“People said I don’t look 45, It’s been rough, tough n sweet” – Lepa Shandy

Folashade Omoniyi-Adewale popularly known as Lepa Shandy, since she got married about five years ago she has been shuttling between Lagos and the UK, where she lives with her husband and kids.

In this interview the actress opens up to Seye Kehinde.

How has it been shuttling between the UK and Nigeria since you got married?

I never left, just that I have not been steady both abroad and here. I stay a while in Nigeria and I go back to the UK, spend some time and come back. I have been appearing in some movies and soaps. I still have the interest in movies. I do whatever I can do when I am around.

You have been away for how long now?

I have not been away. I have only been on and off. The last time I travelled I spent a year. And I have been around now for almost a year.

How do you balance been here and been there?

Career wise it’s in me. I don’t want to leave what I do. I also want to take care of my home front. I balance the two. This is where my fans are. I have to continue to be relevant here. It has not been easy sha. I still cope. Thank God for my husband. He is very understanding. He allows me come to Nigeria to do my movie shoots.

Have you done any production of your own?

I have a movie I want to launch next month. I shot it a while ago. People have been asking me where are you? So I want to do this to get across to my fans. My launching is coming up on April 10 2016, so after the launch it will come out.

I have seen the promo of your birthday. When is it? and what do we expect?

I am so excited about it. The Bible says learn to count your days. When you are hitting the big number you want to celebrate. I don’t want it to be like the launching of a movie, I want to attach it to something. So I want do my birthday with the launch so it’s like a 2-in-1 movie. My birthday and the launching of my new movie “Eri Ife” (Evidence of Love).

It is coming up April 10 at Blue Roof LTV 8 because of the Easter Season. My actual birthday is March 23rd, its going to be a grand party, a big one. So help me God. I will be 45.

When you look back at your life, how do you feel?

I just give thanks to God. There are so many people who want to be where I am, so I just thank God. People have also said I don’t look 45. They have been asking me what I do that I am still looking young. That I don’t look my age. I just thank God. It’s been rough and tough, sweet, rosy. I thank God for everything.

But really how have you been able to keep looking young

I don’t know. It’s in me. It’s from my gene. I don’t really have a particular thing that I do to keep me young. There is nothing I can’t eat. These days I drink more liquid, more of water.

How have you been able to keep your marriage going?

That one na God. Na God ooo. You know my story now. This one must work ooo. This one must survive. We actresses go the extra-mile to keep our marriages because our job is demanding. Somehow people think all actresses don’t want to keep their homes. I find that funny. I am yet to see someone who goes to the altar swears by the Bible and does not want her marriage to work. Me ooo, this one has to work ooo with God.

Looking at your career it has spanned so many years. Like how many years now

21 years. But professionally 20 years.

How did it start for you?

It started like joke, like joke. It started when I was in secondary school. Late Bambo Adebajo, happened to be my sisters teacher in secondary school in Isolo, Lagos.

After school, I normally go to my sister school in Isolo, Ire Akari Estate. I like playing Table Tennis when I go to their school, I used to play Table Tennis and Uncle Bambo will say look at this little tiny thing. You want to play by force and you are not tall. So I got to know him.

He has been in the industry for long. But then my dad used to take us to the Theatre to watch movies then when we were very young.

After secondary school, I now told my sister Funke. She handed me over to the late Uncle Bambo Adebajo who now took me to late Ayo Oluwasanmi. It is Ayo Oluwasanmi that trained me into what I am today.

I started from English. It was from stage I started. He taught me all the rudiments in the Theatre. He was into Production Management. He wanted me to know a bit of everything with Steve Ogundele.

He took me to Aunty Peju Sodeinde, now Oloori Peju Sonuga. She was into Makeup. Everybody knows her very well. She worked with NTA then. That’s is why I said I know a bit of every part of the Theatre.

How did your career now progress?

From there I began to appear in English soaps, a soap by Tajudeen Adepetun. The first English movie I starred in was Breaking Point by Emem Isong with Stella Damasus. But after a while, discrimination started to set in. When you go for open audition that people will commend you that you did well, by the time the final list comes out, you won’t see your name.

I had a Salon then in Jakande Estate in Lagos. Ayo Badmus used to stay there. We were friends. He was one of the 3 Orange Men who did one popular advert for a product. He came and said why waste your time in this English sector, despite the fact that you do well, they won’t give you roles, come to Yoruba sector. He was the one that encouraged me. That is how I found myself in the Yoruba movie industry, since then no looking back. I adjusted easily and I was lucky to have worked with a lot of understanding producers.

Who are your contemporaries?

Stella Damasus, Genevieve, we all used to go to audition together. I don’t know who came in first between me and Fathia. Bukky Wright was there before. But we all started about the same time.

How do you see your rise in the Yoruba movie industry?

It was gradual. I learnt as I grew up. I grew up gradually. Many people didn’t know that I had been in the Yoruba movie industry before Lepa. I had been in the industry from 1995 to 2002 when I did Lepa Shandy. I have been there I have seen it all.

I hit the limelight in 2002. But my stardom was very gradual. Thank God I am still very active. I am still there.

Did you see your big break coming?

No. I did not see it coming, it was like a miracle. There is this movie Makan produced by Yinka Fowora. I did just one scene in the movie in Ijebu-Ode. I never knew I could perform so well. I tried my best, it was a rape scene. People came to commend me. I played the role of a 16 year old girl in that movie.

It was on that set that Folabi Ogunjobi who managed that production and who was the then manager for Bayowa, came to see me in my room and he said I like the way you acted yesterday and I have a role for you in another movie.

But can you smoke?

I said I don’t smoke but if it has to do with a movie I will try. He said do you drive? I said yes. Can you wear skimpy dresses? Can you be wild? I said why? He said I have a role for you in a movie coming up, I will get back to you. Then, there was no GSM. We were like 3 streets away from each other and we didn’t know. He was looking for me for 3 months. He was all over the town looking for me. He located me and invited me to Bayowa house where I did the audition and they gave me the role. Before giving me, they had gone to 3 different Universities to look for a lady to play the role. They didn’t get and God said it is you.

The role they were looking for someone to play was Lepa Shandy. That gave me the name Lepa Shandy. When I met Bayowa, he said we have a role for you ooo. You are going to play Sade in that movie. I said my name is Sade can they change the name. And they changed it to Lepa Shandy. So they changed it from Sade to Sandy. That was how it became my 2nd name. You can imagine, I couldn’t have been the only Lepa in the whole world. They went to 3 schools. We shot in 2001 and it came out in 2002 I was over 30 then and I came to play the role of 23 year old young girl. God just said it’s going to be my role.

How did you now feel when the movie became a big hit?

I did not prepare for it. They showed it at the theatre and we were supposed to appear in the same costume that was used for that posters. That was what I wore. There were so many people, a crowd had gathered to watch. Somebody touched my body and was so excited, shouting, I touched her she is real. I said Mogbe ooo Semino  ni eleyi. I thank God and I thank Bayowa I was not prepared for the stardom when it came out I instantly became a house hold name. Even my dad kept taking the calender of the movie everywhere and showing people and saying she is my daughter, so you don’t know. He was proud of me.