Nigerian Actor Moshood Fattah sits with the host of #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo to discuss his career on the stage and in films, getting snubbed in the Far from Home promos, and the perception that he is arrogant.
“I’ve never said this before, but ‘Far from Home’ came out and people weren’t seeing me in promos. I was shocked (but) I didn’t complain, I didn’t call anyone, I didn’t lose my -ish. Something in me just felt like, ‘okay your work will speak for you anyways and then you put in 2 years into this project then to come and to start begging for publicity is like you know’. Then people started calling me like ‘how far, we’re not seeing you in posters, we’re not seeing you in this’. It got to a point, and I was like, ‘you know what, maybe I am not even in the final cut after all. Let me call production and be like, ‘guys am I this film?’ They told me, ‘of course you are’. But I’m not seeing myself in stuff. Meanwhile I was talking to someone who said, ‘the reason why they didn’t put you in the stuff, (it was a rumour by the way) was because you demanded to be called Mr. Fattah on set.
“And I was like, no, I’ve never demanded to be called Mr. Fattah on set. I wouldn’t.” “No actor would want to be called by their real names on set; they would want to be called by their character names so they can stay on that mindset. Then the person goes on to say that’s the reason why they didn’t put me on. That never happened but bad news spreads faster than good news anyways and I was like ”wow”. I mean it hurts, I won’t lie but what can I say?”
Speaking further on the perception that he is arrogant, he shared, ‘I have had this conversation with a couple of friends. I was in Far from Home, which is a young adult series, but I was the oldest young cast, and I am an adult. I am 32, and I am aware of that. Knowing how much I have accomplished in life, and how much I mean to people who I am mentoring; knowing my worth, I carry myself with respect. I respect myself and I don’t treat myself shabbily. I am always conscious of that fact and that may come across as cocky to someone who feels like, ‘who is this skinny guy feeling like he is something’ but that is on them not on me’.
On how he felt being a part of the Far from Home project he said, “I don’t get excited because I have heard a lot of let’s work together that never work out. It’s all mouth until I see it for real. My generation has a lot of things to look back at, ‘We know ‘that actor’, we know what happened to his career and how he didn’t get certain things in check. So, we are all on our guards about PR, lawyers, contract and stuff. So,’I was like, don’t get too excited, calm down, you have gotten the role, you may not make it to the final cut’. I think I got that from my mum. Growing up’, my mum was very strict, both parents were very strict, they didn’t ever let me act out of line. So, when that happened, it was good. I was like, okay, I got the role, let’s get to work. I think I was too caught up in doing the work, to care about what it meant until later on. This was because I was playing a character that is out of my comfort zone. I am grateful when I hear people say I did good in Far from Home.”
Moshood shared on the industry and looking up to the oldies “A publication asked me a question – why young actors not look up to Nollywood actors, recently. And I said, ‘it’s because there’s nothing to look up to, and I don’t mean that as a shade.’ I could go on YouTube and search for Viola Davis and Denzel Washington processes – their interviews, roundtable, documentaries and a lot of materials. I remember that during Battle on Buka Street, I, Mike Afolarin and Gbemi Akinlade sat down to watch 7 different Super Bowl performances before I shot my concert scene. This was to look at how far we were going, how much we were to prepare for the carnival scene. It was even then we watched the making of the Godfather.
The information was there. But it is hard to find behind the scenes of our Nigerian veterans, it is even hard to get their films. People think the industry started in 90s. ‘Are you kidding?’, you don’t know we had Nigerian films in the 1970s. But America, UK, Asia has a history of documentation, it is easy to look at that. We see how our peers like the likes of Zendaya, John Boyega own their craft and I know I can’t go on set and go and be acting like this. Now that we are in the age of Netflix and international releases, when you fail, you are not failing in your country alone, you are failing worldwide and if you score an hattrick, it is also going to be worldwide.”
Watch the excerpt here: https://www.instagram.com/p/
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