Genevieve Nnaji after the success of her 2018 blockbuster film , LionHeart she has shared her experience while seeking partnerships with Hollywood.
The famous Nigerian actress said she realized she was viewed as a commodity, with Hollywood who held keen interest in exploiting her talent and African stories for their benefit.
She said that they wanted to use her to tell their own stories, rather than authentic African stories.
Genevieve disclosed this while on a panel at the 2024 AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum/ Afreximbank Annual Meetings.
She said ; ” For the first time, I realized my worth like a commodity. I thought you know given the records I created with LionHeart, and all of that I was going to have an opportunity to do more . Getting there and having the kind of support that obviously CANEX is bringing onboard, but I thought I could find it in Hollywood. That was not quite the case though.
“Genevieve said she choose to stay in Nigeria and contribute her own quota to the industry’s growth rather than pursue opportunities in Hollywood.
She further said “But I am Nollywood. I could have gone to Hollywood a long time if I wanted to. But I had a dream to build an industry in Nigeria that could be a rival to it . That’s because I’ve always believed in that , I have always believed that were capable of actually owning an industry like that, that could tell our story for our people. I wanted that. I respect what Hollywood is doing. I respect what Bollywood is doing and I felt like Nollywood had an equal chance at it.
“So when I got to find out it wasn’t quite what they had in mind I was like I’m just going to wait this out and the Covid happened and the world’s switched at that point and Africa sort of became it”.
Leave a Reply