We learnt that you just launched your new movie.Yes, about three weeks ago. It is a Yoruba movie and it is titled Gold (Wura)
You obviously featured in it?
Yes. Why not? I played the sub lead role. Surutu, and Kelvin Ikeduba played the major roles.
When did you start producing films?
I think I started in 2004. I became an actress between 2002 and 2003. Thereafter, I produced my first movie titled Tolani gbarada in 2004.
Is there any particular reason why you feature mostly in yoruba movies?
No. There is no particular reason. It is all about your set-up. If anybody invites me to act in an English movie, I will accept it because I am educated. I think I have featured in one or two soap operas.
What did you do in South Africa?
I just wanted to relax and to prepare for other things that I want to work on. I did some movies there, as well. I am planning to go to Ghana and I will finish the rest of the movie here in the country. It is a crime movie.
Who introduced you into acting?
It was a friend of mine called She Baby. She was my course mate. We were in the same faculty. Actually I was in Transport Planning and Management, but sometimes we used to have some lectures together.
How come you don‘t dress like her?
Everybody has his or her own way of dressing. We all have our own style of doing things. That person is She Baby and this is Elizabeth Anjorin. The way she dresses suits her and the way I dress also suits me. I don‘t see anything wrong with that. I don‘t want to criticise her dress sense. She was my school friend then and she is still my friend today. My family knows that I don‘t really have close female friends. All my intimate friends are men. I can mention two people who know that you are with me. In the next two hours, they will tell you where I am. I have about sixteen of them, but I have two male friends who are very close to me. I love staying with men.
Do you love men that much?
I love them. I love mingling with guys, because they are the kind of human beings who never look down on me as a young lady. In fact, some of the guys I keep as friends are older than me. Even they go the extra length to protect me. I don‘t give them anything. They just love me for who I am. Sometimes, they just call me. When they see any bad story about me in the newspaper, they will be the first person to react before I even react. They will react on my behalf. These are the kind of friends I have. But a lady will be the one who picks up the phone and give people the wrong information about you just to tarnish your image. I try to avoid women as much as I can.
Are your friends actors?
They are not actors. Some of them are journalists. People are scared of journalists, but I am not scared of them. For instance, if you have a thief in your house, whenever you want to keep your money, just keep it with him because he cannot steal it. If some people write anything bad about me, even if they are not the ones that wrote the story, I will hold my journalists friends responsible because they know my secrets and nobody could have leaked the stories except them. That is the way I operate.
Recently you were involved in a hot scandal
Let me say yes, because nobody is perfect. It was that scandal that made me know my true friends. I never knew before that I was mixing with the wrong set of people. I used to have female friends whom I thought were the best. I never knew they were devils. It was during that problem that I got to know my people. That problem made me to rearrange myself. I don‘t want to talk about it anyway.
But you just have to talk about your ex-boyfriend
I don‘t want to talk about that now because the case is still in court right now. I am waiting for the magistrate to decide. Very soon, everybody will know the truth. When God is taking you somewhere, you see obstacles rearing their heads. Can you see some obstacles? Sometimes we blame God for certain things that happened to us. But God knows where He is taking us to. If not for the scandal, I won‘t be where I am today. I am just giving thanks to God.
Is it true that you stole his car?
You really want us to talk about this. This was a guy that has not even bought a car and has never registered one in his life. How come I am now the person stealing his car? This is laughable. He stole my car and wanted to play smart on me. I don‘t want to say much about it because it is still in court. When it is time, you will definitely write something. You know you have to write something. All the crimes will soon be exposed. I know this incident got to this level because I am a celebrity. If not for my celebrity status, this thing would not have been like this. Just hold on. You would still write a lot about it. If you want to know much about it, you have to watch my latest film, Gold.
The film is based on a true life experience?
Yes, it is my true life experience with that guy. So I don‘t want to start saying anything about that issue. The film will soon be released. When you see it, then you will know what I went through.
Were you in love with him?
Of course, yes. He was my fiance. We weren‘t just in an ordinary boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. He was my soulmate and somebody I planned to spend the rest of my life with. He was somebody I relied on and believed in. How couldn‘t I have been in love with him when we were planning to get maried?
