Popularly called Aunty Keji by her fans, friends and colleagues,
crossover actress Keji Yusuf has spanned over two decades in the Nigeria
movie industry and still in high demand. As wife of a retired Colonel, cutting her acting tooth under the
tutelage of veteran actor Lai Ashadele is the best thing to happen to
her.
In this interview with DUMS KIDD, Aunty Keji speaks
passionately about Nollywood marriages, her staying power among other
things:
You are still relevant after over two decades. How does it make you
feel knowing that some of your contemporaries are no longer in the game?
It’s just the grace of God, nothing else but the grace of God.
Tell us about your foray into the industry?
It’s been over twenty years ago I started acting. I started with the
English genre. I was mentored by Uncle Lai Ashadele. Then, we used to do
TV series on NTA2 Channel 5. The series were mostly centered on Child
abuse. We tried to educate parents on the menace of child abuse. But as
time went by I thought of going to be part of the Yoruba genre. It was
at that point that I joined Odunfa Caucus. That was where I met Yinka
Quadri.
In recent times, you’ve been featuring in a lot of English soaps, any particular reason for this?
Not at all, I’m an actress and I can interpret my role in both
English and Yoruba language. Most of our counterpart in the English side
of Nollywood, most of them think we don’t understand English and that’s
why we stick to just Yoruba movies but that is so not true. And that
why some of us participate in English soaps to prove to them that we
understand English, yes we do. I can’t stop acting Yoruba movies. I’ll
keep doing both of them.
I watched you in a soap recently you were so hard on your daughter
because she was ripe for marriage but wouldn’t settle down. But tell us
are you a tough person in real life?
The soap you are talking about is called Tendencies. Well, there is
no parent who will be happy in such situation. No parents will be happy
to see his son or daughter of marriageable age stilling living with
them. Any parent will want his or her grown up daughter or son get
married, succeed in life and give them grandchildren. And that’s why I
was hard on her especially because I saw she too lackadaisical about the
issue just because she’s comfortable and that was why was very hard on
her. And I’m sorry, in life I will act just in like matter because one
has to face reality.
What role are you playing in this movie?
In this particular movie I played the role of the governor’s wife the
mother of Yomi Fabiyi, the Governor’s son. Jide Kosoko played the
Governor.
You play the role of a rich woman most of the time. Why?
(Laughs) won ti ri mi, won ti ri irawo mi (they’ve seen my glory that
royalty is what I deserve) But that is not to say I’ve not act a wretch
sometime. In those days when we started acting we used to go to thick
remote areas, wear tattered Ankara; I still have some of those pictures
at home. If you see them you will be shocked that I have acted those
kinds of roles before. I have played many of such roles. In those days
there was no money in acting, nothing but we kept doing it for the
passion.
You’ve spent over two decades in this industry. What is your take on Nollywood?
Hmmm, well we are learning everyday and our prayers is that God
should crown our efforts with glory so that we can get to the Promise
Land because we are not there yet. However, there is being lot of
improvement. So many as a matter of fact but we can only beg God for
more wisdom to take us to the Promise Land, where will do just one movie
or two movie and will be able to afford the good things of life. When
you are well paid, you can buy a car, change your car and do other
things. I pray that God will take us there and I know He will.
Acting we know wasn’t an attractive profession two decades ago. How did you over that challenge?
I was already married before acting started for me. I was in my
husband’s house when I started acting. My husband was a military man.
But he is someone that anything that will make me happy, he will just
let go. When I started doing the English soap, he saw it was educative
and so he encouraged me a lot. And secondly, some twenty years back I
didn’t have a baby.
My last daughter now is twenty seven, so I didn’t have a baby and
that also gave me a free hand. There wasn’t a case of oh who will look
after my baby for me; no, there was nothing like that. That is why it
seems as if the acting professional is not ideal for young girls or
newlyweds. If you’ve noticed, for many girls who find themselves in the
acting professional, it’s either they marry late or if they are married,
the marriage ends up not working out and when it’s working, there is
challenges of meeting up with location time.
Well, there is nothing that can be done because there is no way we
can have an industry without young girls and young men. But I pray God
to help them keep their home front. One has to be very patient doing
this job if she’s married. If one is not patient, it doesn’t take long
for a marriage to crash. You must always apply wisdom in every of your
steps because there will always be people to feed your husband with
lies. And if your husband is the listening type, he will be quick to
react. And when he reacts and you do not have the wisdom to deal with
it, it’s either you lose your home or you lose the job. It is requires a
lot of wisdom.
Why do you think we have a lot of marriage crash in the industry?
Acting as a profession is not a problem. People think it is the job
that is corrupting our ladies but, no rather some of them are the ones
who allow the job to corrupt them. And they are not patient enough. A
man can be as small as a midget, he’s still a man. And he will demand
his respect. And once you’re not ready to give him he will snap back at
you.
So you must be extremely patient to be in the theatre world and at
the same time be married or have a husband. Patient is of great
importance. And they must take this into cognizant or else homes will
continue to break but God forbid. There is no time they will not settle
down. If you have a child and you leave your husband, you have another
one, you leave, where are you going to? If you think you are young now
and you don’t care, in your old age, you need a man. I’m telling you
from experience, my husband is a retired colonel.
