Funke Akindele Interview

Y ou must be one of Nigeria?s top actresses. How does it feel to be so appreciated?
I am so happy and I feel so honoured. It is not easy to be among the top actresses. It makes me so happy. Then again, it means I should keep working harder. I want to continue to make good statements with my movies.

You started with ?I need to Know?...
No. That series started in 1998. I started acting in 1997 in Opa Williams? Naked Wire. I did one or two other movies but played minor roles before I had the lead role in I Need to Know. Since then, I have been acting.

You must have been a secondary school student when you featured in ?I Need to Know?.
No! I was in my first year in UNILAG. I was not a teenager, but I had to play the role of a teenager. When I started, I had a problem with the role. My director was always telling me that I wasn?t getting it. I had to sit my younger sister down and listen to her talk.
When did you get into movies properly?

I would say in 2004 when I produced my first movie.
Then I continued. I produced Itanu, Taiwo Taiwo and some others. But I think the major one that made a statement was Jenifa. Everybody, not only the Yoruba, are watching the movie. They appreciate it.
I have been having several breaks since I started doing movies, but Jenifa was the biggest break ever. I wrote and produced it.

How did you get the inspiration to write such a movie?
The inspiration came from a story that my sister told me. She told me about some girls going for a party in Abuja from school. Fortunately for them, the girl sent a text to the person she was sending the girls to, telling him to ?settle? her and that the girls were on their way. She mistakenly sent the text to one of the girls and that was how they knew that something funny was happening.

This ?Aristo? thing is really gaining ground in our institutions. Yes, many know that AIDS is real and all that, but they are yet to change their lifestyle. So, I asked myself how I could pass the message to the youth. What else could I do to make these girls understand without repeating what the others have done? I needed to bring in a new dimension. That was why I brought in the comedy aspect. I brought in the village girl character who wanted to ?belong?. We have so many people like that on our campuses.

When you were writing the script, did you imagine the movie would be a hit?
I knew it would make an impact, but I didn?t know it would be this big. I wrote it several times. I tore the script and wrote it over and over again. I wanted something that would touch lives. My aim was for it to touch people and for them to learn a lesson from the movie. In all, I thank God.

Some people say a part of you was in that movie.
Were you wayward in school?
No. Way back in school, I never attended such parties.
I never did ?Aristo? because I have a mom who is very strict. She was always watching my back. She was always coming to my school unannounced. She would drive down late to the school to find out if I was in school or not.
Even till date, she still keeps tabs on me. If I stay out late, she would call me and ask me to come home.

You are still living with your mom?
Yes. In Yorubaland, it is not really good for a lady to live on her own until a man comes to take her. It is better you stay with your parents. It gives you more dignity. The man would respect you. He will come and ask them for your hand in marriage and then he would take you to his house.
We learnt ?Jenifa? has really swelled your pocket.
I am okay. I thank God. I am not a flamboyant person.
I am comfortable, and I thank God.
But you got yourself an SUV with the larges.
No, I had my SUV before I released Jenifa.
Was it the one they said a man bought for you? It is a big lie.
Okay, but the marketer bought a big car for your mother.
I was shocked when I heard that story. It is so unbelievable. I bought a car for my mom. I work hard.