Veteran actress, Sola Sobowale speaks with The Nation's Victor Akande at her Ikeja, Lagos home, upon her return to Nollywood, after about 12 years in London.
Going by the movie characters you play, people see Sola Sobowale as a very harsh, quarrelsome, and sometimes pretentious as seen in Toyin Tomato. To what extent can you distance yourself from these characters? I am Sola Sobowale, not Toyin Tomato. Acting is my profession, this means I know how to interpret the characters given to me; meaning I am doing the job God ordained me to do. In another life, I would still be an actress. However, Sola Sobowale is a very humble person, strict, straight-forward, honest, and unpretentious.
For me, what you see is what you get. Don’t tell me what I want to hear, just tell me as it is. If you are a liar, deceitful, and unserious-minded, or lack goals or focus, Sola Sobowale can’t be your friend, because I am a very serious minded person. I know what I want, and I get it in the right way. That is who Sola Sobowale is; I am a mother who doesn’t joke with her children: God first, my family next. Sola Sobowale is very simple actually; the simplest person in the whole world. I play a lot, but when it comes to anything improper, then you will see my other side. I don’t deal with darkness.
Going by the movie characters you play, people see Sola Sobowale as a very harsh, quarrelsome, and sometimes pretentious as seen in Toyin Tomato. To what extent can you distance yourself from these characters? I am Sola Sobowale, not Toyin Tomato. Acting is my profession, this means I know how to interpret the characters given to me; meaning I am doing the job God ordained me to do. In another life, I would still be an actress. However, Sola Sobowale is a very humble person, strict, straight-forward, honest, and unpretentious.
For me, what you see is what you get. Don’t tell me what I want to hear, just tell me as it is. If you are a liar, deceitful, and unserious-minded, or lack goals or focus, Sola Sobowale can’t be your friend, because I am a very serious minded person. I know what I want, and I get it in the right way. That is who Sola Sobowale is; I am a mother who doesn’t joke with her children: God first, my family next. Sola Sobowale is very simple actually; the simplest person in the whole world. I play a lot, but when it comes to anything improper, then you will see my other side. I don’t deal with darkness.
Talking about being disciplined and straight forward, how has your relationship with people been like, knowing that, as they say, truth is bitter? My father was a principal; my mother too was a retired Head Mistress. As an offspring of that kind of family, you should know the goal is discipline and education. Egbe eye leyen woto (birds of a feather flock together). I am very lucky that the people that I mingle with understand me. I don’t rush into anything because, enibakanjulabegbigbonaahon e majoni (you burn your tongue licking a hot soup hastily). So, I choose my friends, I choose people that I work for, and I have been lucky. I am a Christian and I put God first in everything I do. I know when you have Him, you will never go astray. Again, he says ‘ask and it shall be given, knock and the door will open…” I have told Him what I want, the right people to work with and glory be to God.
They say children who come from families of Teachers and Pastors have the tendency to be rebellious. Were you at some point in your life rebellious? I am so grateful to my parents. They loved me with passion and I pray that in another life, they should still be my parents. They have passed on, but they were not dictators. Parents should make their children their friends; talk to your children. Growing up, we used to enjoy sessions with our parents. We called it Sunday-Sunday tablet. Oro Isiti (thought-provoking words). We used to sit together with our parents who would preach love to us. They had never dictated to us. When I decided to go into acting, even though my mother wanted me to be a teacher, but we talked about it, and that was it.
How truly emotional are you, because the ease with which you switch is amazing? This moment, you are talking tough, the next minute, you weeping profusely… I am a very soft person but onaofunlonaorun (seeking daily bread exhumes one’s desperation). When you see me shout in the movies, it’s my job. I’m a very simple person. What you see is what you get. When there is trouble, I run. I don’t want to be hypertensive. The thing is I am very emotional, and I don’t like dishonesty. Don’t lie to me, if you do, you have killed me. Don’t cheat me. If you cheat me, you kill me. Don’t take what I love from me because doing so means you have killed me. That is who I am.
