Nollywood actor, Charles Awurum has said some veteran thespians like him stopped featuring in every movie due to the low quality of the ones being produced nowadays.
Charles stated this in a recent interview with Punch while speaking on the minimal effort and resources movie producers invest in their movies.
According to him, some filmmakers start shooting a movie with a budget as low as N200,000 which isn’t meant to be.
He also claimed that some actors and actresses pay filmmakers in exchange for a role in their movies because they want to be famous.
Awurum said; ”People just shoot movies anyhow these days. If you do not have enough money to shoot a movie, you stop. You don’t just shoot any movie. This is why most of us, the oldies, no longer partake in every film. With N200,000, some people will move to shoot a film. Actors now pay to partake in movies just for popularity, instead of them to be paid. And where there are no producers or directors that are professionally trained, they just take a space somewhere and they shoot a film.”
He further said he is very picky about the type of movies he acts in which explains why people hardly see him in films.
”I have been shooting but I am not in every film because so many things are happening now. People are just shooting anything, any type of script that comes up. So, I choose what I do”, he said.
Awurum added; ”The industry is growing, most movies we shoot now can stand the test of time. You can match them with that of the white men. We are moving higher and as an actor, if you allow the train to leave you, you should not blame anyone or say you are being segregated. What we are shooting now is no longer what we used to shoot before; if you check the locations of the movies that we are shooting now, you will know that we have gone far. Everything seems to be like that of the western world. So, when you act in movies that will not go anywhere, you do not expect to be applauded. These people eager to be on the screen are not trained, paid, they do everything by themselves and they still pay for it.”
Addressing claims that ailing actors hardly get support from their colleagues in the movie industry, Charles said,
”I do not think the industry is not doing enough to help people. You see, when you are told to be a part of an association, belong to that association. Most of these people you see that are sick and are seeking public funds are not even part of the Actors Guild of Nigeria. We sometimes know of their illnesses very late for those of them that are part of us and we even go about to help them. The AGN is doing very well, there is nobody that is sick now that it does not help. The association even goes out of its way to help people that are not members to ensure that they are treated. They only go to the public when it goes out of what they can afford.”
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