Villains are mostly viewed as vile and wicked and no one wants to look up to them as a role model but some are just so exceptional and captivating in playing their vile role that people get to love them or should I say love to hate since they are hated on set but adored in normal life.
The actor I adored so much even when he plays the role of a villain, as he often does is the Nigerian nollywood actor Pete Edochie who is popularly called the Lion of Africa by his numerous admirers, including me.
Pete Edochie is a household name in the Nigerian movie industry and has starred in many prominent movies and was the main character in them especially the movie that talks about the 1958 great novel written my the late Professor Chinua Acheme, 'Things fall apart' in which Pete Edochie played the role of the main character, 'Okonkwo'.
He is known to have a very deep voice and rarely raises his voice when speaking. He talks in a slow deliberate way that make it seems he do picks his words carefully before shooting them out. In all his movie in which he acts in, either as a protagonist or antagonists, he commands respect and is the human symbol of authority. He has made wave in the movie industry as a strong villain that mere seeing him on the flyers or cover of a movie, one can accurately guess the role he will play in that movie.
His major roles in movies are classified into three;
He either acts as a King, in most cases as a hard hearted one, a tyrant or,
He acts as a member of an occultic group that indulges in money rituals or,
As a very strict father who is often against the choices his children make.
Pete Edochie is from the Igbo speaking tribe of Nigeria and like most Igbo men and Africans in general, he usually makes an extensive use of proverbs to buttress his points when speaking. So of the most popular ones are:
No matter how old a woman is, she can never get use to labour pains.
A cow in a hurry to go abroad will return as corned beef.
Lots of this proverbs used by him in movies have become almost like a slang among the Nigerian youths.
His deep voice goes in line with his huge body size and when angry he is known to make a low growling sound like a lion and this is sometimes accompanied with a flash of the eyes. When Pete Edochie makes such a show, know that something terrible is set to happen.
After many years of watching him act the villain in movies, I shockingly came across a movie in which he acted as a pastor. In this movie titled CROSS FIRE, his house got attacked by robbers led by the notorious Segun Arinze popularly known as Black Arrow. His wife and daughter got shot but he himself was spared. It was a shock to me and I believe to every Nigerian who watched that movie and also it was the last I have seen where he acted as a clergy and considering he has almost left acting, I doubt if there will be another of such a movie.
In general, Pete Edochie is considered the best male actor in nollywood and no matter the part he acts, a peaceful man or a villain which is often acts, he commands respect and always wielded the utmost authority.
When taking decisions, he does not do it with a double mind, he goes straight to the point not minding the results, either beneficial or detrimental and in all his movies, he has never been known to show fear or faintheartedness. In cases where he acts as a blood ritualist, he is never scared of the magnitude of sacrifice he is made to give and when threatened, he never cowers.
He has two favourite sitting positions that he often shows in his movies;
One, he sits bending forward a little with one hand, mostly the left placed in front of him holding his walking stick mostly in the middle and the other placed in an akimbo fashion on his hip.
Two, he sits and bends forward with one hand stretched forward on his lap and he will place the other one on his walking stick with the fit closed but he will extend the thumb upward so as the tip brushed his lips.
In general, Pete Edochie is a living symbol of manliness and courage. Surprisingly even in real life, he has been known to take stiff decisions that baffles the public and even his own household.
He will forever remain my best male nollywood actor for such an exceptional character.
