Hilda Dokubo is a big name in Nollywood. She is a veteran actress, radio presenter, dancer, movie producer, teacher and all round entertainer. She is older than Nollywood, as she was one of those who moved from stage to home video movies. She has put in about 35 years, having started at the age of 8. She describes herself as an Actor, Activist and Life Coach. She is one actor who has aged gracefully and who is forever busy with one aspect of showbizness or the other, when she is not on set acting, she is in her school, teaching all the young ones the skills they need to know to become stars.
Lately, she has been working closely with Kunle Afolayan on his latest movie CEO where she played a prominent role. She also owns a production company which recently went into a relationship with a German company ARRI-Alexi, a camera production company. They have supplied her state of the art Alexi cameras with which she recently shot two movies (1) Asawana and (2) AA. Her production company is an extension of her school. She set up the production company to showcase the art of production to students, so they can run from there.
What has this beautiful Kalabari-Ijaw woman been up to all these months? Although she calls herself a Port Harcout Girl, she is from Buguma in Rivers State. Last week, City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE spent sometime with Hilda who is very passionate about her profession. One thing that gets her angry is how some actors treat their jobs with so much levity and do not give it their all. She was in Lagos for 3 days for the private viewing of Kunle Afolayan’s movie. For 2 hours she spoke about her life and career like she’s never done before.
What have you been up to in the last one year or so?
I have been very busy with shoots and more shoots. First we had to finish with Kunle Afolayans job, the CEO. Then we had to attend all the awards ceremonies for the many awards and nominations that STIGMA had earned for itself. There was also the school issues. My school got accredited, it is a 7 year old school. So its fully accredited so there are a few school that have said if your graduates want they can gain direct entry into our school. So, the last one year has been really, really hectic. But much more around Entertainment and Education.
What has kept you going? How have your been able to soldier on despite all the hurdles and challenges of life?
One of them would be a life peoplw which is forgive everyone in advance, people will wrong you, you will wrong people. Don’t hold on to any anger or vexation, hate, malice so that it does not kill you insider. Let your heart be free and just be happy God has also been very gracious. When it concerns me, I think, or when it concerns all those also trust him completely. I also have very supportive people around me, friends, family, church. I talk. I like to talk if anything is eating me up I thik. I share my problems I talk to people I have a lot of respect for. I listen to good counsel. I bow to superior argument I am very self-critical. I don’t worry when people say this is wrong. I just ask: What is wrong about it? That is the next question. I feel everyone who corrects me is the one who truly loves me. Yes I know some people will say some things out of malice and from the background of been absolutely ignorant. I know that.
Have there been times you felt frustrated and you feet like opting out of it?
No, because I didn’t hop in so I have never imagined that I will opt out. The truth of ME and Entertainment is that it is something that came naturally. I started at age 7. At age 7 you hardly know anything about the decisions that you are reaching. My father was very ecouraging. He encouraged us until he passed on. I came into it because of a childs restlessness which was enough to build a career. So it built a career for me after wards. Like how a childhood rascality becomes a course in school, becomes a career in life. So, no, I have never thought of opting out. The truth is, I have never think of opting out of anything. The truth is, if I go into anything and it does not work, I don’t bow. I just ask very clear questions, why didn’t it work? What went wrong? What went right? I learn more from the lessons of that situation, that of the failures of it.
You have been in Entertainment for how long now?
I have been in it from age 7 till date. That will be more than 35 years in same b
usiness, but if it is in Home video it will be more than 24, because I came along from youth service. That was from 1992.
You came in from stage…?
Oh yes. At age 7, I was into radio at 11 it was TV, from 11 till 15, it was stage purely.
From age 11 till 15, it was stage purely. From 15 again it was back in television. I was on Television for 4 years I was in the University. Right after University was have in Lagos to serve as a Corper and brown it was Home Video, creatively, I was part of the pioneers of what is today known as Nollywood, and paid whatever prices their was to pay, because we had to work extra hard, people didn’t believe in it, so much.
Thank God it grew, its built a lot of people. Today its ranked 3rd best in the word creating a whole lot of job for people who otherwise would have been doing something else or doing nothing.
When you look back how does it make you feel?
Nostalgic. I am very proud of me and of all the people that I have worked with on the journey to where I am. I am very proud of myself for not giving up at any time, because sometimes you see certain things and you say hell no. I can’t go through this.
When I look at where the acting industry is I am one of those who believe that we are work in progress, everyone is work in progress.
