Sylvya Oluchy is a beautiful, classy and highly
intelligent lady. After graduating from Nnamdi
Azikiwe University with a degree in Theatre Arts,
she went on to Nollywood and has starred in a
couple of TV series and movies.
She won the Most Promising Actress at the Best
of Nollywood (BON) awards in 2013 and has
also won other awards including Best New
Actress at City People awards in 2011 and Best
Rising Star at Nollywood Movie Awards 2012.
She recently turned a lot of heads when she
released semi nude photos of herself on the
beach. In this exclusive interview with Showtime
Celebrity, She tells us what she’s been up to
and more:
How has your career been so far?
So far so good, we thank God. I’ve been in
Lagos now for about almost 3 years. The period
I’ve been here, I’ve won 3 Awards and I’ve
been on a couple of movie sets, done some
series of which the popular one is Lekki Wives.
I’m in Lekki Wives Season 2, so it’s okay,
things are getting better and there’s a serious
growth going on in Nollywood with the kind of
movies we’re doing now and the kind of
attention to detail. It wasn’t there before, so I’m
just really happy to see that growth.
Which is your most successful movie so far?
Alan Poza did very well during its run. Another
one that was really successful was On Bended
Knees. That had Chioma Chukwuka, myself and
Seun Akindele, but I’m really looking forward to
Being Mrs Elliot which will hit the cinemas in a
couple of weeks, because it’s packed with stars
and the storyline is so awesome so look out for
that one. Then also, Lekki Wives season 3 will
soon be in the works so I’m also looking
forward to that.
Sylvya Oluchy
Sylvya Oluchy
How did it feel winning the Most Promising
Actress at the Best of Nollywood awards?
It was really fun. Before that, I had won Best
New Actress at Citypeople 2011 and I had won
Best Rising Star at Nollywood Movie Awards
2012. You know most of all these things, when
you hear you’re nominated sometimes they put
some really big names up against you so you
go with a lot of anxiety. For me, there are two
big rewards in doing this job.
One is when people see you on the street and
tell you they enjoy your movie. The second is
when you get an award because an award
means that even among your peers, you are
been recognised, so it kind of makes you want
to work harder. It keeps you willing to grow, so
you don’t just sit back and feel like I’m the star,
I’m the bomb. It keeps you learning because
the kind of job we do is a job where you need
to know something about everything because
you don’t know what character you’re going to
play.
Who inspired you into acting?
My Mother. When I was much younger, in the
broad classification, I would say I was a nerd
because I had glasses growing up as a child, I
was very quiet, I was shy, I was always with my
books. I used to be those kinds of kids that
were at the bottom of the social ladder so I
used to always get bullied by even my mates,
not just my seniors, my mates used to always
bully me.
So once I got home, I didn’t have many friends
but I had lots of toys. So I’d just pick my toys
and I’d start to change my voice with each
character. Sometimes I’d make my voice deep
for the guys or, made it thin for the girls, and
my mother would just be watching me.
So, she kept telling me I would be good as an
actress. I can say I grew up everyday hearing
‘acting will fit you,’ so, it kind of sticks in my
subconscious. When it was time for JAMB, I
just tried out this Theatre Arts thing I’ve been
hearing all my life and I went in for it and the
rest is history.
How did you come out of your shell?
Many people don’t know this but shy people
actually make some of the best Actors because
shy people have so much in play in their
minds. Many times they have played out
different characters in their little, quiet worlds
and when the opportunity presents itself they
sort of explode. That’s how it is for me too,
although these days, I’ve overcome my
shyness, I can talk to anybody anywhere in fact,
I think I’m now on the talkative side of things
because now people tell me “You talk too
much, keep quiet”.
My childhood really prepared me for what I was
doing because right from when I was a little
girl, I used to always make up characters in my
head, make up voices and emulate different
accents. That childhood obsession of going into
myself and dragging up different personalities is
now paying off because I feel like I have
multiple personality syndrome, not multiple
personality disorder because I know how to
control mine.
Have you had any setbacks in your career so
far?
Sylvya Oluchy
Sylvya Oluchy
Yeah. There’s this movie I did and I was the
lead character but the movie never came out. I
felt really saddened that after all the hardwork
and everything I put into it, the movie never
came out because the producer had so many
ups and downs and he lost some money and
everything. And there was one movie I was
doing and I was removed from the run-in
because I couldn’t speak Yoruba.
What has been the high-point of your career?
I guess the highest point so far will be
whenever I win an award. I told you I’ve won 3
now so just going on that stage and having
everybody finally seeing you that this is the
Sylvya Oluchy, it’s cool.
You recently said you could act nude in a
movie?
