In 2004, Thomson Makolo Jnr graduated secondary school with his friends and immediately started The Sensational Theatre Group, a drama troupe in Ayingba, a small town in Kogi State.
They had big dreams of moving to Lagos and becoming stars in Nollywood, the burgeoning movie industry that will become the largest on the continent. Makolo arrived Lagos in 2005, but his search for a career was futile. After six months of hanging around the National Theatre, showing up on sets uninvited, and looking for any acting gig, he decided to go back home to Ayingba and never return to Lagos.
Last year, he moved to Asaba and has been featured in some Nollywood films made primarily for YouTube and, believe it or not, VCDs.
In an interview with Pulse Nigeria, he opens up on what the journey has been like for him becoming a star and how Asaba Nollywood has been good to him.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
When you moved to Lagos many years ago, what was that experience like?
I was advised to go on different sets in search of open roles. That was how my journey started. I attended many auditions. I was duped many times.
Duped? How?
When you're looking for an acting role, you put your ears to the ground. I started going to Artist Village in Igamu.
You meet a lot of actors, directors, and producers where the audions were happening. But you had this group of non-filmmakers who’ll tell you that to come into the industry, you have to join their group. They said they were promoting actors. I remember paying ₦10,000 three times to a particular guy whose name is Umoh. He had an office close to the National Stadium.
We hung out at Ojuelegba. Sometimes he and others will come and give us half scripts and ask us to pay for the full script. Then they tell us it's not happening again. They said they would give me an ID card. They didn’t. The ID card was to be part of their production company as an actor.
Are they not supposed to pay you a salary? Why are you paying them for an ID card?
That’s not how it is for the new guys in Nollywood. You meet so many people who extort you saying they want to help you.
So why did you leave?
One day I went to the office of the chairman of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria and told him my experience. I was 17 years old plus at the time and he felt for me. I later asked for his permission to start an AGN chapter in Kogi. He became tired of me and gave me the letter of authorisation. I went back to Kogi and became chairman. After those six months I spent in Lagos, I never went back again.
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What was the experience of being chairman?
I was able to secure very little funding to make a film. In the production, I was the producer, actor and director. Segun Arinze was in the film. We called it Makafan. I had only been in one film production before that.
You’re still in your early days in Asaba what has that been like compared to your time in Lagos?
Being in Asaba gives me more opportunities as an actor. It is the second largest destination of film production in Africa after Lagos. Lagos is more corporately pushed. It gets a lot of media coverage, social welfare and sponsorship. But Asaba is solely driven by the marketers who are the producers.
Until I moved to Asaba, I had never had three appearances in different movies in a month. From November 2023 when I moved here till today, I have featured in at least 30 movies. You have more call time here.
You say that like it’s a good thing. How do you manage working so much?
It’s a good thing. It gives you more exposure. See, the Nigerian film industry is still evolving and we shouldn’t compare ourselves to Hollywood and Bollywood.
Every actor that you see today either in Lagos, Enugu or Asaba has gone through this road. The same actors that do a film in one year or two years now used to do five movies a month. So as a growing actor, I don't want to question or debate how many movies I should do per month. I simply don't have the cache to bother about these things or even how much I get paid.
How do you get jobs?
Most of the jobs that I have done come from referrals. Auditions don’t happen as many times as they should. It's a recommendation system. Directors and producers speak to each other. When you get to a point, you don't need referrals anymore. Your name sells you.
How do you manage burnout?
Sometimes you get worn out. You get burnt out. But we have to keep going. You know, it started like this in Lagos but things are changing. People are figuring themselves out. But in Asaba, if you’re not the one funding the project there’s nothing you can do.
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And how much do you get paid per film?
There are actors who get paid ₦1.5 million per movie in Asaba here. They shoot for five days. If you do 30 of that, that’s about ₦45 million. But those are A-list actors. An upcoming actor like me can earn between ₦100,000 to ₦150,000. For me, it's not that bad.