Kanayo O Kanayo, fondly called KOK by friends and fans speaks with Nigeria Tribune recently on his success story in the movie industry and his new love, politics.
Can you tell us some of your achievements?
I have received several professional and service awards in Nigeria and abroad including Afro Hollywood Award London 2000, African Actor of the Year 2006, Ambassador Award New York 2009 and Nollywood Award of Excellence.
33 years as an actor, do you feel fulfilled and see your life as a success story worthy of emulation?
This is one area I may not have wanted to comment on. I am constrained for the reasons of evaluation of the years gone by, especially for posterity sake to say that God has been most benevolent to me in terms of my life and talent. If not for artistic and intellectual contentment, I would have left a long time ago. The actor in Nigeria is loved but not respected.
My contemporaries in other disciplines have better stories to tell than I do. My children are expected to go to the best schools, fame has smiled on me, but fortune frowns constantly and threatens my retirement.
What are some of your memorable roles that give you sense of satisfaction and those you really wouldn’t have taken if you had had a choice?
I do not romanticise over passionate roles or dispassionate ideas. Every role represents a gap between a character and its linkage to other characters. But suffice it to say that “Lost Kingdom,” produced by Infinity Merchants in 1999 presented a glimpse of how people graduate from one crime to the other. It was exhilarating to lead one of the largest casts in a Nigerian movie set to achieve that standard of movie production in 1999.
I would not have taken those that did not put Nigeria first, those that lacked social relevance to the labours of our heroes’ pasts, those that had strong dictates from executive producers who only thought about profit and not about creative enterprise.
If you were not an actor, what would you have been doing?
For me, I would have been a lawyer.
Can you tell us about your family?
I am married to Nneka Onyekwere and we have a family of four. A girl and three boys. They all live with me happily in Lagos.
What is your plan for 2015 and which political party would you be considering?
The year 2015 looks far, yet very near. My people will decide. I am in constant touch with my constituency and in regular consultation with the needs, challenges and aspirations of my zone. My membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is by choice, political prostitution is not an option to effective representation. The year 2015 is the bridge, when we get to the bridge, we will cross it. We crawl, walk or run, but surely we will cross it.
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