For the last two decades that Olarotimi Fakunle has been a working actor, he has played mostly men that our mothers have warned us against; mafia leader in Slum King, conniving drug lord in Gangs of Lagos, no-nonsense mechanic in Omoye. But in the new Kunle Afolayan film Recall, which premiered at the 2024 African Film Festival (ARIFF), Olarotimi has taken up a new role: hotshot lover boy.
“I won’t lie to you; it wasn’t easy,” he told Zikoko at the premiere. “It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my two-decade-plus career. It was challenging because it was a lot of emotional roller coaster. But I’m just so grateful that with the director and other cast members, we were able to pull it off.”
Goke, his character, is madly in love with Anita, played by Sharon Ooja-Nwoke, and she loves him back. But their lives come to a grinding halt after she loses her memory, and a chain of long-buried secrets builds a wide rift between them.
“You know, I’m not big on this love role thing. People say I’m a gangster. But I mean, every man’s got some love in him, depending on how you choose to play him. Kunle Afolayan was able to bring that out, and it was phenomenal. At first, I was a bit sceptical. I was worried. But from my first encounter with Sharon, all the worries and fears just dissolved,” he said.
“I know that I’m talented and a good actor, but it takes more than being a good actor and having talents to bring that cohesiveness that we needed to build that bond. I was glad that we struck that bond from day one.”
Recall is also the first time Olarotimi is working with Afolayan, even though they’ve hung around in the same circles for years. “It’s something that I’d like to do over and over again,” he said of working with Afolayan. “It becomes very easy to execute particularly because the person you’re working with knows the master plan. He has given you and all you have to do is just follow it.”
From the very first scene in the film to the last Goke is crying either from love, pain or heartbreak. How was the OG Nollywood hardman able to bring the character to this point?
“First and foremost that wasn’t me anymore. That was Goke. I dropped myself and dropped everything that I know how to do, and I’ll do normally, and I just went into the role,” he said. “For the number of days we shot for I didn’t even see myself. I started doing things like how I had envisioned him and how the director had told us he was. I just had to let go of Olarotimi and the hard guy.”
There is a scene in the film where Olarotimi’s Goke can’t stop crying and drops to his knees in front of his father-in-law played by Keppy Ekpenyong. For the character, he also had to wear prosthetic teeth to make the love story with Sharon more awkward. These are experiences that Olarotimi is not familiar with as an actor. “I’ve never played a character like this in a film before, and being thrust into the midst of that is a lot. He’s unlike what I used to play. I mean, every role is challenging, but this was more challenging,” he said.
At the premiere, the cast and crew seem at ease with each other. Sharon, who was away, called on Facetime. Bimbo Akintola who plays Goke’s sister reserved seats for other cast and crew members. This is not common in Nollywood. How did this happen?
“The director knew what he wanted to do, and the communication was fluid. It’s the collaboration of everyone on set. Every other actor on set came with their own good, beautiful act. The merging was just beautiful and seamless to work on,” said.
The film’s world premiere date has not been set yet, but Afolayan said he’s considering sometime in February as the cinema release date. What does Olarotimi hope people take away from the film? “That there is more to love and sacrifice.”
