Sexual harassment made me abandon acting for a while — Sotayo Sobola

At first glance, Sotayo Sobola looks like one of those girls who have eight packs of cigarettes in their purse, ready to smoke and party from dusk till dawn, getting into all sorts of trouble. On getting closer to her, you realise that she’s just the regular girl next door. Sotayo is beautiful, eloquent and ready to take Nollywood by storm, starring in both Yoruba and English movies. Her movie Corper Jide is getting a lot of positive response and she is set to release her latest movie titled Bella very soon. In this exclusive interview with Potpourri she talks about her life, career and more. How many movies have you done so far? I can’t trace them because when I started initially, it was just minor roles I was doing. If you’re talking about self produced movies, I would say, three. My first movie production wasArewa Onijogbon, produced in 2010 or thereabout, then I didCorper Jideand now I haveBellathat is yet to be released How was growing up like for you? I grew up in a polygamous family. I stayed with my mom all through and it wasn’t easy because I was never allowed to mingle and go out. I don’t know how I’ll put it but it was just challenging Were your parents strict when you were growing up? Yeah, my mom was extremely strict; they call her ‘Thatcher’. She is a kind of mom who wouldn’t allow you to mix with others. After school, she would tell you to stay put in your room and even restrict you from visiting family members. Back then I saw her as just being wicked but honestly now, I think I really appreciate the fact that she did all those things. Now I’m beginning to see the good part and the result so far and I thank God my mom was like that. Maybe if she hadn’t been strict with me I wouldn’t have turned out as good as this today. Did you ever protest or fight with her? I didn’t do any kind of fighting with her but at one point I started sneaking out of the house to go for shows and all that. Then one day somebody brought pictures I took at an event to my house and gave them to me in my mom’s presence. The pictures had dates on them and when my mom saw them she was surprised and asked how I was able to be at the events on such days. Even when she started seeing me on TV she wasn’t impressed, to her, she thought I was just going wild. But in my mind I knew what I wanted to do. She would abuse me, fight me, talk and talk, but I kept on with what I was doing. Thank God all is history now. She now supports me. Have you worked with any big actors? I’ve done movies with so many people. In the movieMolewa,I acted alongside Odunlade Adekola, we both played the lead. I’ve also acted with Femi Adebayo, Yemi Blaq, he was a star actor in my movie, the yet to be releasedBella. We both also played the lead inEwu Loko Longe. I’ve acted with loads of them Between English and Yoruba movies, which one do you enjoy more? The English movie, that’s where I started from, I got so good I’ve started doing the both of them all over again. I like the English movie because that’s just me; I get to speak the normal way I know how to speak. I’m very comfortable and I’m myself but when it comes to Yoruba movie, I have to try to blend into it, though I’m Yoruba but there are some things I can’t bring out well in Yoruba. I feel more comfortable speaking in English than in Yoruba. Hey, I speak Yoruba very well, for crying out loud I am Yoruba. But when it comes to the dialectical part of it then it becomes an effort to speak the language.