Premium Times Nigeria

INTERVIEW: Why Nigerian filmmakers undervalue stunt performers – Stuntman, Mr Nollywood
As a first-generation Nollywood stuntman, he spent most of 2020 and 2021 falling off multi-storey buildings, crashing cars, choreographing fights, and surviving infernos.
By Onu Stephen February 13, 2022 6 min read

A stuntman is a trained professional who performs daring acts like jumping off a high-rise building or passing through a ball of fire in a movie, but when they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.

While stunt work is a lucrative career in Hollywood, it is still undervalued in Nollywood.

David Patrick, or Mr Nollywood, is an unassuming Nigerian stuntman. You would walk past him and not realise that months ago, he was a stunt double for the footballer Alex Iwobi when he was required to jump over several cars in Lagos traffic.

As a first-generation Nollywood stuntman, he spent most of 2020 and 2021 falling off multi-story buildings, crashing cars, choreographing fights, and surviving infernos.

He has featured in several movies, including ‘King of Boys,’ ‘Soólé,’ and ‘Devil in Agada’ ‘Superstar,’ and the recently released ‘Mambas Diamond’.

In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, he speaks about some of his death-defying leaps and the low appreciation of the stunt industry in Nigeria.

PT: What is the role of stunt performers in movie production?

Mr. Nollywood: The stunt or choreography industry has been there for a long time. The stunt coordinator is the safety manager on that set. For instance, I’ve been set on fire before, I have jumped from two-story buildings, and many other risky things. So I risk recommending a safer approach for lead actors.

PT: How did you get into the stunt game?


Mr Nollywood: It started 20 years ago in 2001 when I was in secondary school. I was learning Karate, martial arts, and Nigerian Man O’war, not knowing that all these things would accumulate to be a better thing for me. My colleagues and I were featured in Nollywood movies pro bono. We didn’t even realise what we were doing, we just felt that we were action actors, but as the years went by, we realised that the industry in Hollywood was called the stunt and fight industry.


PT: What were your childhood aspirations?

Mr Nollywood: I wanted to be a doctor. I once sold herbal medicine; joined the Nigerian Red Cross, where I was certified. But as I was approaching my dreams, other side attractions started coming in. I loved Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Van Damme, so I embraced martial art. I was playing with my mind, and it became a reality.

PT: What death-defying stunts have you performed?

Mr Nollywood: I have been burnt on a movie set. I have also used a dispatch ride to collide with a moving vehicle; I did it twice. I take these risks to understand the safety measure. But, unfortunately, we don’t have all the facilities to spare in Nigeria. So the stunt artists put our lives on the line to protect our superstars.

The most dangerous one I have done is set myself on fire without a fire drill. Ideally, I was supposed to have carried out a fire drill as it would have to help me prepare for an evacuation in the event of a fire or other emergency or so the fire doesn’t touch my skin. Unfortunately, the producers had a string shoe budget. He initially wanted to set a dummy on fire, which wasn’t realistic for me, so I rose to the occasion.



PT: How did you do it?

Mr Nollywood: I coated myself with so much cloth and water. People would think it was just cloth and water, but it was burning inside. Though it didn’t rip off my skin, I felt all the heat. And they poured five liters of fuel on me. Funny enough, the movie is yet to be released.


PT: You featured in three highest-grossing movies in 2021

Mr Nollywood: Yes, I was featured in three movies, ‘Soole,’ ‘King of Boys,’ ‘Mambas Diamond,’ ‘Devil in Agbada’. I also coordinated and performed the stunt coordination in the accident scene in the ‘Superstar’ movie.

PT: What does it take to perform a stunt in a movie?

Mr Nollywood: If you didn’t pull off a realistic car accident, you would have to use a condemned car. This will help you know the accident’s impact on the car because I can’t perform some stunts twice. If the camera is not well set and correctly angled and you pull such a stunt on a new car, it will amount to colossal damage.

PT: Have you pulled such a stunt before?


Mr Nollywood: I was the stunt double for a footballer, Alex Iwobi, when he was required to jump over several cars in Lagos traffic in a DSTV advert. I had to hire a car from a mechanic garage, pay them for complete bodywork, and use it to rehearse.

