Nigerian actress, Idia Aisien in a recent interview with Chude Jideonwo on the WithChude podcast spoke about the discrimination in Nollywood.
Speaking during the session, the Edo state beau revealed she received criticism for not being a light complexioned actress, especially from her debut performance in Play Network’s ‘Nneka The Pretty Serpent.’
She had this to say about the movie reviews,
“When it first came out in the cinemas, I was a little bit heartbroken by some of the comments that people were leaving.
Comments about me not being light-skinned or Igbo, about me destroying what meant something to a lot of Nigerians.
Nigerians loved their veteran actors.
They love their Nollywood classics. So, it was something that I just wished people could see how much passion went into it at the time.”
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She continued saying,
“I was hurt at first because Nneka is a fictional character and anyone could bring something different to the character but I don’t think that tribe and skin colour should matter.
I mean, Black Panther was Americans pretending like they are in Africa.
A lot of people who criticised it (the film- Nneka the pretty serpent), criticised it because of the choice of Nneka, which broke my heart.”
Idia Aisien buttressed her point by stating that the Nigerian community needs to respect and love women more.
According to her, many Nigerians attribute the success of women to their male counterparts because they don’t like or respect them.
She said, “Nigerians need to be kinder to women, we don’t like women in this country because if you look at everything in terms of job, pay, and how women are treated.”
Watch the session below.
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