Accent, skin colour are stumbling blocks for Nigerian actors to bag Hollywood roles, Stella Damasus says

Nigerian actress, Stella Damasus, has spoken about the stereotype Nollywood stars face while trying to bag Hollywood roles.

According to the veteran actress, Nigerians don’t fit into the stereotype of Africans by Hollywood stakeholders.

Noting that it has been the stumbling block for Nollywood stars, Damasus said filmmakers in Hollywood believe that all Africans have East African accents and are as dark as Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o.

Additionally, the seasoned actress said Nigerian actors are misfits for Hollywood roles, except the ones who were raised abroad.

Damasus explained, “Hollywood filmmakers insist that there is a particular accent that Africans who want to act in their industry must have. So, that’s why they forced our people to put it on…

“I’m like, we [Nigerians] don’t sound like that, maybe one or two small countries in East Africa. I’m Nigerian, they are Ghanaians. We are different people and we all sound different. We [Nigerians] don’t sound like this. That’s what Hollywood wants. That’s what they are used to.

“Most of the Nigerians who have done big screen movies in Hollywood are people who were raised in England. Most of them have a different type of accent. And they [Hollywood filmmakers] said to me, ‘We want an African to be very dark.

“That’s the kind of African that we are used to. We are not used to your kind of African. We want Lupita dark. You are not dark enough and you are not white enough to be half-caste, so it would be hard to place you. You are not mixed race. Then your accent, you don’t sound American or British, neither do you sound African.’

“And I’m like, ‘How do you think Africans sound? Because Africa is full of a million and one countries. And inside those countries, we have different dialects and different accents.’”