•Star Actor, OLAROTIMI FAKUNLE
Olarotimi Fakunle is an actor, director and producer. While he has played several strong characters in both film and theatre, he is best known for his roles in Ajochie, Paper Boat, Last Days, Run, Omoye, Fallen Angel, Game Plan, Kada River, Blood of Enogie, Hush, Ranti, and Riona, Gang of Lagos and the most recent one, Labake Olododo.
Fakunle has worked on several projects that are based on the works of some of Nigeria’s most respected playwrights including The Trials of Brother Jero, Madmen and Specialist, Kongi’s Harvest, The Lion and The Jewel, Jero’s Metamorphosis by Wole Soyinka, Our Husband has Gone Mad Again, The Gods Are Not To Blame by Ola Rotimi and Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka.
He was part of the The Nigerian team that performed at Shakespeare Olympiad in 2012 and also part of the Renegade Theatre team that performed Wole Oguntokun’s The Waiting Room and The Tarzan Monologues at the Edinburg Festival Fringe 2013 and 2014 respectively; Olarotimi is also a recipient of the prestigious Mervin Stutter’s “Spirit of the Fringe Award” at the Edinburg Festival Fringe 2014.
His breakout role was as Kazeem in the Prime Video Original Gangs of Lagos and as Beyioku in Labake Olododo, and also has a few more high profile projects lined up for the next couple of months.
In a chat with City People Head of Tv, SUNDAY ADIGUN, Olarotimi Fakunle who many prefer to call Eleniyan, he revealed how he started acting and how he got his popular name “Eleniyan”. Here are excerpt.
Let me start by congratulating you on your sterling performances in some of the projects and many outstanding films that you acted in so far, from Gangs of Lagos to Labake Olododo, how do you feel with the feedback from people, and then looking at what you did in those movies?
Well, it feels good and gratifying to see that people see the hard work we put in our projects and then the hard work is recognized.
People call you “Eleniyan”, how did you get the name?
Funny enough that name came from Gangs of Lagos, but the coincidence in that name was that, people used to call me “Baba Eleruku”, because I have adopted kids and children from my university who I actually trained as their tutor and mentor. I have quite a number of both male and female, and I walk around with them, so when people see me, they used to call me “Baba Eleruku”, and you know what that means in Yoruba, “owner of men”, so when Gangs of Lagos came and then it came with “Eleniyan”, it only just blended, because that has been me from time memorial.
How did acting start for you?
That’s a long story, because I started from my secondary school and that’s way back, because I grew up in Abeokuta, I went to Lafenwa High School, from High School, I was the one who represented my school from Jss 1 in Literary and Music Society and the only thing that I’ve done in that time was pick a traditional African poetry. There’s this book called the Macmillan Traditional African Poetry.
I started reading it quite early because my elder brother apparently didn’t have to study…at that time literature was not optional.
So I got the books from my elder brother, two of which went to my secondary school. So I just took an interest in traditional African poetry like Sango, Osun, Oya, Ogun. But some of those poems that I did, I still remember to date. And then when I go to refugee school, I will now dramatize it, like creating a Sango character, creating a good character, very impassioned, in general I’m saying that from there, that was how the interest started. I never wanted to do this because I really wanted to be a veterinary doctor. I love animals, they’re great. But that was how it started and then this is where we are today.
Your delivery is always superb, was there any other thing you did to make your acting outstanding?
Well, one of the things I did seriously when I came to Lagos, I went to NCSC in 1997 to train at National Centre for Arts and Culture at National Theatre. I started training as a teenager. Self-training, self-practicing. I know how repetition is the mother of perfection. So practicing in 1998, I became the assistant director for Art African Consort. That was the biggest youth theater in that time in Nigeria. Because we do all these initial projects and all of that.
So I’ve always tried to own my craft, tried to become better. I think that is the result that we see today.
I noticed you appear mostly in cinema movies. Was that deliberate?
I wouldn’t say that, because I’ve acted in a couple of projects that didn’t go to the cinema, in fact until recently some producers didn’t want to cast me for cinema movies, they will say I’m not a cinema face. it’s now it dawned on me how discriminating that can be for an actor, when they tell you that you are good but you’re not a cinema face and I’ve lived with that stigma for a long time until most recent times when I got a couple of films that’s gone to the cinema. I was talking about it 3 days ago with my friends and wife that, I don’t know how many actors have their films showing back to back at the cinema, A couple of years like 2-5 years ago they’ll tell you that they want a cinema face and I can understand it because if you put money in a project, you’ll want to make the money back, so I can understand but I feel it’s just dehumanising, because you don’t know what keeps you going. I’m just grateful to God.
How did you get casted for your role in Labake Olododo?
So,I was shooting a project somewhere and Iyabo Ojo came around with her Production Manager, Ton tirin, Kehinde and because I’ve met with Kehinde before, I am a very open minded person and I used to play with guys around me a lot. He just told IYABO that this is Beyioku. I didn’t really get that, and we left that day. The other day I went to greet my big brother Ibrahim Chatta and Iyabo Ojo came around again and I was playing with Ton tirin, then she said “Mapa omo funmi oo. Then Ton Tirin repeated that statement again, that Aunty this is Beyioku. That was when Aunty Iyabo now told me about the project. She’s someone I admire from afar. I have worked with her before on different projects but I said you know what, if it’s Aunty Iyabo I will tell my manager to cancel every other appointment, and that was it.
Let’s talk about your growing up, your family background?
I am from a family of eight, four boys four girls,we have four boys first and four girls last. I am the last boy, a church boy because I used to be an assistant choir master,I love music. My mother introduced me to animals at the age of six,so all my children are in love with animals too. I am a lover of nature based on how I was raised. The best part of my life was in Abeokuta, because we didn’t have to buy vegetables, we didn’t have to buy foods, we didn’t have to buy crops, we grew everything we ate. I thank God he has given me the grace to go back to Agriculture now too, because beyond all the things I do I also farm. I’m a farmer. I’m grateful for that experience.
Are we expecting any production from you soon?
There are still a lot of my jobs you guys haven’t seen. I’ve a couple of movies you guys haven’t seen. A couple of projects that are not even out yet.
