I was brought up in poverty- The Livinus Nnochiri Exclusive…

On his last day as a Lagosian, Get Inpired Today (GIT) visited the Nigerian veteran actor in his Lagos home for an exclusive, today we tell his stories in his own words of how he made it this far... 

Livinus Nnochiri 

GIT Crew:            Good afternoon Sir and Thank you for having us.

Livinus Nnochiri:               Afternoon, It’s no problem. You are welcome.

GIT Crew:            Can we meet you Sir?

Livinus Nnochiri:               My name is Livinus Ogornna Nnochiri. Hmm… I come from Imo state, and I am married. I have two lovely kids, two girls. I am a Christian, predominantly where I come from. We are mostly Christians and Catholics particularly, so we are predominantly Catholics. So that is Livinus Nnochiri.

GIT Crew:            Okay Sir, the country knows you as a well know actor in the Nollywood movie industry, but what people don’t know is why. Why acting rather than other professions?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Well, you know in this part of the world, we lack certain prospects, our parents don’t direct their kids towards their talents. Our parents believe children should just go to school, you know in those days very few people were able to attend school at higher levels. The system was, you stop at primary six and that is if your parents were able to get you through to that level; then you take up a trade and life goes on. For me, ehh… I never knew I was going to act professional from the beginning but I always knew I had the talents, from primary, secondary school and so on. When they organised drama groups I was always the head of my group, especially in secondary school, we would organise drama groups and plays, and we would go to NTA Aba, you know and others… so I always knew there was something somewhere but how to get there was what I did not know.

GIT Crew:            So when did you actually discover…

Livinus Nnochiri:               Well, first when I came to Lagos I started work with P & T a department of the ministry of communications, it was then I started watching the Ojo Oladipo group on NTA Channel 10 and something kept pushing to go and see them. There was a man Mr Ikechukwu, who use to read Igbo news on NTA Channel 10. He was our staff then and he encouraged me and to go see them; I went eventually but the Ojo Oladipo theatre group were unfortunately majoring in Yoruba dramas. Well, I was a fresher in Lagos then and was what you call JJC so you know (Laughs…) I did not know anything in Yoruba and could not work with them. I with-drew for a while until Ngozi Ekpereke called me to come join “After the storm” although before “After the Storm” it was tales by moonlight. You remember the folktales that use to air on Sunday evenings, I went into that and it was working out fine. “After the Storm” came, I played the Chief priest which was a very important role. From there on I was seen on the big screen and by then I was still working with NIPOST

Livinus Nnochiri and Adrianpastol

GIT Crew:            You were working and acting?

Livinus Nnochiri:               I was working with the Nigerian postal service yes, most of our recordings were on weekends, and sometimes when it felt on working days we would start at 2pm. That’s when we get to NTA and then we move to locations to record. I was always at the office and on such days, I would leave after 11am.

GIT Crew:         Why were you still running both, was it indecision?

Livinus Nnochiri:             Oh no! Not really, it was a new discovery and we were still trying to get it going, besides how much were they paying me then? (Laughs…) “After the Storm” I think was about #1,500 per episode and NTA was owing me. “Tales by Moonlight” NTA is owing me about 6 or 7 episodes (Laughing loud) till now. So we were just growing slowly until I started going into some Ibo home movies, movies like ‘Do or Die, Red Candle, living Ghost’ and others. These were production of Nnudoagwu. Then I also acted with late Uncle Sam Loco but all these were Ibo films and there were others coming on little-by-little, until they sacked me from NIPOST. They said they see me on screen so they sacked me. I left and that made me also with-draw from acting four about two years or more but I kept on with NTA soaps until I decided to move-in fully into the movie industry.

 

