Fast rising actress, Omowunmi Dada’s
love for the arts led her to study creative arts at the University of Lagos,
shelving her early dream to become a lawyer. She speaks with angeladaviesblog.
How
did you get into acting?
When I was in secondary school, I wanted
to become a lawyer. Right from secondary school days, I have always loved
things that are art-related. I was in Igbo cultural troupe in primary school,
Yoruba cultural troupe, drama, literary and debating club as well as executive
in press club in secondary school. So, when it was time to enter into the
university, I thought it was appropriate to study creative arts and not law
anymore. Yes, I have that law thing inside of me; sometimes my friends call me
human rights activist because I hate when people are mistreated. I tend to
fight for people’s rights and all that, but I think I am more artistically
inclined. So, I studied creative arts at the University of Lagos.
When
did you join Nollywood?
When I was in the university, after
lectures we would go for auditions and sometimes we got paid for smaller roles.
But I started basically from the stage; I used to do more of stage plays in
school. Whenever we had practical in school, film directors from outside school
would come and watch us. If they like your performance, they would call you for
their own production. So, it started like that then I moved to doing series
like Tinsel, Needle Eyes, My mum and I, Bella’s Place and some others when I
was in the university. But after my National Youth Service Corps in 2012, I
decided to take acting as a career which gives me fulfilment.
Which
was your first movie?
My first movie after graduation was The
Gods Are Still Not to Blame. It was a modern adaptation of Ola Rotimi’s The
Gods are Not to blame.
What
were the challenges you faced?
When I started acting, the major
challenge was getting to be known and trying to convince people of your talent
that you are relevant in the industry. I had to go for auditions and not expect
the roles to come to me. It is now that I can sit at home and receive calls
from people and producers who got my contact from other producers.
How
was growing up?
Growing up was fun and not fun. It was
fun in the sense that I have three elder brothers and we used to watch
wrestling a lot. I am the only girl and I learnt a lot of things from them. My
parents were very nice but they were equally disciplinarians. My parents didn’t
allow us have so many friends growing up. My brothers used to bully me a lot and
I remember wrestling with my immediate elder brother and he gave me a wrist
breaker, which twisted my ankle. I couldn’t walk for two weeks. After that day,
I stopped wrestling with him.
Would
you say having grown up in the midst of three boys made you a tomboy?
Somehow yes. I am very much in touch
with my feminine side but sometimes I just want to seek solace and find comfort
in being a tomboy by wearing sneakers, jeans and sometimes not caring about
makeup. But now as an actor, I cannot go to some events without wearing making;
I have to be very feminine. The tomboy part of me even helped me in one of the
drama series, Tales of Eve, where I played the character, Daniella. Daniella
was a tomboy character but it wasn’t hard to play the character. In fact, I
even suggested to the producer that I should wear Mohawk hairstyle to best
portray the character, but he said I should just do cornrows for the character.
I am in touch with my feminine side, but the character, Daniella, was not at
all. In fact she can’t even fathom why a lady would use earrings, braid her
hair, use makeup or even wear a dress. When I am interpreting my roles, I love
to be very thorough.
No
doubt you are a fast rising actress. But is there any role you would reject?
I believe that the essence of acting is
to tell a story. Once I believe in the story, I would pick up the role. The
only role I will not take is the role that portrays the story I do not believe
in. Majorly, the essence of our arts in general is to educate and inform
people. So if I feel the story doesn’t necessarily educate in anyway and people
cannot take anything as lessons from the story, then there is no point being
part of that story.
What
is your unique selling point as an actor?
It is my quest and yearning for
versatility. I don’t like to be stereotyped. The farther a character is from
Wunmi as an individual, the more interested I want to be because aside acting
to help people learn, I equally want to key into different people’s psychology.
If I am playing the role of a woman who has been raped by maybe six men, I want
to key into their psychology, feel their pain and know what exactly they are
going through.
Even after the rape, in their day-to-day
life, I want to know how they come to terms with that part of their life and
live above that stigma. I want to play different characters so that I can key
into different people’s psychology that way, it is adventurous for me as an
actor.
How
challenging was your role as a boxer?
It wasn’t easy playing the role of
Moremi in that movie and that was because growing up I liked wrestling, not
boxing. But then I had to learn the rudiments of boxing. I was trained to the
point that I was so good to be a professional.
The movie centres on a girl whose name
is Moremi. She grew up in an environment where her father beats up her mother
and when she couldn’t take it anymore, oneday she left the environment. She
started living on the streets but she was a good girl. She became a boxer and
had to fight physically for her chance in life and she made it.
What
are your other passions aside acting?
I love presenting, writing and I do
voiceover as well. I also help proffer solution. I love listening to people’s
story so that I can give counsel; I roll more with people who are way older
than me so I get to learn from them. Then I love to mentor young ones.
Any
crush on any celebrity?
No, I don’t have any. Trust me when I
say that I don’t.
Are
you in any relationship?
Yes I am.
Is
he in the entertainment industry?
He is not. I have never dated anybody in
the industry.
So
tell us about your ideal kind of man?
I love a God-fearing and calm man with a
sense of humour. I love someone who will respect me as an individual and
respect my profession. It is not easy to say you want to date an actor. You
have to be understanding and understand that the same way you go to work 8.00am
to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday and sometimes Saturday is the same way too an actor
goes to work. And everything you see the actor do is work, nothing personal.
What’s
your greatest fear in life?
It is not living up to who God has
destined me to be.
Any
regrets in life?
That would be not going into modelling
when I was much younger.
How
much do you think is right to take up a nude role?
First of all, you cannot pay an actor’s
worth. If you give an actor one billion dollars for a role, it’s not enough.
The reason why I say it’s not enough is because the character that person will
play will live after the person is dead. And the lessons that would be learnt
as well as the lives that would change cannot be quantified with money. Whether
I want to play a nude role or not, the truth is that you cannot pay an actor’s
worth. No amount of money on earth is right for an actor because our job is
such that when I look at a lot of legends who have come and gone but their
movies still inspires, and educate us, then you will know that no amount of
money can be paid for this.
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