Veteran Nollywood actor, Taiwo Obileye, shares some of his life experiences with Ademola Olonilua
At a time, all your siblings were actors, was it planned?
It was not planned; it just happened. Each of us got into the profession and that was it.
Right now, it is only you and your brother that are left, why did the others quit?
One of my sisters is now a medical doctor while the other one that was involved with the media is married now and she is a pharmacist. She lives abroad.
How did you discover your love for acting?
I really don’t know. There was an opportunity for me to act in school and I took it. I liked the experience and I thought I could do it and people also encouraged me. When other opportunities to act came, I seize them. I did two major productions, one in my junior school days and the other during my last year in school. I did not think of building a career in acting. My goal was medicine. But by the time I got to the university, the acting bug had bitten me. When I realised that I could not become a doctor, I began acting at the Art Theatre at the university with my brother who was also there doing a course in drama. So it was not really a planned decision.
What happened to your dream of becoming a doctor?
A few things got in the way. The first was that I had to pass physics and other science related subjects. I passed the other science subjects but I did not pass physics and because of that, human medicine was out of the way. The other option I had was veterinary medicine but I did not want that because the course did not appeal to me. I later studied agriculture, biochemistry and nutrition at the University of Ibadan.
What were your undergraduate days like?
Very nice. That was an interesting and exciting moment of my life. I was a very gentle young man just the way I am now. I was not rascally and I loved to read novels and participate in sports. I played football for my faculty and hall, Independence Hall. I also played basketball for the university. By the time I went back for my postgraduate diploma, I was the captain of the team. It did not mean that I was the best player; they considered my age and length of time in the team. Accommodation was very good and we had two people in a room. There were cafeterias and we had our meals on time with good menus. The atmosphere was very nice and there were no crises that could cause the university to close down. You could calculate when you would be out of school unlike now when students’ unrest and lecturers’ strikes would disrupt the school calendar.
Being the captain of the basketball team and a football player, you must have been popular among the ladies…
I was not popular among the ladies. I had a girlfriend and that was it.
How were you able to act and still face your studies?
That did not pose any problem for me. Acting comes naturally to me and if you have an interest in anything, you would be able to accommodate it with whatever you are doing.
What was it like being brought up by a magistrate father?
Although my father was a magistrate, he was not too strict. He was a very accommodating and good father. He gave us good advice but if he laid down rules, you had to adhere to them just like any other home. I benefitted a lot from the upbringing I had from both my parents even till now.
What of your mother?
She is dead now. She was a headmistress of a primary school. She also taught in some secondary schools. She was a very loving and religious woman. She was Catholic while my father was Anglican. She brought us up in the Catholic faith particularly at our early years when our father travelled to England to study and we had to go to church with our mother. We got baptized in the Catholic Church but right now, some of us have moved to other denominations. She raised us to the best of her ability and infused good values in us. She also taught us to live together as a family and there is great love and respect among us.
Shortly after you finished from school, you got a job at the Federal Department of Fishery as a Research Officer before you joined the Nigerian Television Authority. How were you able to move from fishery to NTA?
I had been doing a lot of acting in the university in Ibadan with some of them showing on television. When I graduated, I worked in Ibadan as a teacher for a few years and since I had a bit of free time, I continued acting. Eventually, I came to Lagos and got a job with the Federal Department of Fishery, (now National Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research) which was right next to NTA. My brother was in Lagos and was already acting on television alongside some of my peers from UI who were also in the drama department of NTA. Since I was unmarried and I had time, it was only convenient that I join them in some productions. That was how I made the switch eventually.
Between fame and fortune, which one has acting brought you?
Only a few actors can say that this profession has brought them fame and fortune. I have not made any fortune from acting but as for fame, I know people recognise me from the different productions that I have been involved in over the years. It makes me feel good that I am recognised particularly from the regular people on the street. I am happier when a bus driver recognises me. Acting has brought me satisfaction and fulfillment and it is good to know that I can deliver on the character I am asked to act.
How much were you paid for your first movie role?
I really cannot remember but I know it was not much back then. We were not doing it for the money but for the love of the profession.
When NTA started the New Village Headmaster with you, Jide Kosoko and others, many people also expected to see the likes of Dejumo Lewis, why was he excluded?
I do not know if he was invited or not but I know one would expect that he would be involved in the New Village Headmaster. I think there were some occasions before the programme began when he was involved in talks with NTA but I don’t know why he did not eventually get any role. However, the New Village Headmaster is not based in the same location, Oja village, like the previous one. If there is no Oja Village, there cannot be an Oloja of Oja. There might be confusion if the Oloja in the original Village Headmaster was appearing again as another character in the New Village Headmaster. Also, there could be some problems with the audience accepting him in a new role, so I think that might be some of the things that the producers thought about before making their decision. When I appeared in the New Village Headmaster, it was not a major role and I don’t think it would register in the minds of the viewers.
Don’t you think he would feel betrayed by you?
It was not in my position to impose an actor on the producer. I was invited to do productions on my merit and I did so. It is not for me to say I would not act if a certain person is not brought to the production. It is not done by anybody. The part I did was not a major role and I don’t think he would feel betrayed.