It’s good to know that you are back to the screen, starting with Nectar, your latest production. What took you away from Nigeria in the first place? To start with, I love Nigeria. Nigeria is the greatest country in the whole wide world. I don’t know why people don’t want to live in Nigeria. I must also say that I was doing pretty well in Nigeria before I went abroad, because all the marketers loved me and they didn’t hide that fact. I got a job of N1million within the spate of one month; sometimes I got jobs of N800, 000.
So, I was really making money. I put my children in the best schools because education is the only legacy you can leave your children. However, I left for the UK over twenty years ago, and the reason is simple; Mo lo tunojo ale mi seni (I went to prepare for my future). I was paying close to a million Naira per term for three children here, but when I hear some graduates in Nigeria speak, their grammatical blunders saddens my heart. This is in addition to having a child spend seven years studying a four year course, courtesy of the regular strikes. So, I took them to study abroad and came home to continue my career.
But I always kept tabs on the kids. Therefore, I don’t do mobile phones. I do landline. And that is simply because motherhood goes beyond having children. A mother must do a job that gives her time to teach family values. By doing landline, I know when my children wake up in the morning, when they go to school, and when they close at school. I call them on their landline, and they must pick it. As time went on, I realised that was not enough. So, one day, I took off to England to be with them, and watch them closely. I told myself that stardom must wait. Now the three of them have graduated. Mission accomplished, I can now get back to work and that is why I am here.
What was your experience like, coming back to shoot Nectar? My children wrote Nectar when I was abroad. Within that period, I came to Nigeria to shoot Ohun Oko Somida. I also did Family on Fire by Tade Ogidan. The movies I do come out of experience. Many Nigerians who travel abroad destroy our culture and heritage. Some don’t even speak their language with their children. Some are too busy to know if the girl or boy that left home for school actually attended classes.
Do you check your children’s notebooks? Do you know their counselors, teachers? Do you talk to the teachers about your children? That way again, I said to myself, let’s bring family values back. And that is why right now, I am working on an NGO on family values. This should turn people’s lives around to understand what parenting is. We want our children to stop doing drugs; we want our children to stop prostitution. In Nectar, you will find some of those values in it. When you govern your home well, you will govern your office well, and then you can govern your local government to an international level. Some people are very rich, but when you see their children you will cry for them. So, this is why I am back on screen, telling people how they can do things in the right way.
In essence, you are establishing an NGO… Yes!
Do you have a name for it already? Not yet
Are you trying to bring your children into the film profession? Before I left Nigeria, Taiye; one of my twins was acting in Everyday People. She was still in Primary School at that time. She quit on her own, saying to me; ‘mummy I am not doing again’. But when they were in the UK, and at their leisure, they took to script writing. That was how Nectar came about.
What has changed in the Nigeria movie industry since you returned? A lot. We need to focus more on transformational movies. People believe solely in what they can eat now. Don’t they have piracy in America too? Even on the streets of London, there are pirates. So why is Nigeria different? Why can’t the government build a film village for filmmakers to use? That’s why I give kudos to Nigerian producers because these things are done individually. So let’s touch important places in people’s lives. I want to touch fathers, mothers, and children by the grace of God and government too. I will get there.
How available are you for other jobs apart from your own productions, and your NGO? If I receive a good offer I will do it. If I get a meaningful job that people will learn from, I will do it. I am available because that’s my job, and my joy. But I will not do a meaningless job.
Do your children place any restrictions on your acting? Yes! Before I do any script, they will tell me “Mummy can I have the script?” And they will read. Another thing is that my colleagues know what to give me. There was a script in which I was asked to play a Sugar Mummy and I asked how they want me to play the role, because I have my own way. But then they told me the little boy will be cuddling me. I rejected the script. So, yes, I do have restrictions.
You acted in Asewo to re Mecca… (Cuts in) Yes. Very well. It was a pacesetting movie, but did you see us taking off our clothes? Even in the swimming pool scene, I had my swimsuit with a robe. I love Asewo to re Mecca. I would do it over and over again.
I like the aspect of parenting, and the fact that you put your family first. But in all of these, you did not mention their dad… (Cuts in) Come let me show you something. (Moves towards the sitting area) I have heard people say Sola Sobowale does not have a husband. (Shows family photographs of herself, her husband, a tall, dark, trim, bearded man with her children) People even said I wrote Ohun Oko Somida based on my experience but it’s not true.