Most popular actors in Nollywood are very poor, miserable —Actor Stanley Aguzie

Stanley Aguzie is a Nollywood actor, who currently plies his trade in the Republic of Ireland. Known for his short films, Save Me and Entrust, he began acting professionally in 2005 and has been linked with a number of soap operas including Wale Adenuga’s Productions and Mnet sponsored TV series, Tinsel. Born in Imo State and raised in Delta State, Stanley relocated to Ireland in 2015, where he landed a role in two prominent TV series namely Vikings and Into the Badland. The Nollywood actor and producer, who is making Nigeria proud abroad, shared some of his formative experiences and inspirations in the movie industry with Newton-Ray Ukwuoma. Excerpts:

What have you been doing?

Well, what is upmost in my schedule now is my role in the series of “Into the Badland”. But have done another documentary entitled, Kings who Kill.

When did you leave Nigeria for Ireland?

It was in December 2015.

Why did you relocate to Ireland?

I left Nigeria for family and for professional reasons. But the major reason is that I didn’t want to remain a poor actor or filmmaker. There are so many poor actors in Nigeria. Some of the known stars in Nigeria are poor, some of them don’t even have up to a million naira in their accounts. And that is not the kind of life I want to live as an actor. I have a lot of friends who are very popular in Nigeria and I know that most of them are suffering and smiling, most of them are broke. But these are people who are known everywhere.

The truth is most of them are not being paid, even for some of them that are paid, they are not well paid. It is not fair. I feel that the actors in Nigeria are not treated fairly. It is not because the money isn’t there. Because there are some film companies in Nigeria that are very rich. But it is unfortunate that even when these companies call you for production, their production manager will price the deal to the cheapest rate ever. And when you refuse to do it, other people would pick up the job.

Also, the competition in Nigeria is very high. But that is not the reason I left, because whatever is yours is yours. Another thing I saw was lack of proper actor management. Most actors do not have managers. So, they manage themselves. I know of a colleague that was called by a company for a project and he asked the company to contact his manager and they were like, “Oh, you are forming a superstar”. But how can you say I am forming because I have a manager? Do you see our mentality? But that was the last time the company called him. In terms of growth and quality movies, Nollywood has greatly improved in the last five years. We have great producers, who have made great films. But we need to cater for our actors. Some of these producers get millions for these projects, but they use actors and paid them peanuts.

Are you saying that the fault is on producers?

Yes, most of the time.

But at the time you were in Nigeria you were also a producer?

Yes. I am a producer. But when I was in Nigeria, I was doing massive projects. Though I had a lot of projects I wanted to shoot, I couldn’t do most of them because of finances and also because I didn’t want to toe that same lane: I didn’t want to use actors without paying them well. I only produced short films.

Some of your short films are woven around children and the youth.

Yes, some of my short films were campaigns against child molestation and abuse.

How was the effort in general?

Massive. When I released “Save Me”, which was the efforts of some of my colleagues and me, I got several calls from different women. The first woman that called me was crying. She called me the day it was released. Another called me at night and I got other calls the next day. The first woman said and I like to quote, “This film is me. After watching your film, I have been crying since morning.” I asked her why. She said, “I exposed my daughter to so many bad things. Now, she is acting strange. I am beating her and placing curses on her and I didn’t remember that my actions, the things I let her do, caused it.” Pat Utomi, among other known faces, commented and shared the video. That was when CNN, UNICEF, USAID followed me. I was very encouraged by these feedbacks. So, I released another short film entitled, “Entrust”.

After “Trust”, I also produced the third short film, “Depraved” which has not been released. A lot of people commented on the film on Youtube from different countries. I realised that child molestation is happening all over the world, not just in Nigeria. A lady who commented from Canada said she had been molested and abused by her stepfather, her stepfather’s brother and worst of all, her stepfather’s girlfriend in her mother’s house. I tried to recommend some of them to their countries’ police.

A lady who kept writing and writing about her abuse all of a sudden stopped and all her comments were deleted. I suspected her abuser must have seen it. Most of the people that commented were not from Nigeria. You know, our people do not like to talk about these things. But these white people don’t care. But we prefer to talk about it in private. But I tell people that if you don’t speak up, these things wouldn’t stop and people wouldn’t know how deep it is.  All of these things came after I released the short film. And hopefully I will be releasing ‘Depraved.’

So, one would say you were making global impact while in Nigeria.

Yes. As a matter of fact, I was. I had started the Save the Child campaign. I was pushing it. I was also planning to go on radio and TV tour, when my visa came out.

And talking about speaking up, were you molested as a child?

Yes, as a child I was sexually abused by our house help, Oluchi. I have been hiding my case for a long time. But I said I would do something about it when I grew up. It is the reason for the short films.

Can you shed more light on the particular nature of your abuse?

Up till now, I can’t really remember my age at the time. I am not sure I was up to five years. But Oluchi will send my elder brother and other siblings away and she would say, “Let’s act drama”. She will take off my clothes and start abusing me. She told me she loved me and I believed her. First, I didn’t fully understand what we were doing. All I knew was that I was enjoying myself. She made me believe we were having fun. On one fateful day, my dad walked in on us. That was my worst day ever because when my dad caught us, he didn’t handle the situation adequately. He flogged both of us thoroughly and that was all. Because after flogging us, the girl did not stop. It was after I had grown to my senses that I stopped it. The girl was between fourteen and sixteen then.  That happened to me when I was young. When I grew up, I told myself that I was going to educate people about it. People often think it is only girls that are molested, boys are also being  molested.  Everything young girls go through, young boys also go through them.

When did you realise you could act?

It might appear a little ridiculous, what I am about to say. But you know, during the time I was abused, she called it acting. You know, she would say, I was acting daddy while she would act mommy. And since it was fun at that time, I grew up with a lot of interest in acting. Sometimes, as a child, anytime I saw someone holding a video camera or any camera, I would go in front of it and be acting.

The camera man would say, “What are you doing?” I would always tell them I was acting. But when I became more mature and aware of things, I hated acting with a passion until I entered secondary school. I was invited to join a club in school. I got there to realise it was a drama and comedy club. I liked the idea, so I joined. Even after the club was banned, I helped convince the school authority to lift the ban. After that I became the president of the club and we had a lot of acting and dance activities. That was the club that raised people like ‘I Go Dye’ and ‘I Go Stay’. They were part of the club then.

Do you mean the comedian, I Go Dye?

Yes. And the late Tony Grey, the renowned Nigerian highlife musician was also a member of that club.

Which school was that?

Essi College in Delta State.