My Relationship with Odunlade Adekola – Lateef Adedimeji Adetola Revealed

 

The First Movie Break Lateef said he was advised that in the Yoruba movie industry, one needed to belong to a group to be called for jobs. That was how he joined the likes of Afeez Eniola, Muyiwa Ademola, Bayo Tijani and began from there. Kudi Klepto was the movie that actually brought him to limelight. “It was by Yewande Adekoya and marketed by Olasco Films.

The first time I met Yewande was at a rehearsal and that was where we got along. Yewande has been in the industry for long and when she wanted to produce Kudi Klepto, she told me she would want to feature me in the movie.

The production manager and crew didn’t know me so they had to be showing them pictures to know it’s me.

But she told me I shouldn’t disappoint her at the production as she trusted me and knew I could do it. Eventually when I got the script, I had to lock myself up for like three days.

I kept rehearsing and eventually when I got to location; my expression was ‘wow’. My acting got me my first award in the United States of America, a BON award and so many others.” Becoming Who I am today From the kind of training Lateef received at the NGO, they were taught about 18 topics and all of these have actually been part of him. And it was actually the beginning of fame. And perhaps, fortune.

“How do I manage the fame?

The minute I had it in my head that I might blow, I started training myself on how to handle fame and package myself. I have always been told that whatsoever you do, be you famous or anything, you should affect lives and that has been my goal. So, more of what I do is to replicate the training from the NGO and blend into it.

So I try to teach, make people see me the way I am and make people believe. You have to believe yourself before people can believe you. I try to make people understand that it goes beyond talent.

What are you doing to make your talent stand out?

What can make you so different that when a hundred stars shine, they can actually single handedly bring you out and think you’re different. So those stuffs are actually what made me who I am.” A Flexible Style “Like Uncle Antar (Laniyan) once told me, the acting is in you but the ability is what makes you extraordinary.

So he merged it together and gave me the name Actability. You have the Actability in you and now everybody can act and can use words but how do you use your own words?

How do you play with your voice and what swag do you bring into your acting that’s basically what makes you different? In the Yoruba world, there is no characterisation or whatever as when you leave this location you go on another location and yet another one.

So you as an actor you have to take your time to understand what the story is about and take your time to give yourself a character from the understanding of the story, that’s what will make people see you in different movies and not see the same person always.

So basically I take my time when I get to location or ask the producer or whoever wrote the script that who is this character and can you explain this person to me? Apart from you telling me the story when you were writing, what character were you thinking about of this person? Tell me then I might be able to link it up to my person, assimilate it and fall into the character.”

The Challenges so Far Lateef says a particular movie, Ireje, is one of the most challenging he has had to handle. He said this was so because he had to switch in between different emotions. “At some time you laugh, then next minute, you cry. But the most challenging is by Muyiwa Ademola where I had to play hunter.

That (role) had to make use of eulogies and not being used to that character, it was a bit challenging for me. But of all the movies I have done, Kudi Klepto is still my number one challenging movie maybe because that’s the first movie I had to play a major role in it.