Social Media Is One Crazy Place – Opeyemi Aiyeola

Popular actress and producer, Opeyemi Aiyeola, was away from the movie scene for a decade after she got married. She later resumed acting in 2017, but while speaking to Saturday Beats, Aiyeola noted that a lot of things had changed in the industry from the time she left in 2007.

Emphasising that success in the industry was determined by talents in those days, she added that climbing the ladder of stardom now has been laced with favoritism.

“Nollywood used to be an industry of talents; unfortunately when I came back, I realised it was no longer a career path of talented people. It is now about social media. It is more about how much money an individual has to spend on publicity and the likes.

“So many people even get undeserved awards these days. Outside the movie set, the industry has become a world of make-believe. For example, everybody expects me to do photo shoots for birthdays and Valentine’s Day and I always wonder what could be the reason behind that. And me, I have responsibilities and children to cater for, so I can’t be doing all that.

“I have family members I am responsible for. It is crazily exciting and frustrating sometimes. It depends on how I handle it, sincerely, if I decide to roll the way they roll, it will be frustrating for me. When I go on social media, I just laugh these days. There was a time I wanted to give up because it was too much for me, I couldn’t cope. A lot of people, who know me, know I am not fashionable.

“There are times I want to go out without makeup or wig, but these days, it is crazy. There was one morning that I was with a colleague and we met this wonderful male fan; he wanted to take pictures with us. My colleague declined because she didn’t have any makeup on, she stressed that the man might tag her on the picture and she didn’t want to be seen like that. I took a picture with him the way I was.

“Interestingly, when he posted the picture on social media, I received a lot of negative comments because of the way I looked in the picture; it can be extremely frustrating. Social media is a world I don’t understand; that is why I am always quiet there. I have the power to delete and block any negative comments; it is that simple. I make conscious efforts not to expose myself to negative news; the good thing is that it will go away with time. I left in 2007; I came back fully in 2017. I did bits of work once in a while before then,” she told Saturday Beats.