I had to learn a Hausa accent for latest role – Mofe Duncan

You recently got married. How are you finding it? Marriage is bliss. I am totally enjoying it. I have a wonderful wife who is very understanding, loving and caring, and genuinely loves me. I’ve never seen anything like how she treats me. It’s easy for us, because 90% of the time we’re on the same […]

You recently got married. How are you finding it?
Marriage is bliss. I am totally enjoying it. I have a wonderful wife who is very understanding, loving and caring, and genuinely loves me. I’ve never seen anything like how she treats me. It’s easy for us, because 90% of the time we’re on the same page. The other 10% is probably when I want to watch football and she wants to watch her own thing. It’s truly what I always imagined and more. She’s truly beautiful inside and out, and since the first day I laid my eyes on her, I knew she was the one.
How did you go from Biological Sciences to entertainment?
Right from when I was young, I have always had a knack for entertainment and being involved in something like drama or music. My first professional gig was a role in ‘Edge of Paradise.’ I was heading to a lecture one day while a cast was on location and the director called out to me saying: ‘fine boy come and read this line.’ I did and I guess that’s where my talent was discovered. It wasn’t something that I had planned to do. I come from a very strict professional background. My father is a professor of Medicine; my sisters are doctors one is married to a surgeon. So when I went into entertainment, it was like going away from the family’s line and so it wasn’t accepted. But now they have all embraced it.
The director called you ‘fine boy.’  Is that something you hear often?
I am grateful. The thing is that I don’t wake up in the morning and look in the mirror to psych myself. I know when I am looking good or what I am to wear but I don’t use extra cream to remove a spot. I just make sure I am well-moisturized and I go out. Most times, I am shy when people tell me I am handsome, and I don’t know how to accept the complement.
What project are you working on?
Right now I am in Abuja, working on a drama series for Ebony Life Television called ‘Sons of the Caliphate.’ It is a good script, and it is my first Northern Nigerian role, where I get to talk with a Hausa accent. I play the son of a billionaire who is put under a knife because of political gains and interest. It is directed by Kenneth Gyang, and it is my first time working with him. I am really enjoying the experience. There’s great team work here, and everybody is willing to help me with my accent. The series is about power, wealth, betrayal, love and others. It is a very good script, and I can’t wait to see it come out.
What is your guilty pleasure?
I love wristwatches, bracelets and necklaces. I don’t think for the past ten years I have been seen without any of these items. I must have them on my body. I can also spend my last penny buying a videogame, precisely PlayStation 4. Not like I play much, I just buy them and keep.
The grapevine was once abuzz that you had a relationship with Stella Damasus. What’s the real story?
It was a rumour. Stella and I are very good friends. We were friends even before her husband died. I was very protective towards her. I realized that before I could go into the industry, I needed to learn the ropes and to work behind the stage, learn the business part of the craft before I can start making money from it. For me, to learn the business part of acting I had to be someone’s manager. You can’t learn from someone who is also learning how to drive, so I needed someone who was already groomed in acting and music. My sister introduced Stella to me as a friend, and I started working with her. I never dated her. Someone was being paid to give information that would discredit her. I was also in a relationship at the time that also suffered because of the rumours, spread to make her look bad. It wasn’t until a month later that we realized.
What is on your bucket list, and how much of it have you accomplished?
I am five years behind time. I wanted to be married at twenty-five, but got married at thirty-two. I thought I’d have a kid by now. I think I have done about 60% of my bucket list. What I still want to do is to start my foundation where I would help children in primary and secondary school, to have some kind of push when it comes to the industry. I want to be the go-to guy when you talk about certain issues in the industry, like a teacher in a class. I still want to do a movie with Denzel Washington and Will Smith. I haven’t gotten around that, I keep sending Will Smith emails but he doesn’t reply me.
Then, I actually see myself in a selfie with Kim Kardashian. I almost did when she came to Nigeria, but I was scared to bring out my phone. I also want to start my clothing line, which has been haunting me since I was a kid, so I am working on it now.
Is there something you didn’t do, but wish you did at the time?
I was in year one in the University of Lagos, there was this girl that I really liked and I learnt that she was having problems with her boyfriend who happened to be my friend and the guy kept talking to me about it. I just allowed the relationship die. I didn’t have anything with her when they were dating, but after they broke up, we hooked up, but wished I went the whole way. I hope neither of them reads this interview.
I read something of you saying you are still best friends with your ex-girlfriend Liza Scott. Is your wife okay with that?
Liza and I had a bad break up. I was very mature about it because I don’t like my name being tarnished. So what I do is that I try to be friends with people I have had a problem with. Liza and I are not really friends like that, I don’t even have her current number, but if she ever needs any help she knows she can always call me. My wife is very understanding.
Back to acting, what has been your most difficult character to portray so far?
I played a guy once in a drama series and he was so far away from my personality. He had a wife whom he beat. His character was so different from me. It was quite difficult to be that character because he was very angry, and aggressive. I have five sisters, so as an actor I had to find the anger from somewhere to lash out at the girl who was my friend – her name is Omawunmi Dada – and also be aggressive towards her. At one point in the storyline, I broke down. At a time, in the movie, she was in a coma and the actor had to talk to her body. I was jittery on set and couldn’t stop crying.
Physically, what part of your appearance did you have to change drastically for a role?
The part I am playing now in ‘Sons of the Caliphate’ has had me shave my beard, which I like because it makes me look mature. I also had to lose weight in Katsina, because the character required a slim frame. It was tough because I was on a diet, exercising and running.