Asamoah still in the game
When Bill Asamoah started his acting career in 2002, he was playing alongside the likes of Nadia Buari, Kalsoume Sinare and Jackie Appiah in glamour movies.
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Somewhere along the line, however, Bill switched from the glamour movies to the Twi language movies popularly known as Kumawood because he believed that going local could give him the exposure he needed.
It was a right move. Within a few years, he had earned considerable exposure and was winning awards. Bill won Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Kumawood Awards in 2011 and in the following year won the same award.
He has had nominations at the Ghana Movie Awards for two years and even though he did not win, he told Showbiz on Monday that it is a big achievement because it demonstrated how good he was.
Having played in both English speaking and Twi language movies, Bill Asamoah has been in a good position to compare the two. According to the 39- year old actor, the fact that he was no longer seen in glamour movies did not mean he could not act in them.
“I will do better than most of the English language actors but it will not be easy for them to fit into my shoes” said Bill who is currently shooting a movie, Fire On The River
Known for movies such as Azonto Ghost, Gh Shaolin, Fakye, Sika, Choice, Poposipopo and I know My Right, Bill Asamoah said it was a wrong perception for anyone to think that Twi actors were not as good as their English language counterparts.
He explained, “Every script I receive from a producer is written in the English language before I translate it into Twi. Twi actors go the extra mile to translate before acting, which makes our work more difficult”.
Asked to choose between the two, Bill said he would go for Twi movies because he was able to make the ordinary people understand the story line better.
According to him, although a lot of people can speak theEnglish language, there are others who still find it difficult understanding it especially those from the remote areas who normally enjoy the Twi movies.
Fortunately or unfortunately for Bill Asamoah, none of the English language producers have approached him ever since he decided to act in Twi.
“It is either such movies don’t attract me anymore or I don’t attract the movie producers, but whatever it is, I haven’t had any call from any English language movie producer ever since I switched to Twi”
Reacting to a question why he was not as popular like Agya Koo, Lil Win and Akrobeto, Bill Asamoah pointed out that normally comedy actors are liked by the public because of their comic nature but that is not to say they are better than other actors.
To him, if he was still relevant after a decade in acting, then he could be considered as one of the best actors in Ghana. Bill told Showbiz that, never had he received comments that he was no more in demand.
He said that his fan base kept increasing as the year went by and that only confirms that he was still doing a good job.