I started acting because I was broke - Ayoola Ayolola

Nollywood actor Ayoola Ayolola has revealed what motivated him to go into acting.

Speaking with media personality Chude Jideonwo, Ayolola opened up about how he became the actor that his fans have come to know, noting that he had always known he could act.

He said, "I always knew I could act. I had this mentality that as a stage performer, I was acting as well. I always knew that no matter what happened before going on stage, I would go there and I would deliver. The fact that I was doing that gave me the courage to try acting. But the decision didn't come until I was so broke and so hungry."

After winning the popular singing competition Project Fame in 2012, he focused on making it big as a singer and placed his focus on it. However, he did not fully leverage his opportunities and soon found himself hungry.

"Not hungry for success o, I was literally physically hungry for days and I couldn't afford things," he said. "I was borrowing from here to pay for this and borrowing from there to pay for that. It was a mess. I had my car that I had won and the leverage and whatever but liquid cash I didn't have. I wasn't smart enough at the time to convert the things I had at the time into sustainability financially. So I was bored, broke and hungry," he told Chude.

Ayolola further recounted his first audition for a movie role at Ikeja, and how he got the job.

"Then I remembered that wait this music is not the only thing I can try my hands on. I can try acting. And as I was thinking about it there was an audition that came on at Galaxy TV so I went," he said.

The actor continued, "I saw a million people and I sat in the midst of them for like an hour or two then they came from the front and told everyone to leave. So I'm like 'Maybe it's not right for me to do this' so I stood up and then they called me."

At the audition, after he read for the role, he said he was offered it on the spot.