Ramsey Nouah: Day I slept under Lagos bridge

He is handsome and cute. He is the kind of guy every woman would love to have. For his numerous roles in romantic films, his fans call him ‘lover-boy’. But most of them may never know that behind his handsome face lies ‘the bad and the ugly’.
In this exclusive chat with The Entertainer, Ramsey Tokunbo Nouah recalls the unforgettable, tormenting experiences of his life when he was humbled by poverty. Here, he remembers the dark days when he slept under the bridge in Lagos without food. His story is quite touching. Excerpts:
You are no longer constant in movies. What is happening to you?
I am still on the screen; I pray for better industry than what we have. We don’t have a proper structure and it is affecting us. It is affecting so many of us because we don’t have a secured future. For instance, some veteran actors passed on and people had to gather just to try and give them a befitting burial. That shouldn’t be the case. We have an industry that just paid you one off. It is not in any way protective of the interest of the practitioners, it is not really helping us. I believe strongly that we need to do a more integrated production, quality production that will last, like when we started at the beginning. All the stories are not encouraging and technicality we are not growing, all these help to slow down the growth of the industry. And without growth there are can never be a future, without dynamics you can’t see the frontier. Basically, that’s what we are suffering right now and there must be changes. The concern of most people shooting now is about making their money back. They don’t have passion or love for the industry like we do. So, that’s the reason why I am not acting. I love doing a good job, something that will benefit the industry, a movie that whenever you pick it up, if it is five or 20 years you can still watch and be happy. I want a situation whereby I will do a job and my great grandchildren will know me by my work. ‘Oh my great grandfather did this, yes he is the one’. That is what I want to do to leave a mark, a legacy, no just a passing face.