Entertainment
Sex for role: Casanovas still stalk actresses for pleasure in Nollywood
Movie buffs are familiar with the sex scandals involving Hollywood greats such as Billy Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. Their lecherous sexual escapades involving exploitation of actresses have been cloned in other climes including Nigeria.
The Nollywood landscape for long has not been inured from sexual libidos of powerful movie moguls in the country, who exploit the desperation for fame and role in movies of aspiring actresses, and even established ones, to ask for sexual favour in return to spotlight roles in films.
Recently, content creator and actress, Kemi Ikuseedun, popularly known as Kemz Mama or Mummy Wa revealed her experience with sexual harassment in the film industry.
Sharing her surreal experiences during her appearance on the ‘WithChude podcast’ with Chude Jideonwo, Kemz Mama said she received unwanted sexual advances from filmmakers while trying to establish her career.
According to her, she rejected the advances because she knew they wouldn’t guarantee her the role she wanted. Mummy Wa also stressed that no woman is immune to sexual harassment in the industry, regardless of physical appearance.
“Behind the scenes, a lot of people are asking for things. They are requesting for a whole lot of things that I cannot do.
“Where do I want to start from? Me that I’m already coming from a place where they tell me ‘this thing will not work’. How many people do I want to sleep with?
“To be honest, you might actually sleep with somebody in the industry and you will still not blow with the role they will give you. I saw a lot of men. But guess what? Even the slim ones that don’t have anything, they are still asking for things from them.
“No woman is free. No woman is immune. But me, I cannot do it.”
Mummy Wa became famous in 2023, following her appearance on Mr. Macaroni’s skits.
Mummy Wa’s ordeal is not an isolated incident as countless actresses have stories to share about sexual abuse in the hands of Nollywood moguls. Last year December, popular Nollywood actress Mercy Aigbe narrated how she almost left the Nigerian movie industry over sexual harassment. The actress disclosed this while sharing her challenges before making her way to the top.
Speaking in an interview with Morayo Afolabi-Brown on ‘Your View’, a talk show on TVC, Aigbe recounted how a producer made passes at her after a movie audition despite earning the role for an upcoming film.
“I met a producer in Surulere, and I expressed to him how much I would love to act. He told me he had an upcoming film and invited me to his office for an audition in his office.
”After I had passed three stages of the audition, I was given a minor role, which I told him that was not the character I was auditioning for, and he replied that the director said he did not know me, and that was why he wanted me to be close to him,” she said.
“He then stood up to touch me. I was very upset and I thought if that was what it took to be an actress, I don’t want to be an actress anymore. I tore the script and left. I cried on my way going home because I left a well paying job to join Nollywood, and I was already a single mother at the time.”
Not too long ago, rising actress, Nweke Anwulika Tonia narrated how an Asaba-based movie producer attempted to sleep with her before giving her a role in his movie. Tonia, who’s the CEO of three business empires, PT Cosmetics, T Kitchen and Frames by PT, said she was recently in Asaba for a movie shoot. But she ended up not being featured in the movie because the producer was making sexual advances on her.
Sharing her shocking story, the actress said: “I’m not ready to sleep with any producer or director for a movie role. I was recently in Asaba for a movie shoot, but I had to come back to Lagos because the producer was demanding for sex. I felt bad and surprised.”
While refusing to give details about the allegation, Tonia vowed never to exchange her body for any movie role. The actress, however, showered accolades on Nollywood for the milestones the industry has recorded over the years.
Revealing why she delved into the world of make-believe, she said; “I just want people to see that I can do it in addition to my other endeavours. I acted when I was in secondary school and also in teen’s church, during drama shows.”
But Nollywood’s actor, Raymond Okafor differed. The thespian, who was recently appointed by the President of Actors Guild of Nigeria, Emeka Rollas, as a member of the National Task Force of the Guild, has declared that sexual harassment no longer exists in Nollywood.
Okafor stated recently that the so-called sexual harassment that used to be very rampant in the industry is a thing of the past, citing some reasons for the development.
