Omotola Opens Up On Career, Rivalry Within The Industry

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde a.k.a Omosexy is a fulfilled actress, musician, mother of four lovely children and wife to a man she fondly calls 'honeyboy'.

2011 saw her taking part in five major movie projects; two at the beginning of the year and three towards the last months .She also clinched a few deals, one of which is becoming an Ambassador for Amnesty International.

In a recent interview, the talented actress opens up on how she copes with success, her winning ways, and other issues.

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 “The truth of the matter is that I really don’t make much of it. All I do is to live with it day-by-day. I am aware of it. And I am aware of the responsibility that comes with it, but it’s nothing that I can’t handle. I have been quite lucky. I am careful with the responsibility that comes with it.

But personally as Omotola, I am not someone who is too inclined to pleasing people. I live my own life. I believe in my convictions and I believe in what I believe in. In the long run they always vindicate me. I don’t live my life to please anybody, this is me. My favourite saying is that what you see is what you get. I will never say anything behind you that I cannot say in front of you. That is it for me, really.”

Asked how she copes with all the rivalry within the industry, she said: “I find it very funny so much so that I laugh at it. I understand it. It’s never going to go away, people comparing one actress to another. The length to which people take it is what I find hilarious. It is natural.

In life, people have people they get along with. You may just not get along with your contemporaries. It’s the fact of life.

“Personally, I am not very close to so many people not because of work or rivalry, but because I am just removed from the everyday life they live. Number one, I live far away. Number two, I didn’t grow up making friends with everybody around me. You have to understand my upbringing for you to understand my life.”

Omotola added: “I am not that much of a social being. I am boring. I am not a girl’s girl. I am not a party person. I am not the kind of girl you will call and say oh, there is this new dress, there is this shoe. I usually don’t have those kinds of conversations, really I talk properties. So, when someone is talking about this new Channel Bag, I am thinking about this property I saw somewhere that I want to buy.

“Omotola does not have the time to start beefing a colleague about whether she is better than me or I am better than her. I don’t engage in those issues. I don’t have best friends. I just have people I like in the industry and who I can say I know. When I am on set I get along with everybody. I am a very chatty person.

“Competition in the movie industry it’s a good thing. I love competition. But I only like it when it’s healthy. When it becomes unhealthy, then I really start to detest it; I loathe it and I run away from it.

“I like competition because it allows you grow. Imagine if it was only Omotola that was acting; really, it will be boring. There is the need for a new blood here and there, a new person to jab you here and there. If it’s healthy, it’s actually wonderful and it helps everybody to be better .Anybody who does not like competition is evil. Competition when it is healthy creates better service.”

culled from nigeriafilms.com