Star actress, singer and producer, Shan George, is very bitter with Nigerian journalists. Her reason? For years on end now, they’ve delighted in portraying her wrongly. Which she doesn’t like. During a courtesy visit to our office in Ojodu, Lagos, the mother of two boys and a native of Ediba in Cross River State poured out her heart to YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AZUH ARINZE…
Nollywood has been experiencing what could be tagged a lull for some time now, what do you think is responsible for that? What do you think is Nollywood’s greatest challenge?
For me o, in my own opinion and what I’ve observed so far, when there’s no money enough to do things that are supposed to be done, there are always issues, quarrels and pressures. So, the number one problem I see in Nollywood is financing; followed by poor marketing. We don’t have marketers. And I think that’s just it. If you have people who will help you to satisfy the customers that you are not able to, the industry will improve. So, I think that the marketing aspect should be well looked into. I would actually advise that marketing companies come and see if they can actually do something about marketing Nigerian movies. There’s so much money in it that they are losing. As for the politics inside Nollywood, I’m not a politician. Not even inside Nollywood, and I don’t think politics should be a do or die affair and honestly, I’m feeling very bad about the fact that the politicians in Nollywood cannot get their acts together. I really don’t know what is going on…
What makes a good actress?
What makes a good actress, first of all, is someone who is able to interpret a role very well. If they ask you to come and play a role of a Muslim, you should be able to research, if you don’t know anything about being a Muslim. You should be able to have a question and answer session with a good Muslim so that you can know a few of those words that you can use and adlib to whatever the script already says.
Why do most actresses fail?
Don’t forget that in everything we do, there’s also destiny attached to it. I believe in destiny. I believe that what will be, will be, because the Bible says before I was born, He already knows what I’m going to be. So, at the end of the day destiny can have a whole lot of part to play in why some people fail. Not just in acting, but in different areas of life. There’s also laziness, because this job is a very tedious job. Sometimes you have to go into the bush and stay for days. Sometimes you are in places you can’t see any chair to sit on; you sit on the floor. Sometimes you are working very late in the night, 3am, people are sleeping, you are still working because most of the scenes we do are at night. Another thing that makes most people fail is laziness. When they are like, men, this work is too much, I’m tired; they don’t wanna try, that’s another thing that makes them fail. And, well, I wanna say some of them when they are not passionate about what they do. They are seeing it as stress, because they don’t love it. Maybe they just strayed into the industry or they have other reasons for wanting their faces to be on TV. Not really being a successful career actor.
Why do most actresses swim in scandals?
Well, because press people won’t let them not swim in scandals (General laughter). To be very fair, I don’t see what any actress is doing that other normal women are not doing. An actress is dating a guy, every other woman out there is dating a guy; an actress has abandoned the guy she’s dating, may be because of one thing or the other the guy did and she doesn’t want to do again, every other girl out there is doing the same thing; an actress is being dumped by a guy, I mean, other girls are also being dumped. So, I wanna imagine that the only reason they swim in controversies is because the Nigerian press has created the swimming pool for them to swim in. Basically, that is the reason (Smiling).
Most actresses find it difficult to sustain their marriages, what is responsible for that?
The truth is that a lot of people find it difficult to sustain their marriages, men and women likewise, in every other sphere of life, not just in the entertainment industry. So, I won’t know the reason for that. Everybody has their own different reasons. Besides, don’t forget that Satan is all over the place trying to look for whom to devour; someone to destroy and devour.
In one of your recent interviews, you were quoted to have said you are in need of a man, have you found the person?
Actually, I was totally quoted out of context. I’m not in need of a man, but I’m still open. If I meet a good man, I will definitely want to settle down. That’s just it. I haven’t seen the paper you are talking about, but lots of people have called me. In fact, I have like thousands of suitors right now (Laughing). I’m looking for that guy who wrote that story so I can strangle him.
You said that you have thousands of suitors…
(Cuts in) – No, no, no…you too, don’t misquote me. Not that I have thousands of suitors, I’m only saying that the story has generated a lot of misconceptions, which has led to a lot of guys actually thinking that maybe I’m looking for a husband. And so I’m getting all kinds of mails on a daily basis about marriage.
What exactly does Shan want in a man?
I want a man who will treat me the way he treats his mother’s child. That’s basically what I want. I want a man who would treat me like his sister, simply put. You know, get angry with me when I’ve done something wrong, forgive me when I apologise, take me the way I am, just like you will take your own blood sister, no matter how much she has offended you or no matter how bad you feel about maybe what she’s done to you. You can’t just throw her away. You know that this person is your person for life.
Why do you think that love has not been fair to you?
