LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)-In a startling revelation, veteran Yoruba comic actor Yomi King, widely known as Opebe, has disclosed that many of the beatings he endured early in his career were far from fiction.
According to the actor, some of the on-set violence he experienced was shockingly real and not part of any movie script.
Speaking on the Behind the Fame podcast, Opebe recounted painful memories from his early days in Nollywood, where physical abuse was sometimes passed off as “realistic acting.”
He revealed that actors like the late Baba Suwe often crossed the line between performance and personal retaliation.
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“Those sufferings were beyond acting; they were real beatings. That’s what they call acting, you have to make it look real. Baba Suwe doesn’t hold back. Anyone who knows him knows he’ll hit you for real. Ask the director,” Opebe said in Yoruba, translated to English.
Opebe detailed a particularly intense moment on the set of the Yoruba film ‘Eku Meji’, where tensions between him and actor Yinka Quadri escalated during a fight scene.
“There was a misunderstanding between Baba Suwe and Yinka Quadri. I sided with Baba Suwe because he was like a big brother to me in Lagos. Later, on the set of Eku Meji in Meiran, Yinka had a scene where he was supposed to beat me. But it turned into a real beating,” he explained.
According to Opebe, the blows weren’t just part of the script. He had previously exchanged heated words with Yinka, which added fuel to the fire.
“When he slapped me, it wasn’t acting anymore. I shouted, ‘Cut! This isn’t a movie!’ but no one stopped him. I was angry. It was personal,” he recalled.
The actor later learned the harsh lesson behind the beating, saying, “He laughed and said, ‘In your life, don’t interfere in people’s fights again.’ And the person I defended, Baba Suwe, just laughed. That day, I told myself, I’ll never get involved in someone else’s fight again.”
Opebe’s candid account sheds light on the unspoken struggles actors face behind the scenes in Nollywood’s earlier days, where his loyalty landed him in real pain.
