‘Why I’m called queen of Nigerian soaps’

She has been on screen for more than a decade. Known as the queen of soaps due to her regular face on TV series and sitcoms, the mother of one who has been able to set a high standard for herself in the industry as one of the scandal-free actresses in this interview with DUPE AYINLA-OLASUKUNMI talks about her career, life and what has kept her going in the industry.
AS a career woman, how do you balance your work and your home?
My dear, you have to create the time. Your personal life and career, you just have to find the time, because time cannot create itself.
As a mother who is always on the move, how do you relate with your child?
I don’t have a baby I am nursing. So my son is old enough to take care of himself. He is a big boy, so I don’t have an underage that I have to always be there to care for.
But before he got to the age he is now, how have you been managing?
When he was a baby, I had not started acting. I was still in secondary school. So you can imagine how many years ago.
Celebrities complain of fans abusing the social network, but you are always there relating with you fans. Doesn’t that apply to you too?
No I have never had any issue on that. You see respect is reciprocal. If you respect your fans, they will respect you back. But if you treat them like thrash, they will throw it back at you. So I respect my fans, because without them, there is no Vivian Anani. Without them, I am nobody
. Why am I there? Is it not for them? So why won’t I give them good attention and maintain a good relationship with my fans? I shouldn’t be too busy not to give them attention. And sometimes we are too busy than God Himself. You have time to post a picture there and people take their them to go there to put up a write up for you and you don’t go back to say thank you. Sometimes I play around facebook, visit the other pages of my colleagues and I see that people have written things for them over a year and you didn’t even see it necessary to check it and say I appreciate. Come on, let’s call a spade, a spade.
Being married to a Yoruba man, do you speak the language well and have you considered featuring in a Yoruba movie?
My marital status has been a quiet side of me. And that is why nobody even knows the person in question. And that is because it is not everything that you throw to the public. Some things should be left private. But I am yet to master the language very well; I am still learning the language. Maybe someday when I understand it very well, I will be thinking of featuring in a Yoruba movie. If I speak the language you will laugh at me and tell me to just stay here. Because people say see this woman o, why didn’t she just concentrate on her English movie and let us do our own. She wants to collect money from English and Yoruba.
One of the Yoruba actors once said it is because they don’t get well paid. And that is the reason they can’t save for rainy days. Does this apply to the English sector too?
I am not in that sector and do not know how much they get paid. But I have been made to understand from discussion that, in the Yoruba films, it is more like ‘do for me, I will do for you.’ That is why most of them are producers. Somebody told me with one million naira, I can shoot a Yoruba film. And I begin to wonder, if the one million naira is for equipment or for welfare like accommodation and feeding. How can you manage one million naira to produce a film? And he said I should not worry about that, there is a way they do it. If that is the case they need to do something about that.
Professionally as an actor, how do you feel hearing such things?
For English film, you are talking about the fee for one or two actors. By the time you bring two stars to feature in a film, that one million naira is finished. You have not even calculated money for the equipment, accommodation and other things like your cast, directors, cameraman and others. I don’t know how they do it, but that magic I’m yet to find out.
Have you been called to feature in a movie for free?
In the English sector, nobody does that. Everybody eye dey chock. It is not everybody that is dying to be a producer in the English movie. The actors don’t care if they are producers, their own is pay me my money, let me work for you and go. Everybody is using torch light in the afternoon to look for the money. So there is nothing like that. Who told you everybody wants to be a producer? For what now?
Why is your face only regular in soaps?
Like the one we are shooting now, I am on the screen every other day. I love soaps; they call me the queen of soap in Nigeria. It is not like I prefer one for the other. But the kind of scripts that come to me for TV series are too tempting to ignore. For you to put up a soap on TV, you have to meet up with certain standards. No television would even give you airtime if you don’t meet those standards. So for you to identify with a soap, first of all, it is not just something entertaining, it has to be educative. So if you sit down to watch soaps and sitcoms, you will know that it is not just all about entertainment. They are some movie scripts that have come to me and I just say no, I can’t do this. And because of this, every other month I am on set shooting. For instance I have six television series right now. We shoot twice every year. So if I have six series, shooting twice every year, it means throughout the year I am busy.
How do you create time to rest from your busy schedule?
