03/01/2022
Social media is a fake community, let that register in your head.
It is difficult to have anyone come on social Media to talk about their true situation, just like people don't dry their torn dresses outside.
I saw recently, a video in circulation of a director and also an actor who is sick and needs urgent help and the lady who made the video was accusing Destiny Etiko of not helping.
I was seriously ashamed seeing that video.
Firstly, we lie to ourselves everyday in Nollywood.
Who told you we don't know our problems? I recently met with a Ghanian lady who came to Nigeria to pursue her acting dream.
She met a very senior member of Actors Guild of Nigeria in Abuja who gave her an appointment to meet him in a Garden.
She did.
Can you kiss in public?
The lady noded because she really was desperate to act and since she has been told that she requires boldness to be an actor, she accepted to kiss the guy in the garden as her audition.
She was told by the guy with his terrible mouth odour that she doesn't know how to kiss.
You have to come for me to teach you how to kiss, he said to her.
Now the girl left dissapointed, just for this same guy to call her to come to a hotel which she did and the guy requested to have s*x with her if she must become a star.
She refused and the guy was really nasty towards her and told her that over his dead body will she amount to anything in Nollywood.
That lady suffered in Abuja for 3years sleeping in an uncompleted building in gwarinpa without windows until a Muslim guy saw her and offered her a job after hearing her story.
She came to me because she wants me to produce and direct a movie for her. She has made it big right now with over 4 different investments in Abuja.
Tomorrow if that guy is in a desperate situation that needs financial help, do you think this lady will give a dime to him?
Now let's talk about Destiny Etiko.
Do you know how many directors and producers, even most senior actors that took advantage of her while she was struggling to get roles?
Most of these girls were r***d, abused and some forced to sleep outside the hotel premises where the movie crew is camping.
Some went through it and became what they're today. Let me ask you this politely...
..if it's you, will you give a dime for that kind of person that did terrible things to you while you were struggling to grow?
Don't tell me about forgiveness, it doesn't erase one's memory.
Now the truth is over 80% of Nollywood celebrity actors, those you call your mentors are very broke.
Very broke.
They struggle each day to keep a good image of themselves by borrowing clothes from big boutiques or even buy on credit to attend events like AY's shows and awards so bloggers can carry the news with pictures to people who won't help them to pay the cost of renting the cars, and the clothes.
Fake lifestyle.
I tell some that are close to me the truth to their faces, if you like when I call you for a job don't pick. You need the money more than I need you.
You don't smoke, you get into a night club and just because your celebrity colleagues are taking sh**ha and all, you also join them because you want to be seen as a big celebrity.
How can you be destroying yourself to please the public? I have not seen that kind of madness.
I recently spoke with the management of a senior actor in the industry to feature him in my next project, his fee is 12milliona naira per movie.
I thank God for him because he has always been responsible and consistent over the years.
Now imagine producers pay you that sum and you waste it on women, alcohol and drugs then come up someday that you're sick and you need money...
People will avoid you like leprosy.
Lastly, there is no friend in the film industry. In my 15years of practice as a filmmaker, I have seen scary things.
People who came in healthy and left being poisoned by those who felt their positions have been taken away.
I have seen ladies, even guys go to native doctors to get charm to bring down their fellow actors so that producers can start give them jobs.
Until I survived an assassination attempt because God used my brother and friend Apel Orduen, I would never had imagined that someone I rented a house for, bought clothes for and stood with him when he had serious problems, will want me dead.
You want to come into the film industry, start by shaking off all that junk in your head about the industry because most of the things you see on screen are not true in real life.
Have a plan for your life and what you need for your future. If you don't clearly defined your life from the beginning, the waywardness in the film industry will destroy you.
Live in a house you can pay, drive a car you can maintain, wear dresses you bought with your money so you can walk freely, buy phones you can afford not order and be payment in bits.
How you see yourself is first of all more important than how others see you.
