Prolific actress, Kehinde Bankole, endeared herself to movie buffs with her compelling outing in Wale Adenuga’s popular soap, Super Story. Although she had since graced the jackets of many top-rated pictures and won the 2015 AMVCA, the delectable actress believes she’s still nowhere near the zenith. The former runway model speaks with DGossip247 about life on set and off it. Excerpts…
You starred in the recently released flick, Beyond Blood, what was the experience like?
I played the role of Moji Dosunmu and I want to implore my fans to go and see the movie, it is already released in cinemas.
How challenging was your role?
It’s different from other roles I have played. Moji is a philanthropist,
a very caring and concerned citizen who looks out for the less privileged and troubled persons in the society because she is from a privileged home – this is a role I have not played before. Moji has a good heart,
but with every good intention there is always one challenge or the other; it is not as easy as she thought it would be to just give as she is going on about her business.
In giving herself to the society, trying to help people get better, she encounters different challenges.
2015 was one of your best years professionally especially with the winning of the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, what’s in the offing in 2016?
2016 had better be amazing; I’m very anxious, I’m very excited about 2016.
There is a lot more work to be done and I’m not discouraged. I’m not afraid; I’m ready to face whatever challenge to get to the new level.
With every opportunity and progress come more responsibility; you won something last year means you have to prove to people why you won it.
You have to sustain the reason you won it and this is the part where you do the work so that you keep the people who have given you that opportunity, you keep them encouraged and let them know that they didn’t make a mistake.
Since the beginning of 2016, how many films have you featured in?
Sincerely, I have been reading scripts to decide which ones to take and the ones not to take. I’m working closely with my management and since about November last year, we have been reading materials, talking to people and making decisions for the New Year. But we haven’t gone on any location so far, but I’m embarking on one in a few days.
Do you still have dream roles?
I have many dream roles and I haven’t even started with so many of them. I still want to play a drug addict, I want to play the serial killer, the physically active woman. There is so much I want to do, I have just started and I’m very eager.
How did your parents react to your career choice?
I got their support because I started from the church drama and they used to see it. For instance,
I was always spending so much time in church service, choir rehearsal, drama rehearsal, and they were interested in me doing acting, but they didn’t want it to take too much of my time because they were concerned about other things.
WAEC exam was coming then, there was JAMB and other things too. They were really concerned, but once I got into the university and they saw that I had crossed that hurdle, the rest was easy for them and they accepted.
You have a twin sister who is not into acting; is she unwilling or are you the one not carrying her along?
She is not an actress, she is an event planner. She started acting before me but as her career grew, she made the decision to focus on her event planning business, but that is not to say if she wants to come back she can’t.
These days, more and more actors delve into movie production and directing; are you also looking in that direction?
No, I’m an actor. Well, if I have the opportunity to produce something – it doesn’t have to be film, it could be telling a serious story through documentary,
there are people who do this – somehow I could be involved in the process of the production. I don’t have anything against it but I am an actor.
Which would you consider more challenging between performing on stage and acting before a camera?
Both of them are challenging. Stage entails discipline, very challenging because you don’t have a second take, there is no rewind and let me take it again.
So, what you give at that time is what the people are going to get. It is important you make your decision on stage like in fraction of a second, you have to decide how you want to deliver that role very quickly, and once it’s done you can’t take it back.
It helps you to focus. People think acting a movie is simple but it is not, it is also equally challenging; the opportunity you have to act a stage play once is not like that of a film, you might have to re-do it like 30 times, think about rewinding a particular emotion,
the stress of having to put yourself on the same level of that emotion for about 30 times, especially if there is a crowd in a scene and you have to re-do a scene plenty times and have to sustain the same level of energy.
If you have to remember something bad to put you in the mood, you have to remember that over and over if you are asked to act the scene over again. So it is equally challenging if not even more so; it’s a lot of hard work.
What do you look out for in a script before picking one?
The direction the story is going- there are some stories you will see and you will understand what they are saying but you won’t understand the direction it’s going – that is what I look out for.
I want a good story, apart from the story being good I should be able to understand the direction, there is a theme, a message the story is trying to pass.
Whatever emotions I feel the first time I open a script will be happening to the people watching at home; we serve as the bridge between the people at home seeing the movie and the person writing the story.
Some of your colleagues reject scripts based on who the other cast members are, do you also find yourself in such situation?
It is neither a yes nor no answer. If it is important to the life of that film, I have a team, we will sit down and make a decision.
If we think the smallest person is not good for that film or the biggest person is not good, it is the business decisions that will make them turn it down or accept it.
I do not necessarily have to tie it to whether an actress is in it or not in it, I look at the story. Sometimes if a story is very good and they cast you and you know that you don’t find yourself in the story, you can’t deliver it.
That is one of the reasons you could turn down a script not essentially because one actor is not there; it must be because of a business decision.
Do you also write scripts?
I write, not necessarily scripts. I write music, I write poems, but I’m not officially a script writer.
But you’re also into music…
Music is part of every day of my life. Secondly, I minister, I sing. Music is part of me, so whichever avenue the music is going to come out from is open to any opportunity I find.
There is no solid information at the moment, but music is part of me; if I get a record deal that me and my singing partner are asked to do in a concert, we will take it.
We have singles coming out, if it is radio we will put it there. Music is part of my work and my personal life.
Between when you joined the industry and now, would you say that you’ve spotted some changes?
Yes there are changes; amazingly plenty of good changes.
Those who are ahead of us had done a lot of work, there are now so many opportunities, there are young producers, actors, it is spreading everywhere; the media is coming to us and we are also going to the media.
It is not everybody in entertainment that is acting, everybody is doing serious work. There are editors, cinematographers and others; it is way better than it was before.
How have you been able to keep fit?
It is stress, I gain weight and lose it. I just lost a lot and I like it.
Are you walking down the aisle any time soon?
Those are private things, when it happens you will see it.
You’re young and sexy. How have you coped with attention from male colleagues, producers and others in the industry?
I try not to cope; I just ignore it. I don’t let anything fester.
There’s no pressure because it’s what you give in to that stays. Nothing out there is a do-or-die affair. Naturally, even people who are not actors get hit on regularly. It’s normal.
If you don’t let anything fester and you attend to it swiftly and move on, you’ll be okay. I don’t have pressure from men.
I handle them quite well, and I don’t see it as anything out of the ordinary. It’s something every female out there is experiencing as well. Once you handle it well, there’s no pressure.
What are the things you look out for in a guy?
It is still private.
How have you been able to stay away from scandals?
I keep things simple; simplicity is what makes you stay away from trouble. When you keep everything simple, it makes whatever comes back at you simple.
Away from acting, who is Kehinde Bankole in real life?
I joke a lot, I like to laugh, when I’m in the mood. We crack jokes and laugh and also have a good time.
I love to cook, I love spending time with family, loved ones and friends. I like to make people happy, and I can be very strict too.
