‘If I live 10 times, I would still be an actor’

Weekend Magazine: Tell us a little about what you do? Joe Okechukwu: I am a film actor, producer and occasionally, I direct. WM: How many movies have you featured in? Okechukwu: I have featured in close to a hundred movies. WM: What do you find most interesting being an actor? Okechukwu: What I find most […]

Weekend Magazine: Tell us a little about what you do?

Joe Okechukwu: I am a film actor, producer and occasionally, I direct.

WM: How many movies have you featured in?

Okechukwu: I have featured in close to a hundred movies.

WM: What do you find most interesting being an actor?

Okechukwu: What I find most interesting being an actor is the fact that you get to become too many things that you naturally are not. At the same time you have so much fun while you’re making money.

WM: You must have made so much money so far, I guess?

Okechukwu: Just a little bit, but we’re getting there.

WM: What do you consider your favourite movie so far?

Okechukwu: My favourite movie of all time is Alice My First Lady

WM: What is it about?

Okechukwu: Alice My First Lady is about this man who got married to a young woman he fell in love with, what in the western world you call the high school sweet heart and his family was not in support of the marriage and he went ahead and married the girl anyway.

WM: Where you the one?

Okechukwu: I happened to be the lucky and unlucky man and it didn’t go well for a while and suddenly his family’s fears were now confirmed in the fact that she became a rebel. She became a very troublesome wife. A lot of things started happening. She was fighting all over the place and it pushed this guy to go marry another young nice lady called Akunne. This first one descends on Akunnne and beats the living day life out of her every time. You know it was just like a lot of chaos. It’s just more like saying that the movie brought out some of the pains of wrongheaded polygamy. I cannot tell you that every polygamous home is wrong headed or that it brings quarrel; there are some polygamous families that still live in peace. So, I think most of what people get scared of in polygamy, you can see that in Alice My First Lady. They are very natural things. It is a movie where we have a lot of transitions, you have craziness, you have comedy and you have the normal drama and all kinds of stuff. Unlike a drama you watch everyday like drama, romantic, action. This has the different parts to it.

WM: Did you choose to be an actor from the onset?

Okechukwu: I have always been called to be an actor. Why did I say that? Because back in the days when I was much younger, I used to entertain my entire family. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was usually comedy and I don’t like comedy then. What I used to do for my family then was comedy and then everybody will laugh. I mean even if you were so stone angry, you just get to where I was talking you just laugh. I was able to mimic people a lot and stuffs like that. Then, my mother kept on telling me, “you need to go to the stage”, so all of a sudden when the opportunity came, through one of my friends, Bob Manuel, then I seized it.

WM: What are your plans in the movie industry in the next five years?

Okechukwu: My plan which I did start a long time ago is to transform the entertainment landmark of Nigeria, West Africa and extensively. In order to do that, I embarked on a journey. Maybe sometime in the future we can talk about my journey to the United States. I had to travel to Hollywood to go and study film making for nearly three years. I met some friends and partners both there and here in Nigeria now and we are practically trying to get to our promised land in achieving our goal. Actually, we have a movie that is coming up very soon. I produced one already in the United States. There is one I am trying to produce here with my partners and we want to bring out those movies not just by talking but bringing out and showing to people that look, ‘this is what we should be doing’. We will just come out with an example and let them see it and they will ask you, ‘how did you do this?’ and that’s where we’ll start and by answering the question, we start with the training and we take it from there. That’s my plan.

WM: How do you get inspiration?

Okechukwu: I get my inspiration from nature and everyday life. For instance, I do write scripts and when I try to write my stories, I first of all think of something very prevalent in the society. I think of something that is less spoken of, things that people don’t want to talk about, because probably in the world, they are a bit complex, complicated and nobody wants to go there. I want to delve into them, because I like to crack nuts; I love challenges. So, I get inspired by nature, by everyday human living and stuffs like that.

WM: What is the best part of being a film writer, director of a movie star?

Okechukwu: The best to it is that when you become a movie star, I am not going to sound materialistic here, I am going to sound realistic and the best part for me is that you are compelled to become a humanitarian individual. The moment you become a movie star, something that is bestowed upon you spontaneously, is to fight for the right of the less privileged, the down trodden in the society. Why did I say that? Because automatically, you are exposed to so many privileges so you have that opportunity to speak for people who cannot speak for themselves. So, for me that is the best part. Forget about all other razzmatazz, the paparazzi. For me, all that is nothing. The best part for me is that I have the opportunity to speak for people. Right now, I have an NGO with my partner, a beautiful NGO. We are not making noise about that yet; very soon we will talk about it. The NGO is just to take from those who have too much and give to those who don’t have at all. We have already done about two or three trips to some villages here in Nigeria, in Abuja and in the East and we are touching all the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. We want to help kids, widows. It is an opportunity I have now and I want to use it. For me the best part is being able to help those who cannot help themselves.

WM: Do you have challenges with your parents; don’t they mind you doing movies?

