I Was Acting Before Nollywood Came Into Existence – Pete Edochie

Veteran Nigerian actor, Pete Edochie, has stated that he started acting before the Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood, was introduced.

The legendary movie maker said when he took up his first movie role in the 1985 adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s novel, ‘Things Fall Apart,’ there was nothing like Nollywood in the Nigerian movie scene.

Edochie made this astonishing disclosure in a recent interview with Afia TV.

H“I’m senior in the movie industry. I mean, when I did ‘Things Fall Apart’ in 1985, there was nothing like Nollywood. By then, Nollywood was slumbering sonorously in the womb of time” he disclosed.

“It was seven years after that Nollywood came on board with ‘Living In Bondage.’ I went round the world before Nollywood came. By the special grace of God, after I did ‘Things Fall Apart,’ I was celebrated internationally” he added.

“The BCC flew in here [Nigeria] to interview me and tell flew into America to interview Chinua Achebe. And Achebe said, ‘Pete Edochie gave that role an interpretation after my heart.’ Before he died, he was calling me Okonkwo” he reiterated.

According to Pete Edochie, seven years after Nollywood came into existence, he retired from broadcasting, and then decided to join Nollywood.