Unfortunately, my knee shattered the glasses on one occasion, and I significantly damaged the vehicle before I mastered the stunt before it was eventually recorded. However, on the shoot day, I practised 20 times on a brand new car without breaking a single glass because I had extensively practiced on a condemned car.


PT: Do you do also feature in comedy skits too?

Mr Nollywood: I’ve worked with every skit maker in Lagos.

PT: What kind of stunts do you perform in comedy skits?

Mr. Nollywood: I performed an accident stunt for Officer Wose with a dispatch bike and another for Oluwa Dollars, where he fought with a kidnapper, but it turned out to be a dream.


PT: What are the place of stunts and special effects in Nollywood?

Mr. Nollywood: Irrespective of what we have done in the industry, the place we have in the heart of the industry is 30 per cent. This is because some filmmakers don’t even know that in movie making, we have a department called stunt and choreography department in movie-making .

PT: I’m curious to know how a stunt will fit into a romantic movie?

Mr Nollywood: Yes, if you have a love story where someone wants to commit suicide, you need stunts, maybe because of the heartbreak the actor has to jump into the bridge, that’s a stunt.

PT: Comparing Hollywood and Nollywood, what does Nollywood have to learn about stunts?

Mr. Nollywood: The primary thing they have to learn is budgeting for stunts. Most Nollywood movies don’t make provisions for stunts. Only a few people are open to modern movies that make provisions for stunts. So producers want to cut corners, forgetting that these stunts are risky, and a good stunt needs good budgeting.


PT: What was the high point of your career?

Mr. Nollywood: The high point of my career was after AY’s black panther comedy skit.

Before shooting the skit, AY looked for a stunt or fight choreographer in Lagos but couldn’t find any, not until Alex Ekubo gave Ay my contact. I am Alex’s gym instructor.

After shooting AY’s comedy skit, I got other deals with Netflix, DSTV, Ebony Life, and more.

PT: Is there a career path in the stunt business?

Mr. Nollywood: In Nigeria, the stunt business does not have a definite career path because deals don’t come daily.

PT: So aside from stunts and special effects, what other business do you do?

Mr. Nollywood: I am a facility manager in a real estate firm, while film and stunts are more like passion which is now paying some of my bills.


PT: How did you earn the name Mr Nollywood?

Mr Nollywood: First of all, they used to call me Cruise Marshal, then I was a music promoter. Then I joined the Actors Guild of Nigeria, but I was not satisfied with the rate at which the industry was going then. Hence, I started a WhatsApp platform for kid actors where I give actors to producers without necessarily going through auditions. I did that to save many up and coming actors from the hands of sex for roles, which was rampant in the industry then, especially in Surulere. There was this hotel known as ‘Wenis,’ where they did lots of auditions and molested younger actresses. My girlfriend was a victim.

So when many people saw that I was everywhere in the industry, they started calling me Mr Nollywood.

PT: How does it feel to be called Mr Nollywood?

Mr Nollywood: The name is a heavy load because the industry is so big, and the Nollywood brand we are feeding every part of the industry, empowering young actors.

We were the earliest people that fought the sex-for-movie role phenomenon, which was rampant in Nollywood. By God’s grace, we were able to defeat that widespread crime. I have also mentored a crop of stunt coordinators and fight choreographers in Nollywood.

PT: You mentioned you championed a fight against sex-for-movie roles. How has it been?

Mr Nollywood: It was successful. We have blocked some directors who were perpetrators of the sex-for- role. If there is an audition where an actor has been abused, we will ensure we stop it. That was how we fought sex-for-roles out of the industry in Lagos.

PT: Is sex-for-movie role a thing of the past?

Mr. Nollywood: It is still rampant in Asaba, Delta State, although it began in Festac and Alaba International market before they moved to the eastern part of Nigeria.

PT: Have you been featured in any foreign movie projects?

Mr. Nollywood: Yes, I have been featured in a Bollywood and Malaysian movie called Blackout, produced by a Nigerian based in Malaysia. I was also featured in another Hollywood movie shot in Nigeria but was screened abroad.

PT: What’s the difference between stunts and a film trick?

Mr. Nollywood: There is no film trick without a stunt as they both require good editing, make-up artists, and stunt performers.


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