Acting Paying My Bills, But My First Love Remains Music
Blue-bloodedChristopherOfalaOkagbue (Chris) in a way is an embodiment of talent and skills in modelling, acting, singing and whole other lots of art. Having ventured into his ‘bill paying’ craft by chance in 2007, the young man has remained steadfast in h
IImagine chatting up a young promising actor with a blossoming career in entertainment and asking him what responsibility his blue- blood background places on him while in showbiz… “Well, my dad is late. Rest his soul,” Christopher Ofala Okagbue ( Chris) says to you. “So to a large extent, being royalty hasn’t deterred me from doing showbiz. If he was still alive, I strongly doubt if I would be in this industry because he was the Obi of Onitsha. I’m sure he would rather I had a more private life.”
Chris is an actor and model from the Okagbue royal family in Onitsha. His late father, HRH Obi Ofala Okechukwu Okagbue, was the longest ruling king ( 31 years) of Onitsha Kingdom, Anambra State.
He is packed in the arts. Other than acting and modelling, Chris possessed some other talents to include singing, dancing, sketching, writing, playing the guitar and piano. Add to that is acrobatics and gymnastics. An embodiment of talents and skills, from these lots, which does he think he has explored the most? “It would be my acting. At least, that’s what pays the bills now.” But his first love in the arts has always been music.
That’s the part he hasn’t really explored. He has done a few covers of popular songs. He also did a bit of singing in the movie ‘ Lotanna’ where he played the character Lotanna; a young man who discovers at an early stage that he had to offset a debt owed to a mysterious stranger called Don Creflo by his late father. “Who knows, I might still explore music in the future. I haven’t shot that door completely.” Shooting ‘ Lotanna’ was one of his best experiences as an actor and associate producer and it appears the most anticipated movie of 2017.
Chris proved his mettle as a highly talented actor with his stellar performance as a leading man alongside Ghanaian star actress Ama K. Abebrese from the award- winning Hollywood film, ‘ Beast of No Nation’. “Lotanna character is a deep one. He hardly ever laughed or smiled. He had very moments of genuine happiness. More than half the time he looked like he had the weight of the whole world on the shoulder.”
The true Chris persona is the opposite of the character in real life. “I am a happy go lucky person. With me, there’s always something to be happy about. I laugh and smile a lot. So it took a lot for me to stay in that headspace of continuous sorrow and sadness.”
Acting for Chris was by pure chance in 2007. For the Sociology graduate, his first encounter with acting came in 2007, just three years after he started modelling. He accompanied a friend to an audition for a soap opera.
Out of curiosity as to what