Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade Ekeinde has weighed in on the growing trend for actors being expected to dance on social media to promote their movies.
In an interview with TVC E Splash, while promoting her new movie, Mother’s Love, she revealed that she wouldn’t be dancing to market or promote her movies. She described such behaviour as unprofessional, noting how she has done a quality movie and needs to promote it.
The movie star, however, made it clear that she isn’t opposed to using dancing as a promotional tactic, but it shouldn’t be a pressure point for actors. According to her, there is nothing wrong with dancing as long as it happens organically.
She stressed that her responsibility as an actor ends with delivering a quality performance, noting that marketing and distribution should be handled by professionals in those fields.
“I’m sorry, I would not be doing the dancing. I’m very, very sorry. It’s just not me. I dance. I love to dance, I’m sure a lot of us love to dance,” she said.
I think the problem and the reason why a lot of people are kicking back at it is that you want to dance because you feel like it, not because you have to.”
There’s a difference, okay? So there’s nothing wrong with, oh, you know, you’re promoting a movie, and you guys are just having fun. That’s different,”
But when it becomes a chore, when it becomes, oh, this is what you have to do to even sell a movie, it’s not professional. I already did the project, you know, I should go around, you know, talk about the project, promote the project, and then let the people whose job is to distribute and do the advertising of the project to do that”.
Kemi Filani reported that Kunle Afolayan, during the premiere of his movie, stated that he is not interested in ₦1 billion or ₦2 billion in cinema earnings if he cannot get at least ₦10 million from them. He also took a swipe at his colleagues for constantly dancing to promote their movies.
Hitting back at him, Funke made it known that she isn’t the one hindering his progress, as she admonished him not to let jealousy burn him, noting that the sky is so big for everybody to fly.
Not done, she had shared a video of herself dancing as she promoted her highest-grossing movie.
Last year, Omotola lamented the industry’s condition, comparing it to Hollywood and calling for structure. The legendary actress revealed that she had been working in Hollywood for 4 years and gets monthly residuals. Meanwhile, she got no residuals in Nollywood, where she spent 30 years.
While sharing an important message to the public about clout chasing, she noted how the easiest way to trend is for one to insult a public figure, say something out of the norm, or go nude. Noting that attention is the new currency, she questioned how far people will go to trend.
The famous star had spoken out about being referred to as a diasporan, recalling how years ago, she was invited by Nigerians in the Diaspora to an event and was introduced as a diasporan, which she argued. Fast forward to the present, and she is now a diasporian. Omotola stated that everything that will happen to one has already been introduced.
In other news, Omotola had revealed some intimate details about her upbringing including how she almost went into prostitution. She recounted her childhood experience, revealing that she was close to going into prostitution to survive because of the challenges she faced at a young age.