Mokeme detailed to BBC Pidgin description of some of the changes he had to undergo in order to fit perfectly in his role as ‘Scar’.
“Some of the body modifications I did to enter into the character of Scar was to shave off my hair completely and go bald,” the ‘Shanty Town’ star actor said.
“Some days too, I didn’t take my bath before going on set. That it felt like we are street, we belong to the street. And so that when they say it was time to do something dirty, you do it without flinching because you weren’t even clean in the first place.
“Sometimes also, I didn’t brush my teeth so that when I opened my mouth people would have great cause to wonder the kind of human being I was. One that couldn’t take care of himself how then would he be able to take care of everyone else?
“I don’t smoke but I had to smoke about three packets per day to make my eyes portray that scary look.
He further revealed even after the movie, the character, ‘Scar’ he played therein struggled to gain dominance over his real self.
He noted it was so because he was in sync with the character stressing how difficult it was to finally discard it.
“So me and the character, we were one and it took a while before Scar could leave my body. It wasn’t a ln easy thing. Scar and I begin contesting for ownership of my body.
I said to Scar, ‘Leave me, we are done’. But Scar was adamant claiming ‘I woke him up and he wasn’t going anywhere. We are going to remain like this.’
“So, it took a while before I could get out of the character. But if it were up to me, I’d willing remain Scar,” he stated.
‘Shanty Town’ is the 50-year-old thespian’s comeback movie after a long hiatus due to a battle with Bell’s Palsy (facial stroke).
It tells the story about a group of courtesans who attempt to escape the clutches of a notorious kingpin albeit, political corruption and blood ties make freedom a near-impossible goal.
