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As JB in Supple Blues, I was paid N150 per episode – Okonedo

Omokaro Okonedo is a veteran actor, director, dancer and scriptwriter. Popularly known as JB, for his role in the defunct television drama series, Supple Blues, he has featured in so many stage and screen productions, including Checkmate, Super Story, as well as Nollywood movies. In this interview with TONY OKUYEME, he shares his experience as JB, how he abandoned dance for acting and sundry issues.

Can you tell us about your role in this play, Shadows of an Ancestor?

Like every other play, it is challenging. Every play is challenging. The roles are challenging, but attitude, the important thing is that you have to add value. It doesn’t matter how many plays you have done, every play is new, and every role is new. So, you don’t have to transfer the previous roles to the new ones. When you get here, you have to learn, interpret your role, and most especially, add value to the play.

You’ve been out of the scene for quite some time now, what have you been doing?

Maybe, I have not been doing stage plays of recent, but I have done a few films. Also, I have been involved in directing a few plays, back in Delta State, and some collaboration with Rivers State…

Most people, especially your fans still see or refer to you as JB, which was your role in the now-defunct television drama series, Supple Blues. How did you get to play the role and how was your experience?

Before that role, I was involved in ‘Cradle’ for NTA, and it was shot in Badagry. I was also involved in Checkmate by the late Amaka Igwe. In ‘Cradle’, I was a farmer, with Kunle Bamtefa as my rich brother who lives in the city. In ‘Checkmate’, I played the role of Friday, the HouseMaster. I was doing that production when I got a message from NTA inviting me to a script workshop in Jos. That was how I relocated to Jos and had to be in ‘Supple Blues’ full time at that time. And we were able to popularize the pidgin language which became the most sort after scene in ‘Supple Blues’ where I played the role of JB, and the late Julius Duateme played Andrew. That was how the ‘Supple Blues’. That’s how the programme went, and it took me about two years off the set of ‘Checkmate’.

How was your experience playing the role of JB in ‘Supple Blues’?

It was quite challenging because before they say pidgin is just language, we want glamour. But after then a lot of programmes began to introduce pidgin into them. Although, it was quite challenging, but we made something from it; we popularised the pidgin language and we were able to send the message to the grassroots, for those who did not understand the pure English language.

You talked about challenges, tell us about some of these challenges…

One of the challenges was the welfare and pay. Then, we were excited about the profession, were projecting professionalism. So, the little thing we were paid didn’t matter.

How much were you paid per episode as JB in ‘Supple Blues’?

They started with N150 per episode, later they increased it to N200 per episode. They were a little crisis when we heard that our fee was supposed to be N400 per episode but that some cheating went on in NTA. Also, we were not fed well; we were not eating well. We were not given any transport fare. At a time were told that there was one Uka, an accountant from NTA who was coming. We waited and waited and nothing happened. Somehow, we started fending for ourselves and so on. But we were enjoying what we were doing; we were not looking at the money at that time. But after that production, the reality began to dawn on us. We were then so popular, famous, but there was no money to show for it.

Talking about fame, it comes with its challenges…

Specifically, like JB, how was it? Like JB, I found it very difficult to even walk down the street at that time. I was somehow restricted; I did not come out in the daytime. I used to dodge. For instance, I was in Eric Moore area one day, as I came out from a taxi, the students saw me, and they came out. They carried one boy high, and the boy said he is the JB in Lagos, that he represents me Lagos. So, I told him to take JB and leave me alone. Some policemen were called to escort me, but even the policemen also started shouting JB! JB!… I was surprised… There was another similar experience in Ajegunle. That day, somebody wanted to host us – Nobert Young was there, me, Julius, and the Queen, the girl that played my girlfriend in ‘Supple Blues’. When we entered the man’s compound, before we knew it, the whole compound was surrounded by people. They were climbing walls, fences, asking for JB. The man had to delay us till about 1 a.m. Luckily, we had a taxi that waited till 1 a.m. before we entered and left.

What about female fans…

That one cannot be ruled out. Some said: ‘JB, leave that Queen alone that is your girlfriend on TV, I am your real girlfriend live. So you must take me to Jos’. I said it is not done like that, and that that one is acting. Also, there was one military lady that flew to Jos. She took permission that she was going for duty, only for her to appear in our camp, and said she wanted to see JB. I was confused but later we went out to somewhere, took some drinks and came back. I then told her that I will be going on set early in the morning the following day. I then took off very early to somewhere in town, where I stayed till night. She went to Air Force Base in Jos, and finally left for Lagos.

Would you say that role as JB provided opened way for you in terms of other productions?

Yes, it opened some windows of opportunity for me. For instance, I got job with a company to feature in a commercial on Andrews Liver Salt, Bagco Super Sack, and others. And of course, some other television programmes started coming in at NTA. It also took me to ‘Super Story, Dear Mother’ where I played the role of Uncle Collins. But at a point some of them almost stereotyped with the character JB. I had to tell them that JB in ‘Supple Blues’ is a different character, and that I don’t have to be playing the same character in different productions. I told them I don’t want to become a stock character by playing JB in every programme.

Tell us how your journey as an actor began…

That was a long time ago. In fact, when I was doing something like acting when I was in primary school, Nigeria Baptist School, Sapele, in the 1970s, I didn’t see it as acting or drama. It was just natural. Then, when I got to Government College, Ugheli, an allboys school, I used to take part in the plays done by the school. I used to play the role of a father or a mother…

Mother?

Yes, they dressed me as a woman to play the role of a mother. So, when I got to the University of Benin, I wanted to study Law. My father said I should study Law. I actually was studying Law, first year, but even when I stand up to answer questions, people will laugh. The Dean of Faculty of Law, Prof. Itse Sagay, who know my father, saw me one day and I advised me to go and study Theatre Arts, as it was obviously convenient for me. He told my father about it, and he worked my transfer from Law to Theatre Arts department at Ekenwan Campus. In my first semester, when we had our first Theatre Arts Students Association (TASA) meeting, some of the final year students saw me and told me that they were doing a play, a school play, titled No More Ego, written by Tunde Fatunde, and that they have a role for me. So, I acted in that play, which we also came to perform at the University of Lagos. I was the only year one student that featured in the play. I had not even matriculated then. After that, there was no play in the department that I did not take part in. Actually, in school, I studied dance.

So, what happened to the dancing aspect of you?

They used acting to lure me away from dance. Today, if you tell people that I am a dancer, they would not believe. Only my classmates like Nobert Young, know that I am a dancer and also a drummer. Even then in the school, I was handling dance in the department.

Can you still dance?

Not like before, but I can still choreograph.

Looking back now, any regrets not studying Law?

No. I have no regrets…

Are you married?

Yes, with children…

Is any of them an artiste?

No, my first daughter studied Banking and Finance. She is married. My son graduated about two years ago, and he is about to get married. He studied Chemical Engineering. The two other ones are entering school. None of them wants to go into acting.

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