Nigerian Movie Star Profile
Enebeli
Elebuwa
Background
I am Enebeli Elebuwa, I
hail from Upkane in Otagunu local government area of Delta
State. My dad died when I was 10 years old, so I left my home
town when I was only 12 to stay with someone in Lagos who
never care to my education. I am a retired civil servant. I
have been in the acting profession for the past 30 years. I
started by going to auditions and somebody one day just said
he wanted to use me for a perfomance and that was how it all
started.
TV Soaps
The first soap I
did was Mirror in the Sun. I played in the first three pilot
episodes and eventually I was worked as an assistant
producer/director in the soap. I had to leave the role I was
given to enable me concentrate on production. I have been part
of so many productions and I may not be able to remember all
now but I am presently working on Heaven’s Gate produced by
Zik Okafor.
Movies
The first one I
acted in was a film (celluloid) called Dinner with the Devil.
It was produced by Sanya Dosumu in 1974/75. I played the role
of a police officer investigating a crime and I can remember
that I featured in other major films including Bisi Daughter
of the River by Jab Adu and Eddie Ugboma’s Oyenusi. When we
started home movies, I featured in Journey To Hell. I cannot
remember all but there is this particular movie titled Dark
Goddess, which featured actress like Regina Askia and others.
I have since done many others. I have been in the home movie
industry since 1994.
Challenging
work
To me, every script is challenging. Once I
agree to do it, I have to play a role I haven’t played before.
So, there is no script that is not challenging, when I look
critically at the role, it turns out to be that I have to play
a character that is not exactly
mine.
Inspiration
My inspiration
comes from God. I try to work hard because there are so many
things that one cannot do well, one should not be jack of all
trades, master of none. So, as an artiste, I concentrate on
God to lead me most of the times. I do not look on anything or
anybody to give me inspiration, I depend on Christ to inspire
me.
The industry
The movie
industry is profitable, I do not see myself featuring in every
soap. I think a soap is sufficient for an actor, so I have one
running and I am not expected to be jumping from one soap to
another because one would not give enough time to the
characters.
Also I could remember that in 1977, I was paid
N1000 while working on Oyenusi and that was the highest fee
ever paid to anybody at that time. Today, a lot of people are
involved, remuneration is a lot better than it was in those
days. Even on TV in those days, artistes have received less
than N50 working on Village Headmaster and some other
programmes. The movie industry is rather coming up but it
hasn’t really come of age until I see the average marketer
selling up to two hundred thousand copies, four hundred
thousand copies or even a million copies in a country of about
120 million. then I can be able to say we have really come of
age.
Role in Village Headmaster
I
was the police officer who comes from Jebaco to arrest
criminals in Oja village. I enjoyed the programme because the
masters that I met initially were all in Village Headmaster.
These include the Aladeode of Oderemo, Oba Funso Adeolu
(Eleyimi), Bassey Okon, Uncle Jab Adu, it was one big family.
Others include Elsie Olusola (Sisi Clara) Mrs Ibidun Allison
(Amebo) and Joe Layode. I started in the time of Femi Robinson
and I also acted when Justus Esiri was there. But in Village
Headmaster, I also got the job of assistant producer/director.
In those days everyone was his brother’s keeper and people
worked together and attended parties
together.
Turn off
I hate lies and
injustice.
Memorable moments
I
didn’t start acting because I wanted fame, I have had my rough
and good times in life, I remembered so many things but I
can’t recall any spectacular day as such in the movie
industry. But one of the greatest things that has happened to
me since I came into this industry was that God saved my life
from a very near fatal accident. I was driving to Ijebu Igbo
and on getting close to Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye, my
car somersaulted and eventually hit a big barrier; I lost
control and the car eventually hung on the bridge. A greater
part of the car was almost down there and I was rescued by
some policemen who came and stood behind the car, pressed it
down and rescued me and three other people who were with me in
the car. I didn’t know how it all happened- It was really a
miracle that showed that God wanted to preserve me.
Role model
I wouldn’t say I have a
role model as such because I went through things that even
some of the people that I might describe as role models never
went through. My kind of role model is a great man who knows
how to care for the ordinary people but this quality is
missing in our society. Everybody is working for him /herself,
nobody cares for the other person. One of the people that I
admired as a young man then was the late Tai Solarin. He was
doing things for the society; he trained children who
ordinarily would not have been educated. He was someone I
could call a role model if I am asked to choose one. The other
person is Mother Theresa of India who left her home to help
the needy.
I also love Wole Soyinka, a great Nigerian who
has achieved a lot through hard work. He was enlightened in
time and he took advantage of it and used it reasonably well
to bring fame to himself and to his nation.
Most popular work
What brought me
into limelight was Andrew. Andrew was done about 21 years ago
in a jingle on television where the man said he was checking
out of Nigeria: a place where there is no electricity, no good
road and where one could not even find a bottle of beer.
Philosophy
If I had the time to
think, maybe I will bring out other things but my most
important legacy in life is live and let live, which we hardly
do in our land. Secondly, I always preach that people should
love their neighbours as
themselves.
Marriage
I am married,
I have four children who are in school. My children are not
into what I am doing and I cannot force them because my father
did not force me into the arts. I will give them a chance if
they are interested but I won’t go out of my way to force them
into unnecessary
publicity.
Relaxation
When I am not
acting, I sleep or play music. I play a lot of Urobo music, I
do not understand the language but the music touches me a lot.
I also listen to the Jazz music of Joe Williams and other
modern artistes. Sometimes, I go to niteclubs or shows and
listen to good artist perform. At times I perform myself I
vamp with the guitar and I sing.
Advice to
up-coming artistes
My advice has always been that
upcoming artistes should work hard. A lot of people think that
only dropouts can become actors/actresses but it is not so.
You have to be intelligent if you want to become artiste
because there are lots of intellectual work involved.
Dr.
Femi Shaka of the University of Port Harcourt has promised me
that whoever comes to him through me from any part of Nigeria,
he would train for a certificate course. This is basically for
those who are in a hurry and who would not want to wait for
four years in a university to train as an artiste. Young
artistes should work hard because nothing will be waiting for
them. In our time, before we started acting, we had to go to
the theatre to dance, sing, and act through the night just to
keep us going. When given a script, an artiste needs to
rehearse it, go to the mirror and see if he/she can convince
the audience of the role.
Becoming a
producer
I was a producer/director in NTA and I
have not given up the hope of returning to production. So,
when the kind of big budget I am looking for comes, I too will
like to produce
movies.
Hollywood
If an invitation
comes, I guess I will honour it but I have not acted in
Hollywood. It is the dream of every actor to act there because
Hollywood pays well but then I am not going to worry myself
because they too have their own pioneers who never got well
paid like us.
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