So you didn‘t mind dating him, in spite of the fact that your social status was different?
You see, all that glitters is not gold. That was an adage that I heard from my mother. You are a celebrity. You have been working right from your childhood and thank God, He has uplifted you. You don‘t wait for a man that has the same status with you. It is a challenge that you have to take. Build a man to your taste, even beyond your taste; but be under him, love, respect and care for him, so that you can have fruitful children. Those were the words of my mother. It was a challenge I just had to take. Actually, may be something was behind it as some people are saying it. I don‘t want to say much about it. Well, I see it as my own destiny. What happened was destined to happen.
Were you hurt?
I was hurt. I was asking, Father Lord, why me? I started searching through my mind if I ever did something wrong to this man. I asked myself if I had ever maltreated any man before or betrayed anybody. But at the end of the day, I knew I was innocent and so I said my God‘s will should be done.
Do you regret the relationship?
I don‘t have any regret, but the only regret I have is the scandal that the issue generated. Scandals spread faster than good news. How I wish I could meet those who read the story, one after the other, and tell them that the story was false. But that is not possible.
We learnt you were beaten up
I was beaten and they tore my clothes. They were snapping me and they told me that if I report to the police, they will spread the pictures and blackmail me that I stole the car. Being a celebrity is not easy. You need to see the way this people treated me.
Do you regret being an actress?
I don‘t have to regret. The only regret I have is the fact that there are some evil people out there. They don‘t support the goods things that celebrities do. That is the only regret I have. With this job you can use the opportunity to tell you life stories and tell the whole world what is going on.
Are you very close to your mother?
We are very close. I am the only child, but I was never pampered. Whenever she wanted to pay my school fees, she would first ask me how much I had saved from my business so that she could add to it.
You had your own business back then?
Yes. I have had my own full business since I was 13 and I have been paying my school fees since then.
Are you dating anybody now?
Even if I am dating anybody, nobody will know. Not even if they catch us red handed. If people get to know, they will be supervising it. If they see any little thing, they will try to magnify it so that the relationship can break up.
So you are dating somebody, but you don‘t want to tell us
For now, I have not got any boyfriend. I am not dating anybody.
Is it that you are not ready for any relationship because of your past experience?
For now, I just want to be on my own. I told someone the other day that I want to count my blessings and see what I will be able to achieve. You hardly find the loyal ones among guys of these days. Though there are some that are loyal, but they are hard to find. So someone has to be very careful. Fraudsters are everywhere and around the corner. I just have to be careful and I want to take my time. Now, I don‘t need to worry about anything. As least for now, I have peace of mind. There is nobody to ask ”where have you being?‘ Nobody to open my purse and steal my money. Now anything I do, I do on my own. Nobody will come and write that Liz Anjorin‘s boyfriend is spoiling her silly with gifts. Nobody will say Liz Anjorin‘s boyfriend sent her to South Africa on holidays. If I am dating any guy, all the glory will go to him. All my colleagues were after my ex-boyfriend. They wanted to sleep with him. They thought he was the one that shot one of my movies for me. There was a day he told me one of my colleagues asked him what he was doing with me since I don‘t have a good height. She told him that she learnt he bought a car for me. They never knew I was the one feeding him thrice a day. If I don‘t come home from location he will be hungry. What are we talking about?
But we learnt he owned a car mart
Which car mart? The cars were given to him by some people to help them sell.
Some people said that you went to Seme, but you claimed it was South Africa
I don‘t know what to say to that. But both places are international places. Whether I went to Seme or South Africa, at least I travelled outside the country. But what is the big deal? Is travelling to London or South Africa a big deal? Is going to America a big deal? Please, I went to South Africa. I can show you my international passport if you want. When you are well-to-do, you can stand firm on your feet and you won‘t depend on anybody. Millions of girls are abroad doing nothing, but prostituting. Look at all these pictures, do they look like I took them in Seme? Are people in Seme not living a good life? Some of those people are even living better than some people in Nigeria especially those ones who are spreading this rumour.
