Nollywood actor Abayomi Alvin, who rose to fame after landing the role of Austin in the popular Funke Akindele-produced series Jenifa’s Diary, recently opened up during an interview with Tega Salubi. He shared a piece of advice Funke Akindele gave him about being a “fine boy” in Nollywood—advice he continues to cherish to this day. Here’s what Abayomi Alvin had to say.
During his interview, when Abayomi Alvin was asked “Would you say that your looks helped you? You were and you’re still a fine boy now, so would you say your looks contributed to your success in your career?” He responded saying:
ABAYOMI ALVIN: Yeah, I mean definitely it did. But not the only thing.
I mean, if it was about being fine, there’s a lot of finer people. It’s a lot of good looking people in the industry and some even still trying to get into the industry. But at some point your talent just needs to speak out and it’s one thing.
It’s one very serious advice I’m pretty sure she must have even forgotten by now, that’s Funke Akindele, Aunty Funke like I call her. One very serious advice she gave me then cuz as at when I got on Jenifa’s Diary, my character went away, then I think about a year or two years later, one of my very good friends Charles Granville, God bless his soul, he’s dead now, he was shooting in Amen Estate, that’s where Aunty Funke stays.
So that’s how he now introduced me to her as a screenwriter and she was like you write? I’m like yeah, I write. She said oh we’re looking for new writers on Jenifa’s Diary, come on board. That’s how I came on board again on Jenifa’s Diary but now as a writer. And while I was writing for them, of course they brought back my character as well.
And one of the very good advice I got from her then which I still hold on to now, she must have forgotten is: she was like dude, you need to up your game. If it’s about being fine, if you think you’re the finest right now, trust me, there are way much more finer people. But what will stand you out out of this crowd is your talent. What will make them want to give you this role over this other fine person is your talent. So if you really want to be that A-list actor, if you want to be that actor that everybody’s talking about and not just some random fine boy that’s just getting roles, you need to up your game.
And since then, I held on to that.