Honestly, I won’t say anything like that. That’s a very wrong way to put it. I can’t say love hasn’t been fair to me, because when you say love, are you talking about romance? Love! I’m so loved by so many people: my family members, my friends, my colleagues, including you, my paddy. So, I won’t say love has been unfair to me. May be you are referring to love in the romantic way, because I think I’m so highly blessed and highly loved, by both colleagues, friends, family members and neighbours. So, I won’t even imagine that love hasn’t been fair to me. A couple of relationships that I’ve found myself in, in this life, didn’t work out, but that wouldn’t automatically translate to love being unfair to me.
Shan George seems to prefer younger men, why is that so?
Well, that’s because they (the press) have it all wrong. Each time they see me with anybody, they just assume that the person is somebody I have something intimate with. Because when you talk about this Shan enjoying all having relationships with younger men, they’ve even written that my son was my boyfriend. I think they just get it all wrong; they just assume because it’s something that happens to every other actress…They just see you with a guy and they just conclude that you are having an intimate relationship.
But there’s been one or two instances where you truly dated younger men?
Yes, but if you did something once or twice in your life time, it doesn’t actually qualify it to be that this person really enjoys this thing. I’ve been married twice; none of my ex-husbands is a younger person. So, now, where did they get the quote from; that she enjoys it. What makes the younger men better and how come I haven’t married one yet? If you enjoy something, you should be able to do it often. So, I don’t think it’s correct. Most people in the press don’t get their facts right before they begin to write. They just assume and write. It’s a wrong notion, totally wrong.
What’s Shan’s definition of love?
Love is to me somebody that you know enough and know their s..t and you don’t mind the s..t. That’s basically what love is. To me, love is forgiveness, love is letting go of any encumbrances that will cause you not to want to be with that person any more.
What is that singular thing that you want from love, but has not been able to find?
The truth is nothing! Nothing like that. It’s not on my mind. What’s on my mind is basically work. So, there’s no time I’m like looking for one thing; I’m looking for this love, I want to find it and don’t find it. Everything I wanna find right now is good luck (Laughter)
We like that! Now, are you going to give marriage another shot?
Certainly! Why not? Ah! What do you think? You think I’m not good enough? (Laughter). Actually, sometimes, I sit down and I wonder. I’ve been in the movie industry for over 15 years now. I entered the movie industry and two years later, I started producing my own movies and since 1998 that I started, up till now, everything I’ve produced is at least 20 movies. And I’ve also done two music albums and let us be fair here, this is a lot of work. Now, besides having to write and produce at least 20 movies so far, I’ve acted in over a hundred movies. This is a lot of work. It just amazes me that people just sit down and when they wanna talk about Shan George, they just throw away all those hard work. All that hard work, all that time put into this work and make it look like the only thing Shan George does is just sit down and look at men’s arses and choose which d..k she thinks is gonna be sweeter. It’s so bad, and I always ask myself, is it really, really that bad that Nigerians don’t know the volume of work, not just me, that is generally put into making just one movie. Every actress who does movies very often is a prostitute. Meanwhile, this person doesn’t even have time. You know, there are times when my nails are so bad and I don’t even have time to get to the salon to do something about my nails or even my hair and somebody is just sitting down there, portraying you like all you are doing is thinking about a man and which one to find. I’m like is it for real or what would I call it now? Let me call it, is it bad belle? Because I don’t get it. The truth is, there’s so much work, as in 24/7 I’m working.
What’s the worst thing that you’ve heard people say about you?
It’s just about this man thing; this thing you are also talking about. To be very frank, every journalist that calls me to interview me, I just find out that when they come to do the interview, they are basically talking about man and arse and so on. I’m telling you! Just a few days ago, a journalist came to interview and I’m sitting down there, waiting for him to ask me what he wants to ask and then the first thing he says is when you were dating Okey Bakassi…and I’m like, are you for real? That was over 15 years ago. And I now looked at this journalist and asked, you mean you left your office to come and ask me that? You’ve been calling me for days, to do an interview and then the first question you are asking me is that. So, you tell me, you are one of them. To be very honest, tell me. Because I was telling the journalist that it is very unfair of you journalists to think that every girl in the industry is a prostitute and all they think about is man and d..k, because this thing is a lot of work. At the end of the day, even if you journalists want to write about actresses to look like prostitutes, why don’t you people also add the volume of work they do. At least, if you read the ones they write about foreign artistes, dem Jennifer Lopez and co, they will tell you that Jennifer Lopez is dating a 24 – year old boy; then they will talk about the album she just released and how the album has already sold 3 million copies. At least, to let you know that this person is not just a lay about.
What’s the nicest thing you’ve heard people say about you?
Nicest? I honestly haven’t seen. The only thing I would say is not about woman and man and romance and love issue that they write about is when I actually go out of my way to promote my job. Which is like you are being paid. When you pay them to promote you.
NB: First published February 2014