My husband once told me to choose between my career and home –Tola Oladokun

Veteran actor, Tola Oladokun, better known as Ika Lomo Ejo, has opened up on why she would never be caught playing a romantic role in any movie. In an interview with Saturday Beats, she said her husband disliked seeing her in a bedroom scene with a man.

“When I started building my career in the movie industry; even though, my husband didn’t want me to take many scenes, my boss always insisted that I should. But when it got to a point, some people began to spread rumours about me. They told my husband that actors always sleep with each other on set.

“Due to these speculations, he gave me very strict rules to abide by anytime I had to go on set. At some point, he said I had to choose between my career and my home. I chose my home for peace to reign but I still acted in a few films only because I abided by all the rules he set for the sake of peace,” she said.

The actress noted that when the rumour mongers would not stop spreading false news about her to her husband, he told her to quit acting.

“Subsequently, when the negative gossips about me increased he said I shouldn’t act again but I asked our family members to help me beg him. My husband dotes on me a lot and he tells everyone who cares to listen that he loves me very much. Some people have this notion that actors don’t have lasting marriages but despite the issues I had in my marriage, I endured. I am a very decent woman; I don’t even keep too many friends because of my husband’s rules.

“I don’t feature in romantic movies because anytime my husband sees me in a bedroom scene, he is always angry. There was a time I acted as a wife in a movie, and he complained about how I walked in front of an actor; he wasn’t happy about it. They hardly cast me for such roles and even if they do, the man will not touch me on the bed at all,” she said.

Oladokun also mentioned the reason why some entertainers don’t have a good home, saying, “The reason why some actresses don’t have stable homes is because as entertainers, there is every tendency for people to say negative things about us to our spouses due to the nature of the job. Some women don’t know how to endure when there are such accusations; they allow the issue to get the better part of them and then end up misbehaving.

“However, there are some women who come into the industry with the aim of having an affair with an actor they had admired from afar; so those types of people usually don’t have a direction as regards their career. There are different types of people in the industry. Even if a couple is in the movie industry together, if they don’t manage their home, it would not last,” she added.

Oladokun, who is known for crying effortlessly in movies, revealed that she had to deal with envy and strife in the early years of her career.

“One of my first major roles in the industry had to do with crying. On the set of that movie, the director said he wanted to get water to fake the tears but I told him there was no need. I cried so well in that movie and it looked real. Right from when I was a young child, I have always loved acting so crying in a movie comes naturally for me. Since then, anytime a role has to do with shedding tears, they always give it to me. I don’t even know how or where the tears come from, it just flows. I thank God for that all the time,” she said.

Recalling some of her past struggles in life before she became a popular actress, Oladokun said, “I used to sell clothes before I started acting in 1983. I indicated my interest in arts and I was accepted by the veteran, Deji Aderemi, also known as Olofa Ina in Ibadan, Oyo State. I tried combining my business with acting. But at the time, I was envied by some of my peers then because I knew how to read and write; those were some of the challenges I faced. They tried to plot against me, but my boss, Olofa Ina was always on my side.

“Due to jealousy, I didn’t have many of them in my circle as friends; but my boss always had my back and that was how I was able to get movie roles. It is very sad that the government does not have time for us because if they did, piracy would have been curbed as it is really affecting us,” she said.

 Punch