But you don’t get a good feeling when, what you consider you life career, other people think it’s a hobby. You don’t feel very good about that. So when I look at the while industry and I see some people just say, all you need to do to succeed is just to be a fine face, I say really. This is more than a fine face business. It is a Beauty, Brain and Process. You have to be strong to be able to do this job. This is one job that you work sometimes for 72 hours no rest. And you must never say I am tired. We don’t know that phrase in entertainment. I don’t know any real entertainer who tells you because I was tried I missed the show. The show must go on. So they must show up.
Sometimes, I wish people can be a little bit more careful in now they deal with the professional.
Sometimes I think would be better if some of us spend a little more time getting trained. When you feel oh because I have done 10 movies I no longer need to be trained as an actor, you are a joker. You have to keep training. You need to upgrade your skills everytime. People are losing the come essence of who you are. You are the mirror of society, so the society expects a whole lot from you. We need to keep our talents fresh all the time. People should aspire to be the best at what they do. If you are an actor you should aspire to be the best actor.
This part of the reasons. I started this school.
Why did you start the school?
Because I thought we all needed to be trained. I just felt like something was missing.
Even some of us who came from stage back ground, some of us needed to move from acting on stage, where you audience is away from stage, to acting with the camera because when you act in front of the camera, the camera is part of your work, so you are acting with your audience.
So you have to learn to play with the camera, play for the camera play to the camera. And that is not what anyone will teach you when you work on stage. So we needed that Cross Over classes to know the difference between stage and camera I also wanted all of us to be good at what we do. I set up the school in 2009. It is 6 years old now. Its been nice. Its been fantastic. In our first years it was a school pilot programee we did what we call Street to Star which was from where the likes of Timaya were discovered and pushed out. As at that time, it was not even accredited. In 2004, I was appointed. In 2006, it became a Pilot study towards a school and in 2009 it was set up as a school. Its been really nice.
It is called the Centre for Creative Arts Education. By 2007 it was accredited by the Federal Ministry of Education and National Board for Technical Education even without having a structure like a building respect that comes with it. I enjoy the fact that everytime an elderly person sees me outside they go, you are a child because what they had see in front of the camera and what they now see in real life are 2 different people. I like that feeling.
So, I was born after the war. I grew up under strict parents, in Port Harcourt. My mother was and still is a teacher, she was a Primary School teacher and a Sunday School Teacher. My father who is late now, was an Engineer. My father use to be the dotting one. He was the loving, encouraging father. My mother was the whip of the house, meaning my mum was around with the care all the time. So I had one very strict mum and one pampering dad. I grew up like every other child. I did some very silly thinks. I liked to climb like boys, maybe because my family is predominantly boys. I grow up among buys. I did all the things boys did.
I played football, climb trees, fall down, get up, ride back. It was that kind of childhood that put me in Entertainment because I use to talk for everyone. I was very talkative as child. I was very inquisitive too.
That is why I use to advice people that if your child is talkative and inquisitive try and see if you can channel it positively. That is how I ended up where I am. I am a good church girl don’t forget my mum was a Sunday school teacher. I had fantastic upbringing because God blessed me with great parents.
I was to St. Marys State School in Port Harcourt, Government Girls Secondary School Harbour road again in Port Harcourt, then University of Port Harcourt. So, I can tell you I am a Port Harcourt Girl, as you would say. I read Theatre Arts and Theatre Education at University of Port Harcourt.
Who are those who she started Entertainment with in Port Harcourt or who also passed through the Theatre Arts department like her?
Who? Who? I will say Basorge. Whilst in University, I met Ali Baba. He was in UNIBEN, but he used to come to UNIPORT to do his stuff, Ejike Aseigbu, Bob Manuel ANN Njemenze, Francis Duru, Julius Agwu. We all met Bimbo Manuel, Mildred Iweka of Segi, Checkmate. Those are some of the one I can remembers.
Any regrets in life?
I don’t regret in life, nothing even as a child. I never regret anything. I don’t know why, I don’t how that happened. I hardly have a capacity for regrets. Noo. I just say to my self. This happens because it had to happen.
Sometimes the decision that you reach at the time that you reached them, was the host decision that you could have reached, because that is how far you could think at that time so why regret something you did at the time you did it, because at the time it was the best thing for you to have done. So you will just say well it happened. There are the circumstances.
These are the consequences around than. What you am correct, you correct, what you can’t correct you just leave it and go. The truth is that, no matter how long you sit down there regretting it, it won’t change anything. It’s happened. It’s happened. So rather than regret for me I always want to find a way out of it. So if it’s something I can correct, I want to correct it.
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