Says: “The New Generation Actors Have Messed Up The Industry”
She has been around for as long as many of us can remember. Veteran actress, Rachael Oniga, has made a name for herself as one of Nollywood’s most respected and accomplished personalities. She is also one of the few who have shown versatility and the ability to hold their own both in the English and Yoruba arm of the movie industry. She speaks impeccable English and also very fluent Yoruba, hence her ability to interpret her roles perfectly well, whether the movie is English or Yoruba. City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL, had a brief chat with this veteran who’s ageing beautifully judging by her pretty and glamorous look. She bares her mind on the present state of the industry and why she’s worried about the level of decadence in Nollywood today.
It’s sowelld to see you looking so sweet and ageless, ma, please tell us how you are able to keep looking young and beautiful all the time.
When I’m not working, I take a lot of rest. I sleep and relax in my house, I don’t go jumping about.
But beyond what you just said, these days when a lot of people are groaning under the challenges and pressure of survival, yet we still see mothers like you who are ageing gracefully and dealing well with the pressures, how do you do it?
The thing is, as long as you know the pressures are there, why kill yourself over them? If you choose to kill yourself over it, it’s not going to solve anything, so, why don’t you just leave everything to God.
Okay, ma, we’re here to celebrate Omotola Jalade Ekehinde as she celebrates her 40th birthday, what are your thoughts about this amazing lady?
It’s a beautiful event, a really grand one. Exactly what is expected of someone like Omotola to put together. The turnout shows that a lot of people love her, and that’s why you have people like me here. Ordinarily, I don’t go out. Even the press complain about that, but people who are very close to me and dear to me, I go all out to attend their events. Omotola is a humble girl, sorry, she’s a woman now, but she will always remain a girl to me.
And she’s a charming lady, I love beautiful things. I love young people when they’re beautiful and handsome. When I see people like Omotola, I give glory to God for his hard work because God has actually done a very fantastic job on her. And that’s why she’s the real Omosexy.
You’re someone who has paid your dues in the industry, one of the shinning lights of Nollywood today. Looking back over the years, how was it for you back then to make your big break in the industry and subsequently make a name for yourself?
You know, back then, it was tougher. Unlike what the youths are enjoying today, we went through hard and difficult situations to get there. It was serious business back then. In those good old days, if you’re not good at acting, you won’t get roles, but if you’re good, you’ll get plenty of roles. The more hard work you put into it, the more jobs you get. But all in all, we give glory to God because it is God that makes things work out for good for us, we just try to do our best to make sure that we do what is right and come out with something good that people will enjoy and we leave the rest to God.
How would you compare, ma, the kind of quality talent that was abound in the industry in those days to what we have now?
The truth is that then, you really needed to work hard. You couldn’t just cut corners or go through any other way. It was business and serious hard work and nothing short of it. Back then, the determination was that for every job you do, you must do it better than the last one. There was serious competition then and it really made the industry grow.
In all honesty, ma, are satisfied with the state of the industry, especially when you consider the excessiveness of young actresses with their indecent dressing and penchant for using sex to sell movies?
Certainly, it gives me cause for concern in the sense that we have viewers, audience, who are complaining about all these immoralities. And it saddens one’s heart. Of course, I can’t be happy or satisfied with the way things are going. All the time, you hear people complaining about indecency and all that as if it’s the order of the day. Thank God we have a lot of young actresses too who are doing well and who do not indulge in any of these nonsense, I just hope and pray the bad ones will turn a new leaf because their conduct is really affecting the industry.
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