Veteran Nollywood actress cum filmmaker, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde<\/strong>, popularly known as Omo Sexy, has opened up about how living abroad has humbled her.<\/p>\n Abia Radio News<\/strong> reports that Omotola, in an interview with Punch, said COVID-19 changed her perspective about life, noting that visiting the United States was not the same as living there.<\/p>\n According to the movie star, fame came early in Nigeria and relocating to the United States taught her discipline, organisation, and presence.<\/p>\n She said, \u201cThe country\u2019s situation wasn\u2019t the main reason. I had opportunities before, but waited for the right timing. COVID-19 changed my perspective; I realised life is short. Visiting the U.S. often wasn\u2019t the same as living there. Moving was scary, but it was a necessary leap.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cLiving abroad humbled me. Fame came early in Nigeria, and moving taught me discipline, organisation, and presence. Even small things, like driving or auditioning, reminded me that nothing is guaranteed.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Omotola also addressed the purported ban in the Nollywood industry for demanding too much pay.<\/p>\n She said, \u201cThat\u2019s false. Who bans someone for asking for fair pay? The issue wasn\u2019t greed; it was about professionalism. I was one of the highest-paid actors at the time, but a few of us were seen as \u201ctoo powerful\u201d and outspoken. I insisted on fair treatment for crew members and wouldn\u2019t work until they were properly fed. That made me a target, but I have no regrets.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Speaking on the challenges of Nollywood, having worked both abroad and in Nigeria, the movie star said, \u201cThe biggest challenge in Nollywood is the lack of structure. I\u2019ve fought for standards since the beginning of my career, even being blacklisted at times for insisting on professionalism and proper documentation. That\u2019s why I started Tefes, a platform focused on formalising the entertainment business and raising standards.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cIn other countries, entertainers are recognised with salaries and pensions because they shape society. Nollywood projects Nigeria to the world through movies, culture, and music. What we lack is proper structure; functional guilds, less politics, and more professionalism.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a9 2025 Abia Radio News, a division of Tee Global Innnovations [abiaradios@gmail.com]. [email\u00a0protected]<\/strong><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Veteran Nollywood actress cum filmmaker, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, popularly known as Omo Sexy, has opened up about how living abroad has humbled her. Abia Radio News reports that Omotola, in an interview with Punch, said COVID-19 changed her perspective about life, noting that visiting the United States was not the same as living there. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":237406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2328,344,2329,1858],"class_list":["post-237405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-latest-nollywood-news","tag-nollywood","tag-omo-sexy","tag-omotola-jalade-ekeinde"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Omotola-Jalade-Ekeinde-1000x600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}