My late husband’s friend wanted sex – Iya Rainbow

Mrs. Idowu Phililps, popularly known as Iya Rainbow, was recently honoured with an award by O’jez Entertainment in recognition of her contributions to the growth of the Yoruba sector of Nollywood. In this chat after the event, she speaks on her regrets, challenges among other issues in the industry. Excerpts:
My life.
My father was Prophet Jacob Adebanjo Ifemade. My late mother was also a captain of the Cherubim and Seraphim (C & S) Church. I hail from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State and I have been a member of the C&S since1969.
I attended African Methodist School and Anglican Modern School for my primary and modern schools respectively. Later, I was admitted to a nursing school and upon graduation, I worked for 20 years as a nurse.

How did you start acting?
I started as a stage actress in my late husband’s Osumare Theatre Group. Even while I was working as a nurse, I still found time to go on location to shoot films. At 45 in 1986, I retired from nursing on the advice of the late Chief Hubert Ogunde.
He (Ogunde) reasoned that since my husband died in 1984, there was the need for me to continue with the family legacy.
So, I went into acting full time. It was not easy at first, because I was formerly a salary earner. In fact, the first set of movies I acted in were; Aje ni Iya Mi and Eru.
My late husband’s group was called Osumare Theatre, meaning rainbow. One day, I went to act with some white men and in the course of acting, someone asked for the meaning of Osumare and I replied rainbow.
Then he said I should henceforth be called Iya Rainbow and that was it. I have produced lots of movies like; Alamose Eniyan, Alepo Rebi, Anikolapo, Omodupe Oluwa, Orisa rebi, among others, but I have acted in over 500 movies.

How do you feel on receiving this award?
I am very grateful to God almighty, who made me to witness this day. The reason I am very happy is that it is a thing of joy to be remembered by the Easterners and Southerners that there is someone like me in the industry.
It is not easy. On behalf of my family, I want to thank the management of Ojez restaurant for bestowing on me this award. If I tell you that I’m not happy, then I am only deceiving myself, because they remember someone called Iya Rainbow. I feel highly honoured that my contributions to the entertainment industry are recognised.

 Since your entry into the movie industry, what are the challenges you have had to face?
There were a lot of challenges that I faced that, not only me, other people in the industry also face. Let me tell you some of the challenges. The issue of transportation to location is a difficult one for me. I have had to transport myself going and coming back, at the end of the day, they will give you peanuts as your pay.
Most times, they will tell you they will pay later and I will not get to see the money. For each of the movies, I was paid N25,000. Imagine a widow with five children surviving on such a meager fee? It got to a point that I wanted to go back to nursing. A lot of people advised me against it. They thought my husband would be forgotten, but I must keep on struggling.

What of the challenges you faced in the aspect of life?
When I lost my husband, a long time ago, that was in 1984, I thought the world would come to an end.  It was difficult for me to cope as a woman, especially with the financial aspect.
I had to continue from where my husband stopped and there was no money in theatre then. I had to meet one of my late husband’s friends, who said that I would have to sleep with him before I could get the money.
I was shocked, because this was someone we all called father and a very close ally of my late hubby. Then my marriage was another challenge. I did not enjoy my marriage because my husband died a long time ago and since then, I decided not to re-marry. I have five children and they have all made me proud. God has been my pillar of support.
My late mother was also a great helper; she took care of my children whenever I went on location. But I usually made it a point of duty to go to their schools whenever I was around to supervise their education.
What I missed most about my mother is that I no longer have a bed partner. Ever since the death of my late husband, we had always slept together and now she is gone. Then whenever I went to locations, she was always there for me. Above all, my mother loved me so much, she had six of us and I was her only female child.

Can you describe your happiest moment?
This was when my son graduated from the university and I held his certificate in my hands. I could remember that I wept in the presence of those who were there that day and that was because my husband was not around to witness the day.

What movie brought you to limelight?
It was Asiri Nla by Jide Kosoko, which brought me into limelight. This is an interesting movie that is full of suspense. My sister in that movie was impregnated by my husband and I later found out. Before delivering the baby, my husband died and the family insisted we should resolve the issue peacefully. After the delivery, the child was flown abroad and days after, our family doctor confirmed my own pregnancy.

There is the issue of grammatical and spelling errors in most Yoruba movies’ subtitles, what’s your take on that?
We correct them every time, there is nothing we can do than to correct them.  I didn’t go to school, they went, and at least they should be the one to correct these errors. We are Yorubas, we don’t speak English, and we do that for our fans, because we found out that non-Yorubas watch our movies.

Do you have any regrets?
Of course not, if I say yes, that means I didn’t appreciate my God for all He has done for me. I’m still strong at 70. I don’t want to be referred to as an old and weak actress because I will act until I die. But I do wish my husband was alive to see my achievements and where his children are today.

The issue of piracy, what are the practitioners doing about it?
What else do you want us to do? We keep telling the authorities about pirates, they claim they are tackling the issue but we don’t see any result. May God help us my sister.

Can you tell us about your achievements?
I must confess that theatre has paid off for me because I have now built a house of my own, bought a car, and three out of my five children are graduates. One of my sons is a very popular writer.

On a lighter note, what do you eat in a day?
I take light foods, mostly fruits. I can take pap in the morning and night. I don’t take heavy food too much.

Is that why you are looking young?
Well, it’s God.

What is the secret behind your youthful look?
Well, I don’t eat much of heavy food, I exercise once in a while, I take lots of fruits and vegetables and I rest well.

Who is your role model?
I see no one as my role model in the acting profession but in terms of age and Christian services, I have people who I admire a lot.

What turns you on and off?
I hate liars. I respect discipline and punctuality in human beings.

Do you have any advice for upcoming acts in the industry?
They should be focused; they should be able to follow in our footsteps and determine not to lose focus in achieving their aims.