Joke Silva: Actress, mother & professional

Weekend Magazine: You have been in the movie industry for 35 years. How has the journey been? Joke Silva: It has been very interesting and it has been a journey of self-discovery, of seeing history unfold before one’s eyes, of development, sometimes of retrogression, and then of more development. Overall, it’s been a great journey. […]

Weekend Magazine: You have been in the movie industry for 35 years. How has the journey been?
Joke Silva: It has been very interesting and it has been a journey of self-discovery, of seeing history unfold before one’s eyes, of development, sometimes of retrogression, and then of more development. Overall, it’s been a great journey.

WM: When did you discover your passion for acting?
Silva: It is something I have always had a passion for from when I was very young. It was not too difficult getting into the industry.

WM: What is the difference between the industry in Nigeria at the and what exists as Nollywood today?
Silva: Usually when people say Nollywood, I always want to understand what they are talking about, because Nollywood usually refers to the Nigerian film industry, and I don’t like being restricted to that. As a producer and performer, I don’t like to restrict myself to Nollywood. I play in theatres and in films.
For the difference, when I started out, there was a lot of energy in theatre but that died down. There began to be more energy in filmmaking. Our people in the Diaspora brought in technology, which made filmmaking easier and cheaper. Theatre is still very expensive simply because we don’t have a lot of space to perform.

WM: So how rewarding has the journey been?
Silva: I have found it rewarding not becauseI have always had a hefty bank account but because it is what I enjoy doing; it brings so much satisfaction. I feel blessed and that is the reward. Why I find it extremely rewarding is the fact that acting, when it started out, was a profession that was respected, but now more respect is coming from it. People now see the industry as an important part of the economy. The arts and entertainment are now part of our economic diversification. That’s amazing. And a lot of young talents are coming into the industry. I celebrate them. They bring so much innovation and creativity, which is great for the industry. I don’t think it is good to be in an industry and you don’t see other people follow in your footsteps. That shows that all you have been doing is of no avail. It doesn’t matter whether people don’t remember you or not. What is important is that there are young ones who follow your footsteps, and that’s all that matters.

WM: What was your childhood like?
Silva: I’m one of the five children of our amazing parents. They were not artistes themselves, as my mum was a medical doctor and my dad a lawyer. But they never opposed my choice of career. They only wanted me to be sure that I wanted it because they knew a lot of people in the industry then and knew it wasn’t an easy profession. Once they were sure that I wanted it, they gave me their support all the way.

WM: Professionals in industries considered elitist are leaving their professions for the entertainment industry. What’s the magnetic pull about the entertainment industry?
Silva: Other people just go into other professions instead of the arts just to please their parents, which is not bad in itself. I’m currently producing a theatre play tilted, Heartbeat. It’s a musical. One of the writers of the piece is a young girl whose parents are a bit wary about the arts and entertainment. They were not too happy about her studying the arts so they made her study something else. She did very well in school and was doing a corporate job. But then she decided to follow her heart.
 It is quite okay that parents are wary about their children coming into the industry because it is not regarded as lucrative. But the industry is growing and the avenue to work is so much that I’m not even sure we have enough people to do it. Telecommunications can only do little of it; we need people for the content for music and for televised and screen theatres.

WM: What’s your take on the proliferation of movie academies? How credible do you think they are?
Silva: I don’t want to talk on individual academies. I don’t know about them – so I won’t talk about them. But generally, there is a huge need for movie academies. As I said earlier, there is a lot to do and people need to be trained. I know AMAA does training for people, as AFRIM??? and AMVCA also do.This is aside from some government establishments that also do give training.

WM: How successful are Nollywood movies abroad?
Silva: Well, because we have a lot of people in the Diaspora, a lot of our works go out there. There is massive international interest in our works. We’ve come out with a model that has attracted the interest of the world. Our movies are still low budget. Even our high budget films are low budget, compared to other film industries in advanced economies. Yes, it’s low budget, but it is high quality.

WM: Who are your favourite acts home and abroad?
Silva: I have a lot of entertainers whose works I enjoy. I have always liked Sunny Ade, Darey Art Alade, Bimbo Akintola and Rita Dominic, to mention a few.
On the foreign scene, I love Mary Streep, Kate Bluntshell and Anthony Hopkins. Most of the people I like tend to have the mix of theatre and film. I always like that about them.

WM: How do you juggle motherhood and career without one suffering for the other?
Silva: The thing is that the older you get, the easier things get, what with the children in universities and boarding school. And I also have a good back-up team. You show your house-help the way you like your things. You discipline them the way you like things to be done.
 Right now, I am on Project Fame and we have started the production of Heartbeat, which is coming up in November. We are rehearsing. My husband and I are the executive producers. But we have a team that started the work. We have the general manager, who is Soji Jacobs, and then the writer, Tosin, who is also one of the producers. They are both there working with the directors. It’s not easy handling everything but it is fun. It can be very exhausting but I enjoy doing it.

WM: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
Silva: In the next five years, we should have finished building the Molete Film Village in Kwara State. We are working on that. Hopefully, we would have gotten our own theatre in Lagos. We are working on two on them. We don’t know which of them will be approved but we are working on them. We already have buildings that are being used to their full potentials. By God’s grace, one of them will become available. By then, when everything has been put in place, I would able to focus fully on acting and producing.

WM: How do you convince parents who still have misgivings about their children going into the entertainment industry?
Silva: I really don’t think there is a problem with that. It will only expand the horizon of the young ones. Obey your parents. Get your degree and then you can pursue your dreams. But I also think it is dangerous to come to our industry with no experience.
As parents, we need to let our children live their lives. We cannot live it for them. The best you can do is to ensure they get the best training. Parents usually want to ensure safety nets for their wards but the truth is that there is no safety net in any profession.