Mikki Osei Berko recounts encounter with unidentified ladies
Actor laments how expensive fame is
Actor wishes public would see a dichotomy between movie roles and personalities
Mikki Osei Berko of ‘Taxi Driver’ fame has highlighted the positive and negative impacts of the role he played in the local TV sitcom, disclosing that some ladies he willingly decided to transport sometime ago, had a preconception that he would have sexual encounters with them before the break of day.
‘Master Richard’ as the actor was known in the series said the roles actors play in movies affect their lives because the public is unable to appreciate that there is a difference between a character and an individual.
In his interview on ‘Restoration With Stacy’, Mikki Osei Berko who played the role of an intolerant boss and promiscuous person in the series emphasized that most often, the public surmises that the roles actors play are indeed their nature.
“Some people might not get to understand that there’s a character you play in a series. They perceive that that’s who you are. I gave a lift to some ladies and they were speaking Ga saying ‘This Ashanti guy will sleep with us tonight’. They were in my car saying this and they thought I couldn’t speak Ga”, he recalled amidst amusement.
“I didn’t take them to their destination; I got to a place and told them in Ga that my car was faulty so they should alight. They were very amazed I could speak Ga. They couldn’t’ accept the fact that it’s a character”, he further stated.
Aside from the preconceptions, the veteran actor said being a celebrity comes with so much pressure to the extent that what to wear sometimes becomes a great concern.
Using his experience during the ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Dada Boat’ era, Mikki Osei Berko mentioned that “You become very popular because when Taxi Driver was showing, it was just one television station in Ghana… You’ve become a celebrity overnight – first of all, whether your psyche is prepared for that, your emotions, your pocket. And for a celebrity, you can’t just go out there wearing anything. It brings a lot of pressure on you. But we enjoyed the fact that you get a lot of people hailing you.”
While acknowledging that the roles they play also have a positive impact on them, Mikki Osei Berko said: “The negatives are severe as well as the positives but the positives could have outlasted the negatives if there was money coming with that level of fame but unfortunately, in our country, it doesn’t make you rich so it brings a lot of difficulties.”
Watch the full interview below; his encounter with the ladies captured from 41 minutes, 51 seconds.
