Nigerian Movie Star Profile
Consummate actor and dramatist, Sola Anthony Fosudo is many things to different people. He is also a theatre director, scholar and critic. Currently, he is the Head of Department of Theatre Arts, Lagos State University, Ojo. As a versatile artiste, Fosudo has registered his mark creditably on stage and screen.
As a dramatist and theatre practitioner, Fosudo floated Centrestage
Productions essentially to discover and nurture budding talents. While his
exploits on stage speak loud, the prolific actor has equally made his mark
in Nollywood having featured in chartbusters like True Confession, Glamour
Girls I, Rituals, Strange Ordeal, Iyawo Alhaji, to mention but a few.
At various times, Fosudo was trained at the Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife and the University of Ibadan where he encountered great scholars who
prepared him for his pioneering role as a theatre scholar and for
introducing Theatre Arts as a course of study at LASU.
Interpreting roles
Well, the process is not like 1+1=2. To be able to internalise a role and
play it convincingly and believably, it is highly essential that you have to
first acquire the acting skill. Then, you must be able to concentrate and be
in a relaxed mood. When you are relaxed, your composure in front of the
camera would be different from that of someone who is not relaxed. An actor
must have what we call stage presence.
One of the greatest skills I acquired under Chuck Mike is that of
spontaneity which is connected with the skill of flexibility. An actor must
be very flexible physically and mentally. He or she must be able to swing
from one mood to another. All these are possible through the ability to
externalise already acquired internalised skills. Essentially, acting is
second nature, hence it must be natural.
Coping with young actors on set
It could be very disturbing to find yourself on set with a green horn in
acting because it takes such new comers a long time for them to deliver
their roles to the satisfaction of the director. While they struggle to
realise their roles, the experienced actors have to remain on set until
shooting is completed. If the shooting is supposed to take about thirty
minutes, you must be ready to spare about two hours of patience. I cope well
with such situations because I was in that sort of position when I was at
the Cultural Centre in Unilag. I had to learn too. I was also in Adio Family
with Jab Adu with little or no experience. I believe the young shall grow.
Relationship with Nollywood stars
I don’t have any problem with anybody, I am free with all the actors they
are all my friends. We are friends from a distance because nothing really
brings us together. We don’t fraternize on family levels but they are all my
friends. But I must confess that I am very close to a few of them like
Liz Benson. She
has visited my family before and I returned the visit but that was a long
time ago. Another person that I fraternize with at the family level is
Jide Kosoko.
Once in a while, he comes to my place and I also pay him visits
The future
All the activities taking place now are only preparing the ground for a
great future for the industry. A lot of people are investing money but it
will not get to the promised land if all the things that are supposed to be
put in place are not put in place. We will continue this unending trial and
error approach that we currently practice.
For the industry to grow, we must provide training facilities for training
and retraining of old and new talents.We should boast of investors that are
ready to invest in the Cinema theatre because that is the only thing that
can give us a movie industry. If you take your films to the cinemas you are
bound to make more money before you put them in CDs and videos. Finally, we
need government support in the same manner OBJ is talking about farming and
setting up commissions on AIDS. If the president truly wants to turn around
the movie industry, he should begin to make political statements about the
industry. Let him call for foreign investors and stop talking about a film
village. Rather, he could build one or two structures on a wide expanse of
land and hand it over to movie practitioners stakeholders to do the
remaining.
Filmography: Oh
Woman, Political
Control,
Side Attraction,
My Blood Enemy,
Grace To Grass, My Faithful Friend, Playing Games, Sympathy, Wasted Years
and etc
Tel:571-247-2679 email:contact@nigeriamovies.net