Okechukwu: Funny enough, my parents have loved everything that I love, because growing up, we are not many just three and we have this close relationship and my parents have some confidence in the way they raised us. They also think that any decision we make is going to be ok for us. Initially they wanted me to study electronics engineering because they saw that I have this thing with electronics. When an electronic got spoilt in the house, I could just come fix it without knowing anything and then they said I should read that, but I said ‘no’, that’s not what my spirit is telling me to do. What I see myself doing spontaneously without any stress is acting, entertainment. So, when I said that, my parents were very happy. In fact, my mother is my number one fan (Laughs). They love me do all of these.

WM: What would you say is your sense of style?

Okechukwu: I am a very casual dresser. I love being casual. I like very trendy expensive things, but I want them casual. Except when there is a very corporate stuff for me to do, I do them. I love my African stuff but basically in all and all, trendy casual is me

WM: When you were dressing up this morning what was on your mind?

Okechukwu: That was the same thing I thought about. You see the way I look right now. I got my jeans and my V-neck shirt. I love V-neck like crazy. I could wear V-neck to go see the president. It’s just that you have to flow with the people sometimes. You get to wear suit, you have to force yourself to wear it.

WM: What would you say is your most prized possession?

Okechukwu: My most prized possession basically is my wife and my children. I am married with two kids and I have the most gorgeous woman in the world and the prettiest kids ever on this earth. I am serious.

WM: Where did you meet her and how?

Okechukwu: I met her in Ghana. She is a Ghanaian. At one point in the early 2000, I was in Ghana to study and I ran into my wife at the church and we just clicked instantly. I never knew I was going to click with anybody like that but we just clicked and we fell in love and it’s been like that.

WM: So, what was the attraction?

Okechukwu: I think it was a more of a spiritual thing than physical. I think I connected with my wife before I appreciated the beauty that she had. I just saw her, I looked at her and I didn’t stop, but I left, then I came back. I just told myself while I was leaving that I don’t know but what I know is that any woman I am going to marry must be like that. I just said that and that was it. Eventually, weeks later we continued from where we left and after, we got married.

WM: How long has that been now?

Okechukwu: It’s been eight years now. I know a lot of Nigerians will scream because I have never told them how long it has been since I got married.

WM: So you have two kids?

Okechukwu: I have two kids; a boy and a girl.

WM: Is anyone of them taking after you?

Okechukwu: In acting? If there is anybody, then it will be my daughter because she is always demonstrating, modelling and doing all that stuff in the house. Maybe she is the one but I don’t know yet, but I am not going to stand in the way of them fulfilling their dreams of whatever they are called to do, I will help them. You know initially in Nigeria, a lot of people who were into entertainment, the actors who were like laying about lazy folks, touts and stuffs like that, but today it is different, so I am not going to stop my kids.

WM: How do you spend your leisure time?

Okechukwu: Unfortunately, I don’t have too much of leisure time because I am a workaholic. I hate to say that. Apart from when I am with my family when we go out, most of the time I am alone and I need people to help me to relax. I always need people to remind me that I need to relax. I do a lot of writing, thinking. The other way I relax again is driving. I just get in the car and drive around. That’s one of my biggest relaxation patterns. Maybe take a tour, travel to some countries somewhere and relax with family and come back. That’s it, travelling, driving, see animals oh my God! When I see animals in the sea, I just lose my mind, but the point is I don’t make out time to do all that now.

WM: What is your choice travel location?

Okechukwu: Because I lived in America for long, I like America. I love the US and Eastern Europe is not bad. I love very ancient looking stuff, like you see in England but America still remains by best.

WM: Have you shot any movie in Enugu your home state?

Okechukwu: A lot of movies. Actually we did Alice My First Lady at Enugu. Naomi was shot at Enugu too; you know the movie where we killed Omotola and all that. A lot of movies were shot at Enugu

WM: What would you love to be remembered for?

Okechukwu: I would love to be remembered for how many top decisions I have helped people crack in this life. I would love to be remembered for how many people I have been used to lift out of the quagmire of the down side of life. I want to be remembered for helping the poor. I don’t want to be remembered for something you can change like being the best actor, he was good, he was the best…that’s good, that’s basic, and you can’t take that away. Normally, I would love to be remembered for how much help I have been able to render for the less privileged. It’s my passion especially to kids; young people. I give free motivation where I am supposed to pay, I say don’t worry. I just give free motivation to help kids. That is why my journey to United States is going to be a separate topic when I’m ready to talk. I wrote two books in US. I did a lot of stuffs in America and I had the youths in mind when I was doing those things. Not too long from now, I’m going to open up and let people know so that when they read me they will be able to get inspiration on how to conduct their lives.

I actually started acting in 1997. I got into the industry ‘96 and my first movie was in 1997, Rituals, then Saint Obi’s The Snake Girl, then Scavengers, Mark of the Beast, The Boomerang, The End Time, The Karashika, Naomi, Blood of the Orphan, Indecent Desire, Rings of Fire, Women of Substance, Fallen Apart, Sinners and Losers, Never Seen Never, you have so many of them.

WM: If you were to live life all over again, will you be an author?

Okechukwu: If I have like 10 more life times ahead, I’m going to be an actor. I think I was born to do this because this is something that comes out of me naturally. If I’m not in front of the camera, I don’t feel comfortable. I can’t sit in the office, ever, for anything.