Nigerian seasoned actor Chidi Mokeme, who after battling with Bell’s palsy, a condition that paralysed half of his face; bounced back to limelight with his grand role in Shanty Town where be played Scar, has revealed why he likes playing the bad guy character.
In a recent interview, he said: “Everybody knows that I love to play the villain. I am comfortable being an antagonist. The bad guy has a kind of swag and personality; we have different shades of the bad guy across both sides. Scar was just one. There would be a lot of bad guys, each of them coming with their own personality. I love the bad guy roles, you just need good morals to be a good guy, but I always liked a dirty, bad guy because it takes a lot more from you.”
As a multilinguist, Chidi Mokeme also opened up on how it has influenced his career.
The bad guy actor said: “It is an added advantage; it is something every Nigerian aspires to do. That’s the spirit of one Nigeria. I was fortunate to have been able to live in different parts of the country by design; I had my primary school in Lagos State, secondary school in Niger State and then went on to the east to continue my higher education. It’s an advantage because movies are ‘boundary-less.’ Ability to tell stories in whatever type of language as we already see in a multicultural society like Nigeria with different ethnic groups is a gift.”
On battling with Bell’s palsy, the veteran actor Chidi Mokeme who’s bad guy roles have earned him several awards said, “It happened in 2016. I woke up and felt that one part of my body and my face wasn’t feeling alright. By the time I managed to get up, conversations became difficult because I was no longer in control of half of my face. So, the first impression was that it was a stroke because it had the same symptoms as a stroke. But at the hospital, they said it was Bell’s palsy. It was quite challenging. This happened while we were in the middle of promotional tours for the movie, 76. I couldn’t be part of the tours; you know how it is when you have done the work or be part of a job that is as beautiful as 76, part of the joy of it is to join to show it around to people, be there, live and see their reactions and receive criticisms, good or bad. And to go from there and know that I won’t be able to work for some time until my face is sorted out, was a challenging time.”
