The name Edochie easily calls to mind the veteran actor, Pete Edochie, popular for his role as Okonkwo in the NTA adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’. His ability to get into character, charismatic personality and cool, controlled manner of speech that exudes confidence are only some of the qualities shared by his son.
But unlike his father whose quiet and introverted demeanor is obvious even from the screen, Yul Edochie displays a rather unmistakable friendly disposition towards all. This is just one endearing personality of this young actor that you cannot help but fall in love with.
Chip off the old block?
Named after the Hollywood actor, Yul Brynner of the 1956 movie, ‘The King and I’, Edochie’s career path had been pretty much shaped from childhood. This shapening also sprung from a deep respect for his actor father and a desire to be like him.
“I always wanted to be an actor. Having someone like my father already to look at, I always wanted to be like him, to be better than him as well. When you have someone like that as your father, you can’t fail. It’s going to be disastrous for you to fail. So, I always had it in mind that I wanted to be like this dude but at the same time, I need to work hard to get to have the kind of name that he has,” he reveals.
And work hard he did. With an already established name, it would seem like a piece of cake for the native of Anambra State to take the Nigerian acting industry by storm. This, however, was not the case for the young actor who did not want anything dropped in his lap. Hence, rather than take advantage of his father’s name, he decided to begin from the scratch.
“I have a big name, I have a big father but when I got out of school I knew I had to start from doing little roles that we call ‘Waka-pass’. I had to do all that and gradually, I made a lot of mistakes but I was learning. You know, you couldn’t really see all my mistakes because I was doing little roles, so I was building my career from there,” he recalls.
Building an acting career from the scratch and especially with a name like his was no easy task as Edochie would later find out. It did not only mean hard work, dedication and perseverance but also meant dealing with people’s cynicism.
“Everybody wanted to see if I could actually do this, if I was a good actor, if I could do it as good as my dad,” Edochie says. “I’d like to be modest – I’m proving myself so far. Basically, what the name did for me was, it gave me recognition, like people could easily say ‘That’s the man’s son’ but it ended there. In this business, you have to be good to keep moving.”
Carving a niche
Thus, the Theatre Arts graduate of the University of Port Harcourt sought to step away from his father’s shadow and carve a niche for himself in acting. He dedicated his time to auditions and was never afraid to stand firm for what he believed in. His dedication paid off when he landed his big break in 2007 with the movies ‘Sleek Lady’ and ‘Wind of Glory’. Both movies, he insists, “were the big ones that brought me out.”
And since then, there has been no stopping him. The last of six children is fast becoming a force to reckon with in Nollywood and is no longer just known as “that man’s son”. Yet, resting on his oars is not something he has given any thought to. He maintains that acting is the one thing he knows how to do best and will not give it up in a hurry.
“I love getting into character. I love being dedicated to what I do, to acting – because whatever I do, I don’t just do it. I’d rather be as dedicated as possible, get myself out of who I am to get into someone else or be someone else for a period of time. That’s just what I love most about acting, being someone else, having to dedicate – not just go on stage, shoot it and get out.”
Downsides
But very much like the saying, ‘Every rose has its thorn’; Edochie admits that acting is not all fun. One of the downsides of acting, he says, is, “the fact that you’re not in control of what goes on, you’re just in control of what you do.”
He explains, “Because the way I was trained, if I’m acting, my business is to come on set, act and get out. If every other thing is going wrong, it’s not your business, you just have to focus on what you do. If the makeup is not going on well, if you want to talk about it, complain to the director. So, what I don’t really like about being an actor is you’re confined to just what you do.”
This, however, does not discourage the actor who lists Ramsey Nouah, Richard Mofe Damijo, Mike Ezuronye, and Jim Iyke as some of the actors he is inspired by. Rather than be deterred, the actor is spurred on by these downsides along with the everyday challenges of the job.
As he admits, “What does it for me is the fact that I have to meet new challenges. The good thing about acting is it’s always a challenge. You know, it’s not like you’re doing a regular job. Acting is different especially when you really want to do it and do it well. You want to give it a 110 percent. I see every role as a challenge, that’s actually what spurs me, that’s what drives me. I meet new challenges everyday and with each new day I get better at what I do.”
Moving forward
For this young actor, dwelling on the past and looking to be popular have certainly not crossed his mind. Foremost on his agenda is concentrating on developing his skills. As he reflects, “I try not to regret whatever I do because I see myself improving every day.
I try to see a lot of movies, both local and foreign movies, I try to study a lot of people, I work on myself a lot. If I do a movie today and I do another six months after, it’s not the same. That one is going to be better.”
Also on Edochie’s agenda is movie directing. “I want to direct in years from now - maybe when I’m done acting because nobody lasts forever, there’ll always be some new guy who will come up and all of that - because I want to teach people, I love teaching people things. When I’m acting, I try to limit myself to just what I’m meant to do but deep down I would love to teach because you watch a lot of things go wrong while acting but you can’t do anything because you’re just an actor. So I would love to direct.”
This, he says, is his way of addressing the key issue of poor directing in Nollywood. “Most of our directors don’t teach. A lot of things that you see our actors do and they come out so great, it is a result of personal effort. Directors don’t tell you anything, they don’t even know what it means to be a director. So I want to have a school where I’ll be able to teach people how things should be done, teach people what it means to get into character, to be an actor or to play a role well.”
Nurturing young talents is something the actor is also keenly interested in. “I would love to have a foundation where I can raise kids who don’t have the wherewithal to bring themselves up. Yeah, I would love to take the kids and train them. I’m also working towards that. I want to do a talent show some other time where I’ll be a judge. I just want to teach people.”
0 comments :
Post a Comment