I always tell up-and-coming artistes that if they want to make it in Nollywood, respect is a key component to overall success. You must be passionate about the job and not just be interested in acting just for the money-it will come at its own time. I believe that a successful person shouldn’t be over-ambitious. Fame will come easily once you work hard and learn the ropes as you grow.

I have always had principles even before joining Nollywood. And this is a place I have come to stay and I will be here for a very long time. I don’t think it is necessary for me to mess myself up. Even if I am a wayward person, I don’t think I should do it around Nollywood. As for the younger actresses who are desperate and all that, my advice is that it doesn’t pay; I don’t think having sex-for-role or paying for someone to give you a role is the ultimate way to the top; it doesn’t just make sense.

Nollywood is improving and evolving. The story lines and technical quality are getting better daily with more attention to details and strategic collaborations. There’s a bit more funding now. It’s definitely looking better as a business. However, there are many challenges in Nollywood, and a peculiar one is distribution. It’s a Herculean task to distribute movies the way it should be done and we need to create more structure and channels of distribution so as to maximise profit and create more visibility for our stories and experiences

I think it’s a real danger, as an actor, when you try to make some statement through your career about what the business should be doing or ultimately what your image should be or how you want to be perceived. I look at every project that comes along and say, “Is this something I can sink my teeth into and can do a good job on?” That’s really how I choose roles.

I sincerely don’t think there is any industry in the world where sex for a job doesn’t come up. So, Nollywood isn’t an exception

I want to do roles that are fun and challenging and I want to try different things. I don't want to keep doing Monster's Ball over and over and over again. I want to keep doing my career the way that I was doing it before I won the Oscar.

The mainstream Nollywood world is the one that caters for the populace, not necessarily the cinema movies. And with the new distribution channel that is coming, the important thing is for the professionals to come into it and not say we can’t relate with this people. In order to make things right, you have to go back in there with a determination to make things right.

I've featured in a lot of other people's films aside from mine but over a decade ago, I started being choosy of the kind of movies I feature in. I wanted to go for more challenging roles. I want to play more of an outside the box role that stretches my character.

I have an inner gage when I feel it’s too much, then I just don’t do a particular film. I’m lucky that I get more offers than I can possibly take. But I always want the phone to be ringing, because I want to do this for the rest of my life. I don’t plan on slowing down, but I certainly have to say “no” more and more. I consider myself very lucky to make a living at this. It’s almost bizarre for any musician to turn down work as much as they to have to keep themselves sane. I know what my limit is. And I keep myself at that limit.