How I 'married' Patience Ozokwor As A Young Man - Victor Osuagwu

Popular Nollywood actor, Victor Osuagwu, who is the new Lagos branch chair of the Actors Guild of Nigeria in a recent interview opens up about his life, acting career, his wife and many other things.

Victor said he was born with neither a silver spoon nor a wooden spoon but rather a divine spoon. Born and bred in Port Harcourt, he said he shares blood relations with Rivers State as his mother is from Opobo.

"When I say I was born with a divine spoon, it means that I have a special talent, instilled by God after creating me, and that is the talent I’m using today for entertainment," he said.

He met his wife at University of Port Harcourt when she was still a young girl of 17 years and he told her straight she was going to be his wife. They courted for a long time before they finally got married.

Describing his first experience on stage, he said it was awesome while adding that he had never had an embarrassing day on stage.

When asked his most memorable day as an actor, he said, "Every role given to you as an artiste, you must see it as challenging. There is no role that you consider bigger or smaller, because all it entails is for you to interpret those roles; it is not your character; it has nothing to do with your identity; you are playing somebody’s character. So, obviously, they are all challenging. But, then, there is one particular challenging role I did, and when I read the script, I was happy to be part of it; I didn’t go for the money, but the name I was about to make out of it – that was in One Dollar. Then, I was 30-something years old, and I was meant to play a 70-something-year-old man.

"You could imagine at that age I was getting married to somebody like Patience Ozokwor. So, you were meant to transform your character from your youthful age to that of an elderly man the script is talking about, not just his age, but his attitude and everything. When I got that role, I asked myself, “How am I going to do this?” I worked with my makeup artiste and we suggested ways we could achieve a better interpretation of that role, so we came up with ideas, like having baldhead, wrinkles and grey hairs. When I looked myself in the mirror afterwards, I was sure I wasn‘t the Victor that I know (laughs), and I played that role well."

On how he handles stardom, he said he considers his relationship with his fans and the public outside there adding that managing oneself is not easy, because sometimes the stardom gets into your head.