I can work in supermarket if paid well – Lola Alao

Popular actress, Lola Alao was recently a guest of Toyosi Phillips on Sahara Reporters and she spoke about her entry into the movie industry, how she deals with negative reports about her person, her daughter, pirates and several other issues.

According to her, she feels great when people say they’ve been watching her on screen for a very long time, and she gives thanks to God for where he has brought her thus far.

Tracing her genesis as an actress, she recalls, “I started acting a long time ago with Ripples. My father was a soldier then, and my Uncle Taiwo Ibikemi came to the barracks to see his younger brother and I was there at that particular time. He then told me that there was an audition going on that he wanted me to be there. Luckily for me, when I attended the audition, I was given the role.”

On her cross-over to the Yoruba movie industry, she said, “It was Chico Ejiro that made me to produce my first Yoruba movie in 1994 which I acted alongside the likes of Jide Kosoko and Idowu Phillips (Iya Rainbow). When I saw them acting, I was scared because it was so real unlike in the English movies where we just cram our lines and deliver. I acted as a detective in the movie but I couldn’t even play it well because I was panicking.”

On how she deals with negative reports on her, she said, “I don’t see them as haters. What I’ve noticed about our people is that if they know that writing about you sells their papers, they’ll keep feasting on it. If they write negative things about you and it doesn’t sell, they won’t come back to you. And with due respect to Nigerians, they like to read negative stories about people and I don’t know why. There was a time they wrote that I was working in a supermarket in California, which would never happen. Meanwhile, I don’t see any big deal in it because I’m not better than those that are doing it. If I’m privileged to even do that job, I will do it as long as I earn good pay, honestly. I was in Lagos when that story came out, and I was like this people have started again. There was a time I was shooting a movie with Hon. Rotimi Makinde at the Ipaja area of Lagos, and he just told me that some people reported that I’m presently in Ilorin, and that I’m dating the then governor, Bukola Saraki. There are so many like that, but I don’t care anymore so far my conscience is clear and I have the fear of God. There was a day my daughter, who is 12 now, called me, and said mummy, why are they always writing bad things about you. I then told her to search for Bukky Wright who is like her second mummy on her Ipad, and she saw the bad things they wrote about her also. She searched some other actresses as well, and it was the same story. I then told her that we’re used to it, and that’s the price we have to pay for fame. Even when she acted in my movie, she said, ‘Mummy I hope they won’t write about me? ‘And I told her they will write about her when she grows up. She has acted in about four of my movies.”

Giving advice to those who are in the same position as she is, she said, “Just be focused. Forget them, they are enemies of progress. Don’t let it affect you and make them feel important. I’m sure that right now, they’re even tired of writing about me, because I don’t reply them, and I don’t care.”

On which career path she would have tread if she wasn’t an actress, she said, “I used to be an Air Hostess with Okada Airline. When I was a child, I used to tell my mom that I wanted to be an air hostess or a TV personality as a Newscaster because back then, I used to watch the late Tokunbo Ajayi and I really loved her.”

On piracy, she was of the view that the government isn’t giving the much needed support, and as a result, “Artistes are really suffering. In Nigeria, we don’t have companies supporting us. All we have done is just as a result of individual effort. We source for funds ourselves, and some stupid people will just come from nowhere, and make mockery of your efforts, and you end up not getting your money back. In my last movie, “Suru,” which is based on a true life story, I spent over N15m because we filmed in California, Las Vegas, Paris and Italy, as well as Nigeria. Now, I’m even scared to release it because of pirates. Sending a message to her fans, she said, “For those of you that always send messages to me on Facebook, all the negative things you read about me are not true. I’m not saying I’m perfect, nobody is. Without you, there will be no me. I love you, cherish and adore you. God bless you.

#entertainment