Ope Olusanya has been in the entertainment industry for a while. In this interview with TOPE OLUKOLE, she shares her beliefs and the things that drive her. Excerpts: You’ve been around for quite a while. How long?
Well, it should be 12 years now. I came in 1999.

You’ve been this long in the industry, yet you look so new?
Because I pick my scripts, that’s the honest truth. Had it been when I joined the industry I was picking all the scripts that I was called for, by now my face would have been so boring to the audience. I just pick my scripts, do them and go back to my business, then come back again. That’s why I look fresh.

Are you sure it’s not because you are not getting scripts?
I do get calls for jobs, but I pick my scripts, I pick my kind of jobs and I pick my friends too.

So, what are the parameters you use to pick your scripts?
First and foremost, I want to know the kind of job that I’m being called for. Like now I can’t really speak Yoruba that much which everybody really knows, so you can’t call me for epic movies and be expecting me to jump at it, though I’ve done about two, three epic movies and it was killing for me.

Then aside from that, we are ladies, there is no way you’ll go to locations and there won’t be rumours, gists and I’m a very private person.

Then I want to know the people on set, are they people I can actually work with, are they people I can relate with, are they people that will not cause trouble on set, are they people that will leave the set and start spreading false rumours about you? I’m a private person and I like my privacy. 

What are your antecedents in the movie industry?
Well, I can say it is accidental that I came into the industry. When I left school in 1999, I had my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with Lagos State Drama Group at Animasaun and every Friday when we go for Community Development (CD), all we have to do is sing, dance and I was actually one of the stubborn ones as I will be laughing at those dancing and acting. After a while, I felt like I want to dance and sing, even when I know I don’t have the voice and it became fun for me.

Meanwhile, before then I used to laugh at people acting that they don’t have jobs to do, so later I had to go to those people I have laughed at, Muyideen Oladapo, (Kososi) in particular. I joined his group but I ran away, feeling these are not my kind of people, this is not what I expected but he calls me for jobs and whenever I did my bit, I’ll run away. They said I was always running away and I told them I have other things to do other than acting.

After  a while, I met Enebeli Elebuwa. I actually met him when I took my friends to the National Theatre for audition. They were always telling me, “come, bring your car, we have audition; so take us there in your car.” So, on one particular day, I took them for audition at the National Theatre and they said there was one particular Yoruba project coming up, though you can’t really speak Yoruba very well.

I went there with them and told them I can do better than they were, doing and they said let’s see you do it and I did and I got a role in that movie and that was, Eyin Oka. After that, my friends would say, Ope you can do this thing, try now and I do write scripts then at home. I actually went to ITPAN and did Script Writing and I do write jingles for people.

So, after that, we went to one English location, Separate Lives, where we met Enebeli Elebuwa. I went to sell things for Bimbo Akintola and Bimbo was like you are a business woman you can go into movie production. Something just happened to me one day, and I wrote a lovely script and I said to myself, I don’t want anybody to bastardise this script for me, let me just handle it myself.

So, I called Funso Adeolu, who is my cousin to come and direct for me and I was able to talk to some people to come and act for me and it was wonderful and ever since then, it’s been fun.

What is the relationship between you and Saheed Balogun?
Well, people do say I’m Saheed’s apprehentice, I’m not. Saheed is my very good friend, even I see him more like a brother in the industry. Funso Adeolu is my real brother in the industry, Saheed is my brother and my friend. When I just came in newly I met him fine, and he was always encouraging me to come and act and I felt I don’t want to act, and he said alright, if you don’t want to act, can you do us a favour? Get us locations, because I know you have good locations. And I said no problems, so, I started with Saheed as a location manager. That was how we became so close and I’m always around whenever he shoots his movies and right now he’s teaching me directing.

You’ve talking about doing other business aside acting, so what kind of business do you do?
Well, it’s so funny to say that I spent five years at Ogun State University now Olabisi Onabanjo studying Computer Science and Mathematics, but you know we Ijebus like money and we like business. I’m an Ijebu girl. Right from the outset, I’ve always been selling things. I realised that anytime I’m going to school, I always had so much money on me. Daddy will give me, Mummy will and all I do is to buy clothes, buy shoes, I have this crazy flair for shoes.

I just told myself that I had this money but nothing to do with it. So, I now started doing businesses selling undies, hair accessories. And when I checked my account, I saw two hundred thousand naira as a student, what for, where did I get it from, not knowing that it was that business. Gradually, I said if I can actually make two hundred thousand, let me keep making more, so that was how I went into business.

Well, people will say she did Computer Science and she is not working with it. I actually worked with it for a while but I didn’t enjoy it. I’m a kind of person that can hardly sit in a place for long. I can’t do a routine job so I will rather do my business that moves around. Till now, I still sell, I sell clothes, jewelries, shoes.

Where do you shop for the things you sell?
My goods come in from Italy, I tried Dubai but I never like Dubai, so my goods comes from Italy, United Kingdom, United States.