Nigerian media personality Emma Ugolee has called out Nollywood’s growing preference for social media popularity over actual acting talent.
In a lengthy post on his Instagram page, he described the industry’s rule of casting actors based on their follower count as sickening and unfair to trained professionals.
He cited examples of two lead actors from a trending series, To Kill a Monkey, who have less following on Instagram despite having impressive acting skills and being well-respected by their fan bases.
Ugo further contrasted with a popular internet content creator, Egungun, whose massive following stems from asking women to wiggle their bodies, mimic bedroom sounds, and share their favourite s3x position on camera. Ugolee said these are the types of people Nollywood prioritises for casting simply because they draw attention online.
“Did you know that there is a currently practised unwritten Nollywood rule that should be dead already for how much it sucks.
Actors have been getting roles based on the social media following that they command, which is considered vital for the successful publicity of the movie.
I tried to capture everything wrong with it, with the pictures above.
In the first two slides, you will probably notice that the two lead actors from the trending — To Kill a Monkey series have a collective following of almost 380k
They are certified by both male and female fan bases to be exceptionally great at their craft, possessing both the gift and the training to act.
True professionals.
The ironic reflection of numbers is due to poor ability to deliver on public scandals, entertain with their real lives & engage in public interaction at the cost of privacy
They need to be rich at frivolity, overly social, dare with nudity, beef-prone with colleagues, controversial, materialistic, and involved in other dramas unrelated to acting.
The 3rd slide is an internet sensation that embodies understanding of what it takes to be followed on these streets, and all he needs is one mic.
One mic is to ask people on the streets about the cost of what they are wearing or driving when he meets them.
With ladies, she has trademark requests that they show how wiggly & wobbly both their mammary glands and butt cheeks can be. Reveal fav s#x positions, repeat words after him & demand a replay of the sounds they make in the bedroom. For that, he has a faithful 2M followers & counting
This is in no way to make fun of what he’s doing, but to show you exactly what it takes to get the engagement Nollywood is asking of these professional actors as tickets to get acting gigs.
This is unfair to actors. Believe it or not, some actors just want to act without being popular. Stop putting pressure on them to meet your criteria for a public following.
They might have everything it takes to kill the role and nothing it takes to impress fickle-minded people en masse daily