When he wakes up in the morning to go to his office, after his
retirement he went into private practice, when he wakes in the morning
to go to his office, he wakes me up and says, “My dear come let’s take
tea together”. He would have brought out cucumber, slice bread, butter
and everything. While I’m spreading butter over the bread, he is cutting
the cucumber. That is the truth. It’s very interesting.
So marriage can be that interesting?
Yes, it can be that interesting. Marriage can be interesting but it
takes a lot of patience to get to that stage. This is my first son
standing beside you, so where am I going? All I look forward to now is
for him to settle down and give me grand children. But if I wasn’t
patient I wouldn’t be able to tell this story.
You quarrel today, you leave, you quarrel tomorrow the husband
leaves, the child will be the one to suffer it but if you are patient,
at the end it is joyful. But you need to be patient with your husband,
afterall; you met each other and loved each other that’s was why you
came together.
There are situations where a man will ask his actress wife to quit her job. If she leaves in that situation do you blame her?
Some men do that and it is not go because it was in the cause of
doing her job that you met her. It was in her acting professional that
you saw and admired her and that was why you married her. Truth is, if
acting is your passion it gives you happiness. So why would any man ask
his actress wife to quit her job? That is bad. In fact it is wicked. But
if at any point, you find yourself in that situation; it is your home
first before your career. There is a way to handle such situation.
Talk to him nicely and he will relax. He will give you conditions
though, you just abide by it. Later he will relax especially if he sees
you are behaving well. You have to make sure you keep him abreast of
what is going on as regards your job. And if he sees you are behaving
well and if he doesn’t hear any dirty rumour about you, he will relax
with time and give you the free hand.
Talking about dirty rumour, it’s not only the younger actresses that
have been fingered to mess up even elderly ones we hear do too…
Well, sometime too it’s true but sometime too it’s not true. But I
don’t fall in that league. I have never had any sure scandal because I
know whom am married to, Ologun ko gbo come, go lo gbo (Soldier no dey
here come, na go dem understand). So if you go and misbehave and he
finds out it is problem for you. I dare not.
Most Yoruba thespians are also producers. Are you one too?
Yes, I once produced a movie but it’s an ugly story. I wouldn’t want
to delve into it for now. Maybe in future if things improve in the
industry more than it presently, I may go into production again. But for
now, no, the one I did was a sad and dirty story. Or why would one
produce a film of N3m, going to location, editing, dubbed myself with
almost about a million.
I dubbed 10,000 copies but after that what came out of it? What came
out of it after I gave it to a marketer to help me sell? I’m proud of my
work. My work was the first that I saw that from the beginning to the
end it was star-studded. I have a copy; I can give it to you to see. It
was star-studded. It was not by my doing but I have paid my dues in the
industry. That is not to say I didn’t pay the cast well but they rallied
around me and supported me. There was no scene in that movie that was
done by a none star. But in the process of dubbing, printing jacket and
everything, you know that’s over 3m but I only made N500,000.
So what
are we talking about? I’m sure you don’t expect me to do another one but how have you managed to remain relevant all these years?
It is only by the grace of God. It’s not by my making at all. After
all, there was a time that for almost a year I didn’t do any movie. I
wasn’t called for almost one year. They didn’t even see me but I thank
God, those periods I wasn’t called upon was when I travelled to the UK.
That year I went to the UK twice.
I was there in July and also in September. And it wasn’t on the
premise of my career. It was God design. While I thought it was a hard
time for me career wise, God surprised me in my personal life. I went to
visit my daughter; I went to assist her look after her baby. My last
daughter had a baby in London and I was there to take care of them. It
is by the grace of God.
What’s been your most challenging movie?
I cannot mention a particular one. Basically, interpreting my scripts
has never being a challenge really even with the English movies; it’s
not being a challenge. In Needle Eye, my script was this bulky. Times
six of it is what we use in Yoruba movies and its not a challenge at
all. For me once you say action, I’m giving it to you off the script
(laughs).
But what is like to be trained under Uncle Lai Ashadele?
Haa it’s very interesting. It’s been a long time I last saw him but I
loved to see him again. Working with Uncle Lai Ashadele, it’s a lot of
fun; you wouldn’t even know you are working. He plays with us and you
won’t even feel that you are working. You will think you are in your
house anyways we usually used his house as set. He usually throws his
door open to us. We even go as far as cooking. Uncle Lai Ashadele is a
wonderful person. I really loved working with him. I’m glad he was my
mentor.
What are some of things being a celebrity has deprived you?
Sometime you stumble on an Amala joint, where corporate people go do
and queue up to eat but as a known figure, it is impossible for you to
walk in there and eat like every other person that’s one of the pains of
being a celebrity. The best you can is to ask someone to go and buy for
you in a plate but for you to eat it the way it is being serve there
you can’t. But no matter how you want to look at it the gain is more
than the pain. Stardom opens doors if you know your way.
Would you say you are fulfilled?
Yes, acting for me is fulfilling.
