Ace actor, Bimbo Manuel, has been in the Nigerian Entertainment industry long before the berth of Nollywood.
The veteran has paid his dues and mastered his crafts, but unlike other celebrities who are often flocked by different kind of women and fans, Bimbo is an exception.
He tells Punch, why he chose to remain a ‘loner’ and the real reasons he married late.
“I have never been a ladies’ man even with stardom. I have always been a quiet person and a loner. I am not someone who goes to night clubs and places like that. I had my share of fun but I never really socialised. Coping with ladies was not a major challenge for me. During our time, we did not have the kind of fan reaction that exists now. People were more respectful of your privacy. They acknowledged you but it would be with respect but it is not as overt as it is now. I married late because it was not very high on my priority list. If I wanted to get married before then, I could have but it just was not very high on my to-do list. I think I was also fortunate that I did not get pressure from my family to get married.”
On how he was able to raise a family with a career as demanding as his, the talented ex-Tinsel actor said;
“I did not meet my wife until I was close to 40 years old. I cannot quantify what she brought into my life. She helped to give purpose to my life. Before she came into my life, I was going around without any sense of purpose. I just wanted to be able to live comfortably and afford anything I wanted but there was a purpose to life as she came on board. Then we began to have kids and it has been wonderful ever since we met. They helped to stabilise the kind of jobs I did. Their arrival helped to strengthen my convictions and the principles that I always act on professionally and it remains that I do not have to take every job that comes.”
He also debunked the rumours that he left Tinsel because you had issues with the management.
“I did not have issues with Tinsel or the producers. I never did. There are different ways that situations and actions present themselves to different people for perceptions. I felt that I had been on Tinsel for about six and a half years and it was time for me to move on. You could easily get comfortable and complacent with just reporting for work every morning and doing the same thing over and over again. It was not the reason I decided to be an actor; I decided to choose this career because of the challenges it offers. I saw that Tinsel was beginning to take all of that from me, so I decided to leave.
“I have a lot of things I am working on. I am on the set of a series called Newman’s Street. It is based on an assessment of impact of politics and governance on different areas of the lives of people. I also just finished shooting After Dark, which is a detective series,” he noted.