Livinus Nnochiri and the some members of the GIT Crew

GIT Crew:            How long did it take?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Hmm…. Well, about three or four years before I got in fully but it was not easy, you know everywhere in Nigeria things don’t work the way they are supposed to. You do better when you are in a group but if everything is as open as the air you will not make it until you get yourself attached to one person, or even with two or three groups. Those days I remember I will go out for auditions and nobody will call me to even look at me. They will rather pick or call people they already know. There was a particular audition I attended. It was organised by Tony-one-week for the movie ‘Woman Wrapper.’ I was there from 9am to 1pm but nobody called me out to try, they saw me but never called. Then Tony cane out and, you know then people never knew I was an Ibo man. Tony came in and using Ibo language he asked the boy conducting the audition ‘why have you not called that man? The boy said nobody knows him.’ Tony screamed at him jokingly, ‘you dey craze, so because nobody knows him you will not call him? My friend just call the man jere and let him try. So Bambino now called me (Bambino was the boy’s name) and Tony left. You know they never knew I was an Ibo man and had heard their discussion. He gave me something to read, after glancing through it I gave it back to him, he said no no… but I said I have seen it, he just looked at me somehow. But when we started, he said Ibo language and told the boy beside him that this man na acho Oh (this man is good). I eventually played that role (laughing) and I started growing gradually but still the same thing continued, you know the truth is that- no matter how good you are, if nobody knows you it might take you donkey years to come up. So I was growing slowly until I went to Agbara for the production of “Oh mother” produced by Obi Maduagbo. I originally went there to play two scenes, you know the role of an elder that will just sit down and nod his head, but fortunately the man playing the sub-lead role was not getting what the director wanted, and the director was Ifeanyi Oyi, we call him the perfect director. He looked back and called, that man, that man I asked me? He said yes. I came up and he said I should watch what the man was doing, afterwards he said I should try, I tried the first time and he said try again, I tried the second time and he said try again. I was even getting annoyed but I never knew he was recording, the third time I tried he said am through with you, he gave me another script and said this is what we are recording next (Laughing…) and that was how I took up that role from that man. After the release of that job, the owner called me again to Enugu, and that was my first time going to Enugu for work. We went to make “Village Crises” and it goes on from there. But still, our people only want those they know to grow money-wise. When they call you they price you peanuts, but meanwhile on set we know ourselves if you ask my colleges about my acting, they will tell you just as if you ask me about others I can tell you. Cause na rat wey dey inside house na him sabi where the madam dey hide fish. (Laughs…)

  
GIT Crew:           What was your most challenging role?

Livinus Nnochiri:               ‘Secret Mission’ I play a man that was a cult member for 25 years and his wife never knew, nobody in his family knew he was a cult member and he was a very rich man. When their leader died, it was his turn to lead and they needed to crown him the head and it must happen in his house. So he managed to talk to his wife to go to the village, but the woman was suspicious and on her way she turned back. The man did not know, she hide herself upstairs and in the middle of the night when they were carrying-out the rights she came down and that was the beginning of the problems for the man. He was to die if he did not sacrifice his wife and daughter. That was the first biggest role I ever played and it gave me tough time but I was happy the director was always pleased with the way I handled my roles so it encouraged me, even now when I sit down and watch that film, I just shake my head that I did well for that time.

GIT Crew:            How do your family react when you play sensual roles?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Oh no, my family is aware that is what I do and they are comfortable with it, it’s just like a medical doctor, you know if your wife is pregnant your family doctor will get to see your wife’s nakedness, treat her, touch her anyhow and he is doing his professional job. Except someone has something else in mind otherwise what I do is on the set and after that is over. Whatever happens on set is left on set. My job is to pick a script, read it, translate it and put into action in the way the owners would want it and the people would appreciate it.

GIT Crew:            Going back a little, you said something about losing your job. What kind of support did you get from your family at that point?

Livinus Nnochiri:               My family as at then, was my wife. We had not gotten any issues then because it took us a long time after marriage to bear children, after my two girls came I told my wife I was okay and by God’s grace I was. I have two girls and am fine with them. So it was really my wife and my younger brother in port Harcourt that lost his job too around that time, we just tried to support ourselves until he got a place and myself, God shown me the way forward.

GIT Crew:            How did you cope with family responsibilities and finances then?

Livinus Nnochiri:               My grandmother when she was alive used to tell us that there are types of hands but every hand is hand. When you clap the big one the sound is very loud and when you clap the small one well you know, but they are all hands. Then the responsibilities were not so much so I and my wife, the little we had then we just move on.

GIT Crew:            As regards those coming up, there is talk of people having to pay money and sometimes some girls paying more than money to get roles, in your experience how true is this?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Well, I have never paid money because the way I was brought up. I was born in very poor family, I was brought up in poverty and till now I don’t know how to offer bribe to anybody, because even if I had one naira I believe I can use it for my family rather than giving it to somebody for anything, especially for something I know I can do. But, in Nigeria really some people go an extra mile to get roles, especially the up comings. They do so many things, so many nasty and unbelievable things to get roles, yes they do. But I don’t think that is the routine, some young girls could come and would want their face on the jacket probably for something else out there, they bribe their way through and get what they want. You if you were the producer and somebody come to offer money for something that may not really matter to you, well they simply take the money and you know…

GIT Crew:            What would you describe as your most embarrassing moment?