Don’t you think that if you had remained in the Federal Department of Fishery, you would be richer than you are now?
I don’t think so. I would get my salary but you cannot be rich based on your salary except you are working for certain organisations like NNPC. In NTA, we were getting paid like any normal civil servant and I stayed there until the mandatory retirement having worked for 35 years in the service. I added my years in NTA, Fishery, and also teaching and I retired before I was 60 years old. I would not have been richer because I would just be getting my salary and maybe a bag of rice as bonus at the end of the year. Even if I sold that, it would not fetch me any significant amount of money. That is not to say that I am rich from acting.
What was your relationship like with your other siblings especially when your father was studying abroad?
We have been a closely knit family. We respect one another and in our family, we call each other by name although some other families use ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ to address their elder ones. Even though we call each other by name, we still use the Yoruba pronoun ‘e’ for somebody who is older. There was never any form of disrespect from the younger ones. We shared jokes and had the same set of friends. It has to do with the upbringing our parents instilled in us.
Do you have friends or you see yourself as a recluse?
I have friends. I have a good robust family life and I went to school with some people who are still my friends. I have also made new friends over the years. I have a large circle of friends.
What secondary school did you attend?
I attended Ijebu Ode Grammar School. I was born in Lagos like most of my siblings. When my father became a magistrate, we moved to Ibadan in 1954. At a point, he was transferred to Warri.
Was there any time you felt like quitting acting?
There was never a time I thought about quitting because when I started, I was not doing it full time. I was acting while I was working at the Department of Fishery. If the movie roles came, I did them and if they did not, I faced my work. Even when I retired, I never struggled to get a role. I was also preoccupied with some other things like I was a consultant to UNICEF on broadcasting for about two years after I left NTA. I have also done some training sessions for some media organisations. It has never occurred to me to quit.
Was there a time in your life that you succumbed to peer pressure?
I tried smoking while I was in secondary school. I experimented for a day and I figured that smoking had all negative and no positive sides because there would be tobacco smell on the hand, hair, teeth and one was literally burning money. There was also the health hazard that had been spoken about that smokers are liable to die young. I figured that there was nothing positive to gain from it, so I was never a smoker. I take alcohol but I drink responsibly. Maybe once or twice, I have over-indulged myself while taking alcohol but luckily for me, it did not end in a disaster. I am not a saint or celibate, I have had girlfriends along the line.
Was there a time you ever had more than one girlfriend at a time?
If it ever occurred, it was not often because I had other things I was preoccupied with, so such hardly happened. The ladies did not flock around me. I was friends with some ladies but it was not sex based. I have some female friends who later became the wives of my friends and we are still close.
Your trademark seems to be your beard. How did you come up with the look?
I used to have side burns and shave my beards but over time while still in the university, whenever I shaved, I had bumps. I tried using shaving cream, electric razor but I kept having bumps and rashes, so I decided to leave the beards to grow. It has been like this for over 30 years.
What attracted you to your wife?
She was a pretty young lady and she was very chic. She dressed well and the year before I met her, she had just spent a year abroad as a foreign exchange student. She was very nice and friendly and I got attracted to her. The feeling was mutual and that was how it blossomed. It was a natural progression.
How did you propose to her?
I just asked her if she would like to get married. There was nothing like going down on one knee. We courted for about five years and neither of us exhibited any regret in the relationship. So, the next thing for us was to get married.
Are any of your children into acting?
One of them studied Theatre Arts but I think he has lost interest now. Another who did film production is putting it on hold.
If none of your children had shown interest in acting, would you have been bitter?
Absolutely not, it is their life and their choice to make.
So as they kept their acting career on hold, it is fine with you?
Yes. It is their life and it is what they want to do. If they are happy with what they are doing, so be it. Acting is something you can always come back to at any time. It is not that they have lost it, they can always go back to it or not, depending on what they want to do. It is absolutely their decision to make and ours is just to point out the right direction to them.
How were you able to find time to take care of the family?
Acting is not an everyday thing. I don’t act everyday or for 24 hours and even though I go out at night with friends, ultimately I have to go back home to my family. On a scale of preference, I also had to know that I had to be there for my family even when work took me out of my station because in my line of work at NTA, I was a producer and a commentator and we used to cover events outside Lagos. For many years, I was involved in that and I tried my best to be there and let my family know that I would always be there for them.
What is the most painful moment you have had in your life?
That would be when I lost my parents. It was very painful, particularly my mother because I was there when she died.
What was her last word to you?
She had just come back from a treatment at the hospital and had become unconscious, so she was admitted. She was not really aware that I was there. I just went to Ibadan to visit her and it happened. Her ailment was heart related, she had heart failure and she was 83 years old. I went to the hospital to see her only to realise that she was already unconscious, so I just stayed at the bedside with my sisters. One of them had just gone to get the medicine from the pharmacy at University College Hospital, Ibadan, but before she came back, she had died.
What was your happiest moment?
That was when I got married to my wife. It was the happiest day of my life.
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