There was a bit of mix-up in that story. They
only asked me what I think of nudity in movies
and I said it depends on the movie. If you’ve
watched The Gods Must Be Crazy, the nudity in
that movie was done for accuracy because
people then went about nude.
So, when they asked me I said it depends on
the script. It depends on the director I’ll be
working with because it’s all about the
director’s picture, it’s the director’s story. If I
know I’m working with a director who I trust,
who I know will make everything tastefully
done, where it won’t end up looking like some
badly made pornography and it’s a good script,
I’ll make my decision.
Can you do a sex scene in a movie?
Yeah. I mean in Lekki Wives I have a couple of
kissing and romantic scenes, no nudity but
there was a lot of kissing and lots of making out
so it comes with the job.
What’s the craziest thing you can do in a
movie?
It depends on the script, the director and the
circumstance. I never say never because you
don’t know tomorrow. You might just run into
some script that blows your mind and you don’t
know who the director behind it will be and you
might just decide to say for this director and for
this script, I’ll put in a little bit more. So you
never know what’s going to come your way or
you never know I might just see myself in
Hollywood one day, you never know so I never
say never. Nudity is not a big deal.
You released some semi nude pictures on the
beach. Can you go Private?
It depends. There’s a level you’ll get to in your
modeling career that you just have to do things
like that. The highest paid models, the ones you
see on Victoria’s Secret runways, I’m sure they
do stuff like that. It comes with the territory so
before you go into a career like that, you have
to prepare yourself.
Even though that’s not really where I’m
channeling myself to, it depends on why you’re
doing it and the outlet. Gisele Bundchen is like
the highest paid model in the world today and
I’ve seen a lot of Private photos for Vogue and
other things, she’s just doing her job.
You always look ravishing on red carpets. Do
you have a particular designer?
I’m self styled. Whenever you see me, I style
myself because I’m good at designing clothes.
In fact, I’m working on launching my own label,
it’s called Vyachi.
How would you describe yourself?
I’m a happy-go-lucky kind of person. I take life
as it comes. I’m very adventurous, anybody
who knows me, knows that much about me. If I
go somewhere and there are like five things to
eat on a table and I’ve eaten four, it’s that one
I’ve not eaten that I’ll want to eat that day and
then besides that, I’m into doing things like
Hiking, I like to go out on the water, on a boat,
when I was in the North then, we used to
always go for mountain climbing because there
are a lot of mountains in the North. I’m an
outdoor kind of person. I like to be around
nature, water, mountains, trees and animals.
Do you travel a lot?
I travel every once and again, maybe not as
much as I’ll like to but you know this our
career, the busier you get, the more you tend to
travel. On my own now, maybe sometimes
family vacations, I do go every once in a while.
I’ve been to the States and when I was much
younger, I schooled in London, did my primary
school in St Theresa Finchley and I’ve been to
most countries in East Africa; Kenya, Uganda
and Ethiopia.
What turns you on in a man?
Nothing out of the ordinary but there are some
things that I appreciate. I appreciate a man who
works out, who has a fit, toned body because I
work out a lot too. But most of all I’m more
interested overall in a man’s brains than
anything else because I like to talk, I like to
have intellectual conversations so I like a man
who has a high IQ.
Sylvya Oluchy
Sylvya Oluchy
Which Nigerian musician do you like?
2 Face. 2 Baba is the best. I love 2 Face. His
music makes sense and it is enjoyable at the
same time. 2 Face is deep and I like him for
that
What’s your main philosophy of life?
My philosophy of life is simply to be optimistic
in any circumstance. You cannot kill yourself
so whatever life gives you, smile, take it like
that and dream, hope and pray for a better
tomorrow. You only Live once, you’re never
going to come back again so live out loud, live
as much as you can, do everything you’ve
always wanted to do, don’t keep on
procrastinating, a lot of people procrastinate
and say tomorrow, tomorrow.
What more should people expect from you?
Finding Love is already in cinemas, Being Mrs
Elliot is coming out very soon. The rest, I don’t
think I’m at liberty to really mention now
because I’m still shooting. I always wait for my
producers to give me the go-ahead before I
start talking about the job
Is there anything else you want to say?
Vanguard is a very big newspaper so I want to
use your platform to beg those holding the
Chibok girls to quickly release them. What has
happened has happened and I really believe
that the Government will work harder to bring
those girls back.
Moving forward for the future, I’d like to
suggest that if it’s possible for them to maybe
inculcate some kind of mandatory self defense
classes in schools for girls especially for girls in
the North because there’s nothing as good as a
woman that can defend herself. I know that if
someone has a gun on your head, you can’t
really do much but at least, just know those
basic skills of how to defend and disarm
somebody.
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