Stop casting Black Americans as Africans – Nigerian actress Omotola to Western movie industry
Popular Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde is entreating the western movie industry to stop casting Black Americans as Africans in their movies.
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In a news report by Joy Entertainment’s Doreen Avio, it mentioned that the Last Flight to Abuja actress was not happy about how western filmmakers portrayed Africans as different people and encouraged Africans to stand up for themselves since Western filmmakers can use A-list actors from Africa.
“The West also needs to understand our complexity and be a little more open to working with us. When you have roles for Africans, stop casting Americans as Africans. It makes no sense.
“We have to stand up for ourselves when we see movies where people are speaking as Africans in a different way. Who talks like that in Africa? These things are archaic, they are old and we should fight to stop them.
“I pray we are in that era now where African actors and filmmakers will be respected for what they bring to the table and we can really foster collaboration,” she said.
Apart from acting, Omotola is a singer, philanthropist and former model. She made her debut in 1995 with "Venom of Justice" in 1995 and since then, the mother of four has appeared in over 300 films, selling millions of copies.
In 2013, she was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In the same year, the multiple award winning actress who has starred in a number of movies such as "Mortal Inheritance", "Ije", "Blood Sisters", "Games Women Play" and "Brave Hearts" made a brief appearance on VH1's scripted series, "Hit the Floor".
In 2014, she was honoured by the Nigerian government, when she became a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) for her contributions to Nigerian cinema.
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