Livinus Nnochiri:               The embarrassing thing I would say, although for me it’s not really an embarrassment, like I said I have been a poor boy all my life and I am used to the crowd. At this time I can leave my car at home and decide to jump moluwe (Public transport) so some people would look at me and they will tap me, excuse me sir please are you not the man we use to see in the films, I would yes and they will shout yes yes, this man but why are you walking like this? I will say to them, I am a human being like you na, are you not walking? They will say but I don’t expect to see you. Well, we are all human beings. That is the only thing I can think of for now.

GIT Crew: Where would you attach you biggest break?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Joy, they joy I derive from my jobs, the appreciation because they are areas I go and I am appreciated, like I said earlier some people see me in a bus and they pay. Everything is not big money, there are areas you go and any little thing you want you get. If you child is in need at school, you go there and because of who you are, everything is granted. That is it.

GIT Crew:            Where do you see Nollywood in five years’ time?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Even before we started, people were talking about Nollywood. Although then it was not called Nollywood, I don’t know somebody coiled out the name somewhere, sometime. Those days I remember any Nigerian that travels would come back tell terrible stories of their experiences especially those cocaine carrying periods, you can be striped and searched carelessly because you are Nigerian and they don’t trust you. They see you as a part person. But when the films, when the Nigerian home movies came up, we started remolding that image and people started applauding. It started working for every Nigerian. From that time to now, let me say we have gone 45%. In the next five years we might get to 70% with our current moving rate, but the problem we have is that; to me the recognition we are getting now from the government is political. Pure political recognition, if they recognise Nollywood as an industry that can create jobs for young Nigerians, see what happened recently, person went looking for jobs only to meet their deaths. If they look at Nollywood like something that can create jobs, in the next five years we will score 85% because they will provide essential facilities that we need to cope.

GIT Crew:            In that same five years, where do you see yourself?

Livinus Nnochiri:               I don’t like putting such things to heart because no one knows tomorrow, but by his grace if they is grace I think I will be one of the advisers.

GIT Crew:            Talking about advisers, while coming up you must have had role-models, we would like to know them?

Livinus Nnochiri:               Beautiful, beautiful. May his soul rest in peace, Uncle Sam Loco kept being my mentor till his death, and there is this other gentleman I envy the way he acts. Sam Dede, he is a perfect actor. These are the two people I look up to, there are so many others I appreciate but this two person are too special to me.

GIT Crew:            Any advice for the up-Comings?

Livinus Nnochiri:               The Up-Comers, number one don’t rush into something you know you cannot do. Acting is a talent, it’s not by charms, and you can’t take acting by force. Acting must be your talent somehow, Am into it now and I did not study theatre acts, I did not study theatre acts and am acting now because it must be my talents. And don’t rush, some people even before they go to school, you see this is a brain job. You read somebody’s write-up, interpret it and put it into action, some people when given a script they cannot even read and yet they want to act. No, you have to get training, go to school first, let it be your talent and with education you would have known your left from you right, you will know when somebody is trying to cajole you into doing something you don’t want to do. Then you pray to God, because whatever you are doing, my brother your hand must be clean, no matter how you pray, god does not answer the prayer of a sinner. You can pray from now till next year, if your heart is not clean then you are wasting your time. So be very clean. Clean in the sense that you don’t pick up what does not belong to you for instance in a group, and say it’s a minor thing, no. no sin is minor. We are human beings, fine but try to live a very clean life. Up-comers must be very careful not to fall into, for instance some will say is it true that before we get a role we must sleep with a director, meanwhile before they came they have sowed that thought there already.

 

http://www.adrianpastol.com/2014/03/i-was-brought-up-in-poverty-livinus.html

GIT Crew:            Any special message to your fans?

Livinus Nnochiri:               My fans, some of them call me, some see me on the way and voice out one thing or the other. I greet them all and I promise them that as long as there is life I will keep giving them something they will be proud of.

GIT Crew: Thank you very much Sir, on a final note. What is your favorite quote?

Livinus Nnochiri:               It’s a personal quote, I believe that the force of gravity is more in front than behind. People don’t move back unless they forgot something, movement is always forward and not backwards. I think that the force of gravity is always forwards and backwards.

GIT Crew:            Thank you so much Sir.

Livinus Nnochiri:               You are Welcome.