to get two of their books which contained records ending 2006. When I start my
company, my subscribers, who will be up to 50million, will be paying into a
designated account. Whenever anybody pays, the official vehicles of my company,
will deliver the consignment either to the person’s house or office wherever
they are in the country. The movies will not be sold on the open market, so if
you see it in the open market, everybody will know it’s a pirated copy.
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