Sex for role in Nollywood disgusting, absolutely ridiculous, stupid, says James Omokwe, Nigerian film producer

 James Omokwe is a Nigerian film producer, who is widely celebrated for his brilliance in the Africa Magic dramas, Ajoche and Riona.
He started as an actor and over the years, transitioned from acting to film production. In this interview, he talks about the challenges of the Nigerian movie industry and opined that many actors refuse to be dynamic and are reluctant to adapt to new realities, which they see as obstacles rather than opportunities. Omokwe, who recently concluded a production meeting, a quarterly event for mentoring up-and-coming actors in Nigeria, spoke about his trajectory, as a filmmaker and other critical issues in Nollywood.

I have always been interested in TV, films and animation. In fact, back when I was younger, I always wanted to be an animator. I wanted to do cartoons. I felt like I could tell stories doing cartoons. I used to watch a lot of anime, a lot of Disney cartoons and all that stuff but as I grew older, I became more interested in doing films. So, I think for me, it was always innate. I remember always scribbling and drawing a lot of comic characters and wishing I could bring them to life. I always wanted to take those things that I was drawing and put them into real life. Animation at the time was almost like an impossibility in Nigeria in our industry. So, I just switched towards film and it was more like an obsession, nothing else interested me more. I kept saying to myself, “I want to tell a story and I need to pick up a camera and start.” I started and got into filming. I think my first film, which is still on Facebook to this day, was in 2008 or 2007. It was my first ever film that I did with a couple of my friends and after that experience, I knew definitely this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

 What was the reaction from your family and friends when you went into the movie industry? Did you face discouragement from them?

My family was very supportive. My mum is an extremely kind and supportive person and will encourage you in any chosen field you want. There was no discouragement whatsoever. I studied Theatre Arts at the university, a move my entire family supported. There was no pressure to be an engineer, doctor or teacher. They were supportive all the way.

I attended film school in Abuja. I used to work for a company called DelYork International and they run this DelYork Creative Academy. In 2010, they brought New York Film Academy to Abuja and I did a course in filmmaking. When I finished and came back to Lagos, bursting with ideas and full of zeal, I got a couple of people together and said, “Look, we are doing this film; we are going to make it happen.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have much funding. Convincing people to fund a film project was difficult. I mean, open-heart surgery would be easier than trying to convince people to give you money. I was fresh out of film school, who wanted to take a chance on this young guy who says he can do a great movie but has no proven resume? Well, eventually, we did raise the money but we wanted to do a big-budget movie and I don’t know if I knew what big-budget was at that point in time. But we did raise some money eventually over a long period of time but the money came in trickles and these were mostly from family members and people, who just thought to give me a chance. But even after getting the money to make the film, you still had to deal with publicity, distribution and, obviously, we didn’t have enough money to do our own publicity. We didn’t even know how distribution worked. It was really a struggle. I didn’t make any money when my first film was released. Discouraged, I went into this phase of doing TV films, which didn’t benefit me financially anyway. Again, nobody wanted to give a young filmmaker a chance. But I think the one thing that kept me sane was consistency; even though it was not benefitting me, I kept making films. I kept shooting movies and invariably building my resume and gaining more and more experience. For each failure in a project, you are actually gaining more experience; you get better.
In that situation, that phase of my life and career, I asked myself some hard questions: Is there any way forward? Am I on the right path? Am I ever going to have a breakthrough? What else can I do within my career choice that wouldn’t frustrate me? By the end of 2014, a friend of mine, IK Osaduwa, was producing a show. He was the host of the show for Africa Magic. It was his show and he asked me to produce it for him. Now, I haven’t had experience working on TV or producing a show for television but I jumped at the offer because I felt that it would be stable in terms of finances and I guess it was another angle for me to learn― but six, seven years down the line, I am still producing content for Africa Magic. If I didn’t make that choice, I probably wouldn’t be here today. Apart from the fact that I was consistent, I had to look critically and I had to make some changes, which eventually benefitted me along the way.

I started as an actor but the major thing that made me change my mind was I felt that I wasn’t being in the stories that I wanted to tell. I felt like I wasn’t doing the kinds of things that I really wanted to do. I am very big on telling authentic African stories like epics, suspense thrillers, that’s my thing. And I guess I was a bit impatient and didn’t want to play lover boy any longer. I wanted to tell very intriguing stories. I must, however, confess that at that point, I wasn’t thinking of authentic African stories. I just wanted to tell stories that were way beyond my time and henceforth I decided that I will direct my own movies. This was the reason I was working for Linus Idahosa, who owns DelYork; that was what fuelled my transition.

