Yvonne
Jegede, one of Nollywood’s beautiful acts
who is presently making a wonderful 'comeback' after going away to school for a few
years, was in our office a couple of weeks back and we had this wonderful ‘time
out’ chatting. Here is an extract from the very interesting chat we had with some of the exciting pictures we took as well. Enjoy!
Yvonne let’s assume that someone out there is listening to
you for the first time. So let's hear you who is Yvonne Jegede?
Ok Yvonne Jegede is an actress. I emmh... just turned a producer
and I have been in Nollywood for over a decade. I intend to do better jobs so
that I don’t have to introduce myself anymore *smiles*.
I know you from way back. So where have
you been since 'African Queen' because I
started seeing you in some movies then after a while you just disappeared.
I’ve been away in school in Cyprus, an American University
in Cyprus and ehmm I left in 2007, that was about four years after I started
working as an actor and then I came back in 2012. I took one year break off school
to go and ehmm... party, have fun and do whatever it is that young people do *laughs*.
Since you got back what have you been up to?
I have been back since 2012, I have been working actually
and if you have your eyes on the internet, Irokotv, I’m not supposed to do advert
for them *smiles* but they pay me *she laughs again*... Irokotv has a couple of my
movies on there and ehmm you can check them out and you have some DVDs .. so I
have been back and forth in Nollywood. A couple of the movies where you can
find Yvonne Jegede include Haunted souls, Oge sister, the good wife and threes’
company, which is the movie I Just produced is already online and you can go
and watch. There are a lot of other movies where I starred and ehmm... I think if
you just youtube my name Yvonne Jegede, you will find all of them.
The first time I saw you was on the ‘African Queen’ video by
Tu Face Idibia. And I was like ‘who is this beautiful dimple faced lady? So I looked
forward to see you again which I did in just a few movies and then you disappeared.
I’m sure not many people feel like it’s compulsory to go back to school after all they are in the industry already and making good money and all of
that. So why did you go back to school?
I ehmm... first of all I want to say ‘thank you’ to Dede
Mabiaku and Bimbo Akintola. Those two people worked my brain up…hmm because I
dropped out of school earlier…in LASU because I was studying Law and
ehmmm….Uncle Dede kept saying “you think say you fine? By the time you old all
your beauty go don wash comot” (laughs) typical of him and he kept going on and on and
on. He was even ready to assist
me as per getting me a school and I didn’t understand why he was really
bent on me going back to school. Same with Bimbo Akintola…she…I… you know she’s
well read and she kept hammering and hammering. And I would say I’m lucky being
their friend because I have been able to pick one thing…take one thing home
which in the next 60, 70 years… I will always remember them for making me think
about going back to school which honestly…people say “oh you shouldn’t have
left, if like say you stay, you for don big now…people for don know you…blah
blah blah” and I say (sighs) "oh please!
I’m happy I went to school because acting anywhere in the world will always
wait for you as long as you can still read scripts and move around… you will
still be an actor. But for school… you ‘ll get to a certain stage and really
your brain would not be able to assimilate anymore… as per school-wise, to
study those things you really don’t need…(laughs) because at the end of the day
you go into an exam it’s not those things you read you usually find there or
you work in a bank it’s not x plus Y you usually find there. So I’m glad I went
back to school. It was not an easy task. I..I was already making money like I
said before. Having to leave ‘making-money’ to go back and spend the money… it
wasn’t easy but with the help of God, my dad and a couple of friends, I was
able to pull through. I’m glad. I will not take those
five…four years…specifically four years back,
I wouldn’t.
On a count of one to ten, how would you rate Nollywood
today?
I would say Nollywood is on a seven. People may wonder ‘huh’
that is a lot but I don’t think that is a lot. Ehmm… the five years I took away and … comparing
what nollywood is now to what it was then, I will say we’ve taken a very huge
gigantic step because we have loads of people who have gone to learn
the craft and art of movie making. Initially
it was just the love for it. A lot of people who just love to produce…a lot of
marketers and people are recording in Asaba, Alaba
whatever they call it and then
they started
this business, but thank God we have a lot of younger people who have gone to
learn it professionally in an institution of four walls and have come back to
you know… bring in better ideas, bring in better projects, better cameras and equipment and have a better people who have actually studied acting not just …oh
… behind the camera. People who are before the camera have gone to study acting.
So I’ll take it that it’s a very big step. It is slow, people are not seeing
the change, but it is happening inasmuch as piracy is kind of pulling us back but…we’ll
fire them very soon *laughs*.
Talking about this issue of piracy, do you think it’s ever
going to end?
It will…you cannot stop it, that’s for sure but you can curb
it, and if you can curb it… because …I was saying, if you put ehmm… those
retailers or the ones that sell on the roadside in a spot where they have to
hide… then it’s being curbed.
Would you give some credit to newly opened academies as one
of the factors for the improvement in Nollywood lately?
