You were always acting child roles until later when producers started giving you roles of a mature man. Did you have to complain before they did that?
I didn’t complain. They knew from day one that I wasn’t a child. But I cannot change myself. When the producers look at me, they would feel I could act the role of a seven or 10-year-old and they would cast me. If I went into that character, at that point, I was a child. Producers continued to cast me as a child because I was able to play the role very well. If I didn’t interpret the role well, people wouldn’t be convinced that I could do it well. But now, I convinced the world to the extent that people don’t even know that I am not a small boy except when I talk about myself. Everybody thinks Mama Gee (Patience Ozokwor) is one wicked woman because she has been able to interpret that role well. But then, I have been able to do other roles very well. The only time I complain is when I am given a bad script. There is no way I will do a film that requires me to hit a woman’s backside. But it is acting… No. In Nigeria, it is not normal for a child to just touch a woman’s but-tocks. It is not a good thing in my hometown. Even a husband shouldn’t touch his wife’s backside in the public because people will look at it as if you are corrupting the young ones. So if I see such in my script, I tell the producer and director that I will not do such. Even when they tell me that is what people want to see, I still insist I will not be a part of it. I respect the norms and ethics of the society.
But what if the money involved is huge?
No matter how much they pay me, I will not touch a woman’s but-tocks in a movie. What if I do it and people criticise me? They wouldn’t care about how much I was paid. What if I take the money and I quit acting tomorrow? I am acting for the public and not for the owner of the movie.
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