Pete Edochie On His Very First Role as an Actor

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

Pete Edochie is no doubt one of the most revered veterans in Africa’s entertainment industry considering his trajectory in film and television. He is renowned for the pioneering and motivating roles in Nollywood. Hitting the limelight in the NTA adaptation of Chinua Achebe’ s all-time bestselling novel, Things Fall Apart, where his superlative performance brought the spotlight to Nigeria and Africa, Edochie has endured as an icon.

The legend, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday is one of the continent’s most honored thespians with an Industry Merit Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award respectively, in a recent interview recalled his very first movie role and revealed that no production of his can be referred as failure: “First of all, Things Fall Apart is older than Nollywood. When I did it in 1985, Nollywood still slumbered in the womb of time. It had to come on board seven years later.

“Most of what I did, like Ikuku for Nkem Owoh, was the first one I did after Things Fall Apart. When I did Things Fall Apart, it had been translated into over 53 languages, so it introduced me to the entire world. There was nothing like Nollywood. If you read the compliments the president paid me on my 75th birthday, he said that my performance in Things Fall Apart drew the world’s attention to Nigeria.”

Continuing he said, “So Things Fall Apart, that’s the first and the biggest as well. I’ve done other things. And I thank God that everything I’ve done has ended up a smashing success.  No production of mine can be referred to as a failure.” 

Usually portrayed as king and father in movies, the seasoned broadcaster and administrator has earned commendation especially for incubating younger professionals and nurturing talents like his sons Yul and Linc Edochie, adduced reasons for being stereotyped in movies.

“First of all, by the time I left broadcasting and joined Nollywood, I think I was either in my late 50s or early 60s, so I didn’t get in as a young man to start playing lover boy and all sorts”, Edochie said. 

“I went in as a father. Again, outside the movie industry, I am, by marriage, the oldest father in the industry. I got married 53 years ago.  There is nobody with that record in Nollywood. It’s only natural that I play the role of a father, whether a good one or diabolical; it’s a question of detail.”

Interestingly, Edochie is a proud traditional title holder, such that he has replicated in movie roles. But however berates some filmmakers in the manner they script aspects of King or ‘Igwe’ characters, noting that they have in the course of that belittled the culture and tradition: “You see someone playing Igwe, and he is running after a girl and asking her to sit on his lap. When I see things like that, it makes me very angry.

“That’s a desecration of our culture which should not be identified with somebody who enjoys that kind of aura. You don’t see an Igwe running around singing love songs. As a King, you are entitled to many privileges and mustn’t allow anyone to desecrate them.”