With ‘Saving Dreams,’ Nosa Obaseki, steps up big in Canada

Last week on the big screen at Ozone Cinema in Yaba, Lagos, Nigerian-born, Canadian-based actor, Nosa Obaseki, was busy caressing and kissing Brenda, a good singer, who couldn’t showcase her talent, because a man she thought she loved and called her husband was abusing her.

Brenda’s ambition was to become a recorded artiste, but that ambition was almost truncated until Nosa shows up in her life.

But hey, that was not in real life; that encounter was in the fictional world of Isioro Tokunbo Jaboro’s movie, Saving Dreams, which is still showing in major cinemas across the country.

Starring mostly Canadian-based actors, Nosa Obaseki, the only Nigerian actor in the engaging drama, played Bayo, a Nigerian immigrant, who relocated to Canada to pursue his career as a music producer.

Somewhere in the movie, fate twins him with Brenda, a talented artiste, who is being abused by her super-rich husband and philanthropist.

Brenda is also forced to stop singing.

Something led to another and Bayo saves the day and she lives her dream from there.

A well-helmed story filled with a lot of life lessons, Nosa’s performance and that of the lead actor and actress is the reason the movie that was completely shot in Canada would be hailed in the acting department.

Nosa, who has featured in a couple of Nollywood films, including Prisoner of Passion, Love, Adam and Eve, Missing Angel 2 and Sleep Walker, showed stuff and proved that he was a good choice for the leading role that he played.

But Nosa, who belongs to the muse-peaked Obaseki’s bloodline, is not new to screen acting. Though based now in Canada, Nosa, younger brother of two notable players in the Nollywood industry, one of them the content entrepreneur, director, producer, writer, administrator and politician, Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki, and the other, the creative designer and president of the Creative Designers Guild of Nigeria (CDGN) Iyen Agbonifo, started his professional acting career in 1998.

In fact, he revealed that his talent, as an actor, started manifesting when he was child playing in his Benin, Edo State neigbourhood.

“Those days, we would gather our mates together and we will be reenacting scenes from plays we had seen or from play texts that we read in school.

“I was also lucky to have an elder brother, Don Pedro, who is a theatre don. So, he was a great influence,” he said.

Nosa recalled that his first real test, as an actor, came when he was cast to feature in a stage play written by his elder brother, titled Azagidi, in 1998.

He said he must have convinced Don Pedro with his performance in Azigidi that he has a future in acting, which was why he (Don Pedro) ensured that he featured in his subsequent stage and screen productions.

Recounting his journey to this point, Nosa said: “After we did Azagidi, he got me involved in other stage and screen projects, like Idia, another of his stage plays, and then the box office hit, Igodo, as a Production Assistant (PA).

“After Igodo, I worked on other screen productions and I had the rare privilege of being trained, groomed and given an opportunity to express myself by notable directors, such as Lancelot Oduwa Imaseun, Kabat Esosa Egbon and many others.

“I worked on several sets and attended the Lagos State University (LASU) before I relocated to Canada.”

While abroad, Nosa yearned to keep the dream alive. He got a few call ups to feature in movies in the United Kingdom (UK), but none came from his new base in Canada until a chance meeting with the film producer and director, Isioro Jaboro, at the popular ‘Suya Spot’ in Toronto, Canada.

“We met at ‘Suya Spot’ and right there, he knew he had found the actor for the role of Bayo.

“He told me straight away that from our interaction, he could tell that I will fit snuggly into one of the characters in his movie. He invited me for casting proper and I got the role.

“I must confess that I found awesome, the experience of working with Jaboro. He is very professional. There is so much I learnt working with him on this project,” he said.

Asked to name his most memorable screen credit yet, Nosa, who pointed tat Don Pedro, Richard Mofe-Damijo and Imaseun as his mentors, picked Saving Dreams.

“I will pick it, because it is my first time acting in Canada. Though I have acted in UK before, but this was different.

“The fact that I was also working outside Nigeria with beautiful and brilliant Canadian actors makes it memorable for me.”

Described as a fun and loving person, his close friends agree that there is indeed no dull moment with Nosa, saying he takes delight in making people laugh and happy.

“Some of my friends have been encouraging me to go into stand up comedy, because they think cracking jokes comes naturally to me.

“But I have not allowed them to force me into it, because I know that comedy is not my thing. I do it only for fun and we generally enjoy sharing jokes in the family, because it makes us laugh and when you laugh, you are happy and stress gives way,” he said.

Tall, dark and well built, Nosa, who advised young people interested taking in acting as a career to stay focused and always believe they can do it, revealed that other than maintaining a moderate exercise, routine and a simple lifestyle, he doesn’t do much to look fit and good.

“I don’t have any special food I eat. I just make sure I eat good food and I try not to skip my exercise routine, so as to keep fit and look good.

“It is difficult to find any Obaseki that is not fit, because we are into one form of sporting activity or the other.

“I play football and my other brothers play football too,” he added.

Nosa’s career ambition is to get to the top of his acting career. The actor, who was lavish with thanks to notable practitioners, such as Charles Novia, Ikechukwu Onyeka, Patience Oghre, Kabat Esosa Egbon, Reginald Ebere, Paul Igwe and Amen Imasuen for believing in his talent, also plans to produce and call the shots as a director in the near future.

He stated: “I am totally committed to entertainment. It is in the blood and it is in the family. The only other thing I have done outside entertainment is law enforcement.

“I even have a Diploma in Police Foundation, which is tucked somewhere in my room abroad, because of my love for entertainment.

“So, I intend to do this as long as I breathe and with God on my side, I will get to the very top,” Nosa noted.