Where do you think these scandal are coming from?
It is from the devil and his people. Let them continue.
Lets go back to this issue. How come you were beaten up?
It was a surprise. I knew these people. They came in the morning and I even cooked and gave them food. We were playing and chatting. All of a sudden, they turned around and became violent. I couldn‘t get myself. Even till now, the scenario looked like a movie to me. I thought I was dreaming.
You mean all of a sudden your visitors pounced on you?
Yes. It was his mother that first slapped me. By then she had eaten my food. I had even bought a recharge card for her.
You still have not told us the reason behind the beatings
It was a set up, but I don‘t want to say much about it. It was a set up between mother and son. Did you know my ex-guy had a son and a wife? But I never knew about it for a year? Whenever I went to location, the wife packs in and before I returned home, they would have left the house. Let us leave all this behind now because it is no longer necessary. Let us talk about my success. I have a lot of things I am doing. I just shot a N5 million movie. I intend to shoot another one.
You spent that much on a movie?
Yes. I am not rich. I am just a little girl trying to earn a living. I don‘t have anything. I just depend on God. When you are focused, you move forward. Thank God I don‘t have a lot of female friends. Then we would have been busy gossiping and talking rubbish. Was it not people that sat down together and started saying that I went to Seme yet I claimed it was South Africa that I went to. Those people are just jobless. Do you think such people will move forward? They will not. They used the time they would have used for something meaningful to talk about me. If I weren‘t doing anything serious with my life, I would join such people to be saying nonsense. But I am busy and I am struggling real hard to make a life.
Was the N5 million movie shot in Nigeria?
Yes. I shot it in the Ogba area of Lagos. It was a nice movie. I paid my cast very well. Nobody complained.
You love tattoos?
Not really. I only have this one on my arm.
Where do you see yourself in the nearest future?
I want to be great and break records. I did something like that when I was in the university. I was the first female in my department to emerge as a parliamentarian in school. It never happened before. If you ask anybody, they will tell you I left my footprints at Olabisi Onabanjo University. I want to be great again. I want to break a record in my industry. I know scandalous things have been written about me. There are some people you write some scandalous things about and when you check it, you might see an atom of truth in the story. But in my own case, nothing, absolutely nothing, was true. They were all a pack of lies. I have not called anybody to fight for me. God will fight for me. He is my pillar. Even when things went bad, a lot of people were telling me to call the president of our association and tell him. But I couldn‘t do that. Was the president there when we were telling each other that we love ourselves? It has happened and it has happened. I gave it to God as a challenge and He never failed me. He took me to a higher place. If that incident with my ex didn‘t happen, I might not have been alive today.
Now, people know that all I have is mine. If we were still dating, everybody would have thought he shot my movie for me. People would have been shouting his name all over. But when I was dating him, nobody knew his name. I was proud of him, but I never took him out to public functions. We were still trying to settle some domestic issues and I wanted him to have a business. I wanted him to be responsible. I told him I had some money and he should just bring a little and add so that we can set up a business for him. I wanted people to get to know him after our introduction and by then, he would have been doing something reasonable. But this guy decided to deal with me. He collected the former car I was using and sold it. I never knew. Each time I asked him about the car, he would tell me that I should drive the one I am driving and I should stop asking about the car. It was later he confessed that he had sold the car. What didn‘t this guy do to me?
How come you didn‘t walk out of the relationship?
I didn‘t know! I was in love. In fact, do you know I can‘t say the genesis of our problem. I don‘t know how all this things started. It was hard to get out of it. But I want to see everything as the will of God. It has come and gone.
Do you think some actresses are envious of you?
I don‘t know. I don‘t think about such. I am not looking at anybody. God has blessed me.
Are you envious of some of them?
I don‘t think evil toward them. I envy some of them and I wish them well and pray that God will bless me as He has blessed those people. I am not jealous of them. Jealousy and envy are two different things.
Do you intend to become a singer?
God‘s will be done. If God has written it, it will happen. I am a goal getter. If I think it is something I can do, I will get into it. I told you I want to make a difference in this industry.