Meet Prince ‘Waakye’ Yawson: The Actor, Father, Divorcé, Scriptwriter And Director

Prince Yawson of the ‘Obra’ Drama Series and ‘Chorkor Trotro’ fame has opined that the passion to excel enabled him take his work seriously eventually making his name a household one.

Mr. Yawson fondly known as ‘Waakye’ so named as a character in the ‘Obra’ series which also had ‘Maame Dokono’ and others explained “given that I am the shy, quiet and reserved type, I did not believe in my abilities but after mounting the stage for the first time I haven’t looked back since.”

He stated when given a script he makes the effort to personalize his role adding when he started acting he performed due to the love he had for the craft but in a highly monetized economy, he is now astute and demands his due.

Having practiced as journalist in the past, when host Anita Erskine asked if he would love to get back to radio, Waakye responded “when the money is right, I will do radio once more.”

“When given a role, I live the role such that producers give me the freedom to execute it how I see fit but being so good has also led to producers typecasting me, which I am not pleased with. The problem is that I am a versatile actor and can play various roles but producers and even the public almost always see me in their mind as a comedian and that’s it” a fluent Mr. Yawson mused.

According to Mr. Yawson, “the audience must understand that it is only roles we play on TV and in real life we live differently” adding “there must be respect and appreciation of the gifts we possess not mockery.”

Mr. Yawson said at a point he chose to go behind the scene, as a director and script writer stressing that as a writer he could have changed the face of the industry by offering consumers something new to broaden their horizon but realized the people were stuck in their ways and introducing new content would lead to his films being left on the shelves.

The divorcé and father of two said although acting is his first love, he also had an eye for politics, but run away from it because he realized just how dirty things could get.

On ‘Obra’ making a comeback, Waakye said plans are advanced to get the 8pm slot just after the Talking Point show mentioning that already some episodes have been shot and worked on.

The Winneba native urged the new crop of actors to strive to excel then the money and fame shall follow adding that he is a penny collector who did not get huge sums at a go but did varied undertakings and made his money since the critical thing was to utilize the funds well.

“Comedy is good but often people write us off and don’t take us serious, the award schemes around, how many comedians have gone home with the top most awards?” he quizzed.