Omotola Jolade is regarded as a megastar when it come to movies in Nigeria. With her over 13 year in the industry, she is still beaming bright light, as her face bring smiles to the faces of Nollywood lovers. Merely mentioning her name in a movie, one is assured that the movie is going to be an interesting one. Omo Sexy  as she is fondly called is also a musician. Her single Gba, was released in 2007 and the album sold more than those of some established artistes. Omotola is also into motivational speaking and charity work. United Nations appointed her as an ambassador. She spoke with ONN Magazine in Lagos recently.

 Excerpts: 

I am the first child of three children and the only daughter. I was born in Lagos. My father is from Ondo State My mother is from Abeokuta in Ogun State. My father used to be the manager for Lagos Country Club Ikeja. My mum was a business woman. My father died in 1991, I was in secondary school when he died. My mum died 10 years after in 2001. I attended Chrisland Primary School Opebi, Command Secondary School Kaduna and did one year in Oxford School Santos Layout. I had a stint at Obafemi Awolowo University ile-Ife, I later got admission into Yaba College Of Technology to read Estate Management. My acting career had already taken off before I got into Yaba Tech just to fufill all righteousness.

I was a troublesome child. I was the only child of my parents for a long time so I was a bit over-pampered. So when I act a bit spoilt it’s not because I am an actor. I actually grew up like that. I was my daddy’s pet because I was the only girl. I went to a military school and I was really rough-handled. I was very popular in school. I was not a sporty person. I was very lazy. I loved to dance and mime. While in secondary school my friends and I formed a group. We were three in the group and after school you would find us singing and dancing on the road. I could mime to any popular song back then and singing on the road got me a lot of lift. We used to demonstrate on the road as if we were on stage taking turns to mime to songs. It was really fun. We just assumed we were superstars and everybody on the road came to watch us perform on stage

My mum had a lot of influence on me. She was very strict on me. And I was spoiled rotten by my dad. I was virtually living in Lagos Country Club. From school I went straight to the club. I stayed with my father in the club. I never liked going back home after school because of my mum. My mum used to beat me. My father had no qualms about me staying with him at the Club. But then I was not even with him. I was always on my own having fun, swimming, meeting people. It was at the club that I met movers and shakers. As little as I was I already had a mind of my own. I wanted to do things my own way. My mother used to beat me, punch me out, sit on me just to break me. She did a lot of things to me that wouldn’t think of doing to a child. That kind of thing terrified me. We never got along I used to question if she really was my mum. We were like cat and dog. I did everything I could do to avoid her problems.

Nowadays, you and your colleagues seem to be drifting away from acting, to other things, is it that movies are not paying off?

I don’t like the direction of that question because I don’t move with the crowd. Not because others are doing music I am doing it as well. People who are close to me will tell you that I do not do things because people are doing it. What I have however found out is that some people tend to do things similar to things I have done.it may just be that the crowd is moving with me.

Music is not something you just wake up and say you want to do. I do music to express my feelings. It is what I enjoy doing. And I am not into music alone. I am also a motivational speaker.

Which one of these comes to your priority, music or acting?

I will not even pick one over the other. I love them both. They are what I do and how I express myself. There is a bias though. In movies I act scripts that had been written down. The story is not mine, I just interpret it. But for music, it is what I love doing, it is my own story. I write my own songs. In this upcoming album, I wrote over 50percent of the songs. The other ones, I made sure they are songs I can say my story, that expresses how I feel.

You have been in the industry for more than a decade now, how has the journey been so far?

Well I had always had it in me. It was actually easy. I can remember the first audition I had. I merely escorted my friend to an audition. After she finished auditioning, she was not picked. As we were about to leave the venue, my friend asked me to have a try. I asked if it was for free, and she said yes, it was free. So I gave it a go and I was chosen. But I ended up not playing the role.

How?

Well my mother did not really like the idea of me acting. I had been been modeling before then, but that too was a struggle for me to do. My mother did not just allow me. Our family was a respected one in church and she was really concerned about what her children did. It was one of our neighbors who had to go to my mum to convince her to allow me model. He said he would make sure nothing happened to me. So when I now came again to say I wanted to act, she just could not hear anything about it. What made her close the topic was when I told her that the role I was to play was that of a mermaid. She said she would never allow that.

The second one I got was also like that. I was picked after the audition to play the leading role. That time I was to play a romantic part. Ah! My mum just shook her head. Firstly I was just 16 and was too young. So I did not play the role. In fact the movie eventually was not shot. When the producer was to shoot another movie, he had to go home to my mum to convince her to allow me act. That was how I started.