Of course, you can’t put that one out. You can’t put it out
because I and someone were actually having a conversation and I said “it’s a
shame that Nigerians, we literally rule Africa when it comes to entertainment,
music, movies. Nigerian movies are watched everywhere and now Americans
actually rule the world because of this same entertainment. They have better
movies, they have better songs, they have… when it comes to media, social media, they
have…they are very good at it to showcase what they have. Now we have that
power over Africa as a whole and the government hasn’t really done anything.
There is no institution anywhere, where people can actually come to Africa,
come to Nigeria to study film-making, it’s really sad. I was in East Africa three
years ago to shoot a film and then the camera man was asking me “do you know
Clarence Peters” and I’m like if people
here know these people, someone else said “I know Sam Dei Dei” that’s Sam
Dede. And these are people…you can actually build an institution where you have
people like Sam Dede teach first…teach acting, teach film. Have people like
Clarence Peters, DJ Tee… all these people who know camera to come and teach
people cinematography. You have the likes of Tunde Kelani to come and lecture
in school. Tade Ogidan to come and lecture in school; people like that but we don’t
have NOTHING. Shame on Nigeria. I’m sorry!
In all of these, where do you see Nollywood in the next ten
years?
In the next ten years I see Nollywood not just being one of
the top three movie making countries in the world but one of the best top three
movie making countries in the world. So it’s not just saying “oh they produce
one thousand films in a year” but they produce … even if they still produce a thousand
films, but very good movies. I see Nollywood…it might really…it might be slow.
It might take ten years but we will get to that.
What are your thoughts on the present acts in the industry
in Nigeria?
The industry has actually given a platform for people to come in,
which is very good…or I would say impressive. Initially, it was a monopoly. If
it’s Genevieve, then it’s Genevieve. If it’s Mercy Johnson, then it’s Mercy
Johnson. But right now everybody is out there. It’s no longer “oh I know one
actress who can do this” there are tons of them out there now. Like I said, a
lot of people have gone to schools to learn the art and craft, so I’ll say…it’s
a good thing…come on y’all. Like I keep
saying, If you can act, if you have the talent, join the Nollywood, let’s push
Nollywood further. Nollywood deserves to be better than where it is right now.
So if you are young and have creative minds…it’s not just being an actor, you
can be a young Director, sound person, gaffer just come on, let’s all tag along
and push this industry further. Entertainment is for everybody and the sky is
big enough for everybody.
Let’s talk about ladies bitching or beefing one another in
the Industry. Do you think it will ever stop?
Nooo! It will not stop!! Being bitter is an individual
problem *laughs* and if you are still that person, you honestly will still be
hating the next person. Simple!!!
Why do the guys make up so easily on their differences but
the ladies keep at each other for long?
Hmm…for guys, don’t be deceived. I am in the industry and I
know guys don’t like themselves as well. But they have a better way of handling
it by acting as if the beef it’s not there.
One of your great moments.
One of my great moments was when I when to the UK and ehmm…
in Peckam this Cameroonian woman walked
up to me and said “oh my God! You are the Nigerian actor, I like you, I want to
take a picture with you, can I”? and I
said “Oh of course you can, why not” and she goes “oops! My phone just died.
Can we go over to that shop and charge my phone so I can take the picture”? And I had my shopping bags of rice, garri and
all of that with me. As I was thinking in my head oh my God how did this woman catch me at this time? She offered to help with some of the bags
and we went, charged the phone and took the pictures. It was tiring but at the
end of the day, I felt really good. And it was somebody who wasn’t even
Nigerian. It also happened in South Africa as well. A South African walked
up to me in a shop in Johannesburg and said “I see you in Nigerian films”
*laughs* and I replied in a south
African tone while laughing “yes it is me you see on your screen” Those are
some of my great moments.
Any last words on this interview?
Just take care of yourself. Drink water and exercise. You don’t
have to go out if you don’t really have to. Stay home and relax.
This
is two days after. I am sitting down here. Dazed, still grieving in denial wishing
that it’s all a dream and my head completely blank even as I try so hard to
muster or calibrate on the words to begin this article on our very own OJB, the man who had a beautiful soul.
I
still find it difficult to pardon myself for not being able to contact him at least for the last time before I got the
news of his death that morning. Gosh! It hit me hard when I was told that he had just “died
an hour ago”.
When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, we
talked for hours and even when his credit ran out, I called him back and we
kept on and on. We talked about so many things. So many things I would talk
about on a later date. So many things I bet you, dear reader you would love to
read about.
Nevertheless, I am consoled in the fact
that she believes you are in a better place with God where you will no longer
have any pains like you suffered in these last couple of years. Most importantly
she will be consoled that in spite of all the ups and downs, you were a good
husband, father and friend and of course memories of your times together will
remain in her heart forever. She proved that she truly was your ‘AFRICAN QUEEN’.