With your training from the New York Academy, how would you rate the prospects of the Nigerian movie sector?
The sector as regards training, as I said, I went to New York Film Academy, or rather, they came to Nigeria. This was way back in 2010 and the company, which brought that collaboration was DelYork. Now, we have a DelYork Creative Academy. What that training does is to prepare you for the opportunity that is already available. Like someone once told me that there is no such thing as an opportunity comes but once; opportunities are always available. You have to be well equipped to get to that opportunity and so I feel like this training is doing just that, preparing us for the eventuality of these opportunities that will come and they are coming because now we have Amazon, we have Netflix, there is HBO coming, there is Disney coming and all these guys want to work with professionals; they want to work with people who understand and know the business.

One of the vital lessons that I have learnt is consistency. Some people don’t have consistency. A lot of people feel like if I shoot this one movie, that’s it. Stay consistent. I have been doing this since 2010, just making films, making mistakes, hating the films that I shot and working on TV. I have done it all, about 12 years. Consistency is the key. It helps you. You learn a lot of self-discipline. You learn how to make yourself better because one of my mantras especially when it comes to film-making is, every project I do will always be better than the last. I have to keep that energy as I am going. Consistency helps you with a lot of discipline, mind-building and creativity. It helps you push yourself to the limit. So, consistency and humility are my biggest takeaways from what I have learnt about art.

The biggest thing I am going to tell aspiring filmmakers is that you have to learn how to stay hungry. And by staying hungry, I don’t mean hungry for food. I mean stay hungry to make a lasting impression through good movies; be hungry to make new; be hungry for new innovations in the movie industry. Don’t ever feel like you’ve arrived or that you’ve done enough. Don’t ever think you are the hottest thing; don’t rest on your oars. Always look out for the next challenge in movies. Always strive for better. Ask yourself, how do I go to the next level? How do I get better? How do I do this? How do I do that? That’s what I mean by staying hungry. This I always tell my partners: the minute you get to a point where you feel like you don’t want to get better, you don’t want to innovate, that’s the end of your career. Like Bob Hagin said in his book: “Innovate or die.” Even 50 Cent, the rapper said it. It is either you are innovating or you die. It is either you are changing or that is the end of your career. So, keep innovating, stay hungry, stay humble―that’s my piece of advice.

I have heard a lot about people, females who have been having advances. People are like, if you don’t sleep with me, you won’t get this role, it’s an absolute yes. I don’t want to attribute this to the film industry alone. It is something that happens everywhere but it’s just the idea that somebody feels like they have power over somebody and so they feel like in exchange for whatever it is that they want to do for you, then you must sell your body. I feel that is very ridiculous, it is sickening because it is almost like slavery. I don’t know the word to use. It’s terrible. Basically, you are not making these people have a choice. Their talent doesn’t matter to you, all you want to do is enslave them. I feel like weak people do that, people who are crazy. I irrevocably don’t support it. If you are a film producer and maybe you are a single film producer and you see someone you like, try and have that conversation with the person outside of work. Like hey, “I like you, do you like me?” And if the person says, “No, I don’t like you,” then move on. But having to force people to sleep with you because you want to give them a role is disgusting. And for the females, what I would say is immediately those things happen, walk away from the film. There are hundreds of producers, who will hire you. That one person doesn’t have the right to have a hold on or power over your career. I have heard people say things like guys will say “if you don’t sleep with me, I will ruin your career in Nollywood.” It is total bullshit. There are thousands of producers who want to work with you and some of these people who are talking are probably not big. For the girls, don’t let people force you or coerce you into doing things you don’t want to do. I think it is absolutely ridiculous and I think it is absolutely crazy and stupid for somebody to ask you for sex before they give you a role, it doesn’t make any sense and I don’t support it.

Surprisingly, it was well attended. I urged attendees to allow themselves to become more by growing within the ranks. If acting gigs don’t come, they should try their hands on other roles as crew, for instance, production, editing, directing, etc. rather than hold on to their actor’s ego – “I am an actor and acting is all I do!’ It was more of a mentorship programme; growing filmmakers should allow themselves to be groomed and mentored.