Kalu Ikeagwu has proven to be a quintessential actor in Nollywood, but his stories rarely scream on the headlines. The British-born Nigerian actor spoke to our correspondent about his rough journey into acting, relationship status and all you’ve read nowhere about him.
What was your earliest influence?
It’s largely due to the action my dad took regarding my chosen career, though it’s not quite what he meant it to be. My father was very apprehensive of me losing my culture because I was born in England. So, he made sure he taught me my native dialect which is Igbo, and made me know so much about where I came from.
But because that was very alien in the surrounding I grew up in, it made me a lot more curious and I began to read more than I’d thought. In so doing, my imagination was fired up because most of the things I saw like the huts, cooking fire and a lot of other things were alien to me, so I had to imagine them myself.
I think all this happened so that when I was in the university and fell into acting quite by accident, it was an easy transition for me and I’ve been thinking like that ever since. I think mostly in pictures and that was how I was able to register mostly all that I thought about in my head.
But there was a story that your dad wanted you to be a medical doctor at first and a lawyer later on…
That’s correct. He wanted me to be both at different times. He actually wanted me to be a lawyer when he noticed my love for English literature.
Do you now wish you had listened to him?
No, I never felt like that at any point. It’s actually true that sometime in the industry, not very structured as it should, in this light, other professions feel a lot more favoured but a lot less fulfilling. At the same, you also have to understand that there was an innate thing that was guiding me.
So, I believe that was God’s gift for me and it superseded whatever my dad wanted. By the time I go into the university, he recognised that I was in the place where I was meant to be. In my career, I’ve been able to play a lawyer and a doctor both of which dad had wanted me to be in the sense of the word, because of this, I’ve had to be a sort of an amateur lawyer and doctor in movie roles where I had to learn how these professions are practiced. So, even then, I have still managed to be what my dad wanted me to be. Maybe not in real life situation but on a presentational level, I’d been what he wanted me to be. No regrets whatsoever, it’s rather a tale of fulfillment.
You were mostly made to act the ‘good man’ role in nearly all of your movies; is that a coincidence and doesn’t it make you feel entirely stereotyped?
Maybe you might need to watch a little more of my works because nowadays I’m more known for evil roles than the sort of the ‘good man’ role you’re talking about. In Tinsel, I play Alhaji Abubakar who is a murderer, a drug lord and one of the most dreaded people. I played alongside Uche Jombo as an abusive husband who’s always beating his wife.
What you’d take away from all this is that I like to be a versatile actor. I like to play any role that comes to me, the ones I can portray in a convincing way. My aim as actor is to inform people and let my character speak to people with a view to changing their lives or modify their perception about a certain character in life.
So even if I’m playing an evil person, I’m saying, look at this character, you can find him anywhere, he might appear this or that way, but never ever judge people by their appearances rather by their character. This is all I try to portray in my characters because it’s a gift that’s given to me which I must deliver with some level of responsibility.
Writing seems to be one of your pastimes; what sort of writing do you do?
I’m a sort of freelance writer. Largely, I write short stories from the experiences I’ve had, but mostly I try to write a blog which I haven’t updated in a while and I hope to go back to it. It’s kaluikeagwu.blogspot. org and that’s where I try to write most of what my thoughts are because I realised at a time that my fans had only either what they saw in the newspapers about me or what they interpret me to be from the movies they’ve seen. So, I decided to open up that blog to just give an idea with respect to my thoughts maybe on a weekly or fortnight basis on politics, emotional sides of affairs, spirituals stuffs and other things.
Will you say that acting has paid the bills?
Well, initially it wasn’t that easy but I can say now that it has paid all the bills and other things, but I wouldn’t also say that it has paid all the bills in a way, I will give all the glory to God that has looked after me in this profession that I chose. God has given me work, fulfillment and the name that I cherish today, I’ll ascribe everything to Him.
Have you ever thought of what your dad now thinks about you now?
Well, though he’s late, I know that he’d be very proud of me because he always said one thing: “follow where your heart goes.” My father was one of the first Christians in my village, one of the first people that had education even when everybody was against him. So, he fought against all odds, he was a primary school teacher, a secondary school teacher and he went on to become a university lecturer.
All this happened because of his unflinching belief in what his purpose on earth was. I learnt that from him and I’m following mine through as well. So, he cannot but be proud of me.
You’re an adult who has got everything it requires to marry. Why are you still waiting?
I respect marriage so much and being a human being, I had made some mistakes, but from the outset, God put it in my heart how important marriage is to Him. So, I’d since realised that it wasn’t something I could treat trivially. So, if I’m not wholeheartedly convinced about something, I don’t do it, especially as regard my profession, marriage and spirituality. I’m under God’s guidance for now, when it’s supposed to happen, it will happen. When it happens, I can assure you that it will be the right one.
What was the first paid job you did and can you remember how it happened and how much you were paid?
The first TV job that I got paid for was on NTA Enugu; that was for the Parliament of Vultures. It was supposed to be a satirical comedy aimed at the new dispensation of democracy coming into Nigeria. And for that, I played a very corrupt officer, I think I was paid N150 for two episodes and it was a huge sum of money at that time.
How long ago was that?
That was in the 1990s. I remember going with my colleague, we gave ourselves a huge treat after that pay.
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