He said: “Those sexual harassments don’t even happen anymore as they used to. These days, the filmmakers are more interested in making money than sleeping with girls. Perhaps, the other reason may be based on the fact that there are now too many beautiful girls in Nollywood that they are too tired to even make a move on them. Sex for roles is a thing of the past.
“Prominent filmmakers I know don’t have sex on their minds, but making successful movies that make them smile to the banks. Look at it this way, how many people can they sleep with? The only way they can lobby them is not through sex. Some of the girls are not even interested in sex any more. What they do now is probably ask you to bring money and produce for you and make their own money.
“It goes back to what I said earlier that you need money in Nollywood to be successful. If all you have to offer is sex, you are lost because nobody is interested in sex anymore.
From many revelations from actresses in Nollywood, it is obvious sexual harassment is as normal as the next script. In fact, no interview with a Nollywood actress is complete without the cliche question, “Have you ever been sexually harassed in the industry?”
And more often than not, the answer is always “yes”. Of course Nigerians are not as outspoken as the Americans, that is why many Weinsteins in Nollywood are walking away with their heads held high.
If almost every Nigerian actress has been sexually harassed at one time or the other, then who are the culprits? Why allow them to roam free?
Yoruba or English sector, it doesn’t matter, there are sexual predators everywhere. And many actresses have come out to confess it.
A number of actresses, particularly, the upcoming ones have on several occasions come out to blatantly state that they had experienced sexual harassment in one form or another. Though no one has been brave enough to point a finger at anyone.
The only actress who has come close to blowing the whistle on an alleged randy producer is Kannywood Rahama Sadau, who accused Adam Zango of alleged sexual advances. Sadau accused Mr. Zango of booting her off his yet-to-be-shot movie, Duniya Makaranta, for refusing his alleged sexual advances. Mr Zango publicly apologized to the actress.
Actress Annabel Zwyndila once recounted her non-consensual sexual ordeal in the hands of a producer as follows: “I had a very terrible experience when one producer called me into his hotel room at Ikeja and tried to sleep with me before giving me a role in his movie.
“When I came to Lagos for the audition, I was told by this producer (name withheld) that they were almost through with it but that I should come because there was still opportunity for me. I got there and he asked me to portray a poor girl for him, someone begging for money and stuff like that.
“I did it and he was like waoh! This is wonderful. He called his colleagues and other ladies already auditioned and asked his colleagues to pick someone for him, luckily, they said I was the best character for the role, so I was picked. Then he asked me, ‘Can you drive a Hummer Jeep?’ I told him I have driven cars but not a Hummer Jeep and that I can learn it within hours.
“He was like waoh! I’m ‘good to go’. So I was picked. He said I should call him and meet him at a particular joint to collect the script. By the time I met him to collect the script, he started acting funny. He said I should take alcohol and I said no but he insisted.
“He succeeded in keeping me in that joint from 10 am to 4 pm. And I told him ‘sir, let me have the script and start going’. He was like this is one thing with you girls; you can’t have patience.
“That he is trying to help me. I stayed there till it was almost dark, and he was behaving funny …trying to touch my bosom …trying to force me to have sex with him before giving me the script!
“Of course, I refused. He got angry and started asking me who I think I was; saying that he had slept with a lot of people, who are stars – he even called names. That I’m just one little girl he is trying to make a star. He was just calling me all sorts of names…and I started crying. It was my sister that consoled me when I got home.”
Dr. Maria Adéwálé, a psychologist, told this medium that “We still live in autocratic patriarchy, where women are seen as objects of sexual pleasure by men. The mindset of an average male is to dominate women, and they always use their position to carry out this successfully given the fact that, unlike Western society, the norm and values and protection are ranged against women. It will take a serious reeducation to change this mindset.”
This view was supported by Pauline Gwang, a psychotherapist, who believes that “Nigerian men, do not see women beyond the strictly sexual. When ever they see or interact with a woman privately what comes into their mind is sex and not business or any other serious things.”