The little time I have, I want to spend it with my family. I want to spend time with the grandchildren in the family, my sisters. If my mom and dad were still alive, I would pay them visit too. So there is a little time like that, I want to use that moment with my family to relax. Because dis our work eh, if you kill yourself inside. You go just go for nothing. Sometime you need to take time off to refresh yourself.
Let’s talk about your contribution to the industry and people appreciating you for that…
From the response I get, I can say I get appreciation every day of my life. Which of course is overwhelming and this propels me to work harder. For instance, December last year, the Council for Art and Culture in Abuja called me and gave me an award. I mean, for a federal government to call you and recgonise you, it is not a small thing. An award for positively branding Nigeria’s image, you know I belong to an industry where there are so many controversies and scandals. And for you to be there for over 10years and not be involved. For a federal government to recgonise that fact, I was thinking it is only when you create negative headlines, controversies here and there, and you are among the top five because of your negative headlines and controversies. I was thinking that is the kind of people they recgonised. I never knew there were some decent eyes somewhere watching out for some outstanding characters in Nollywood. When they called me to give me that award for positively branding Nigeria through Nollywood and for maintaining a decent profile, that got me Art and Culture Ambassador, what can be more than that? My state also honoured me with an award. What other appreciation do I need? If you visit my facebook page, you will see what people write about me. It means I am on the right track, and I don’t have to disappoint this people.
But how did you do it, scaling through controversies?
Self discipline my darling. It is not as if I am a perfect human being, I am not. It is not as if I have not done things that would have created news and headlines. But it is the way you handle those things when they happen. And you openly make up your mind. You won’t say because you want to be known, some people do things intentionally because they want to be heard. And for some, it is paying well for them, and you do not blame other people for toeing that line. Create some controversies, make some noise, you will become so popular and they will endorse you. Before you know, they are calling you for endorsements and you are making a mega pay. What baffles me these days is that when you ask the young people their role model, the yard stick they use in judging a role model, if you check it now, it’s not the same as it used to be. They will mention the name of the most popular person in show biz and I ask again is every celebrity a role model? The answer is no, because some are not close to being a role model. They are role models because they are popular, so they look up to them because they are popular. Not because of their life style, but their fame and fortune. If God has made you to attain that celebrity status, we should try as much as we can to be role models, because a lot of people look up to you.
As an actor, what can you say has made you stronger?
I have to remain humble because that part has always guided me. Humility is my watchword. No matter whom you are, if you are a proud person you can’t go anywhere. You will see yourself flying high, but you will drop into pieces. Because even the Bible takes out proud people and gives way to the humble. So every day I say, Father Lord, no matter the level you take me to, let me remain humble. Whatever I will have, that will change me, don’t give it to me.
You look trimmer, is there a reason for this new look?
I look slimmer. It is deliberate, I just wanted to shed some weight. I am getting older, and it is not good with weight. So when you are getting older, there are certain things you try to cut down. You don’t need a doctor to tell you that, because if you don’t you will begin to have health issues and then you begin to go to get some herbal things to help. I won’t take anybody’s herbs to lose weight, never! Because I have begun now, to prepare myself, I am aging, so I should know there are some certain things I should cut down on, on my own. So I don’t begin to run helter skelter for herbs to lose the weight or going for some surgeries. I don’t have time for that.
African print and your designs, are you a designer?
Some of the designs, my tailor makes them. But what people don’t know is that before I came into acting, I used to sew. I have a fashion house, when I was in school. It was helping me to pay bills, but when I came into acting, the fashion side of me died. But someday I want to bring it back pretty soon. So I create designs, I am very good at that.
You love to sing and dance, any plans to go into music?
I love music and dancing. I don’t know. I am not planning to. People are already yapping: Nollywood actors and actresses, must you people sing? (Laughs) because I am yet to see what has come out and really created waves – you know, being able to compete with the real musicians we have in the industry. I am yet to see one that will come out and compete with them. If you know where your calling is, please concentrate there. Everybody has got their own talent. It is becoming too much, I watch them, and I cry and ask, must you sing? If you are acting and you are yet to be popular and you feel singing will make you more popular, or make people automatically accept you, it is a lie o. these days, you don’t throw shit on Nigerians and feel they will accept.