By Publisher
Star actress, Genevieve Nnaji, has given reasons she shunned opportunities to join Hollywood but preferred Nollywood instead.
Genevieve spoke at the 2024 AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum in the Bahamas.
According to her, she realised that she was viewed as a commodity when she wanted to join Hollywood.
Consequently, she changed her mind and decided to focus on promoting Nollywood instead of pursuing a Hollywood career because they were interested in exploiting her talent and African stories for their benefit.
The elite thespian added that her major interest was to build a strong local film industry in Nigeria that could tell their own stories, and expressed her belief that Nollywood had the potential to be as successful as Hollywood and Bollywood.
“I could have gone to Hollywood a long time if I wanted to, but I had a dream to build an industry in Nigeria that could drive home,” she said.
“Because I always believed in that. I always knew that we were capable of actually owning an industry like that that told our story for our people.
“I wanted that. I respect what Hollywood is doing. I respect what Bollywood is doing and I felt like Nollywood had an equal chance at it.
“So when I found it wasn’t quite what they had in mind I was like I’m just going to wait this out and the Covid happened and the worlds switched at that point and Africa sort of became it.”
Sharing her experience while seeking partnerships with Hollywood after the success of her 2018 film, ‘LionHeart’, Genevieve said she discovered that Hollywood stakeholders saw her as a commodity and were mainly interested in exploiting her talent for their benefit.
“For the first time, I realised I was a commodity. I thought, you know, given what I had done with Lionheart, and all of that, I was going to have an opportunity to do more,” she added.
“Getting there and having the kind of support that obviously CANEX is bringing on board, but I thought I could find it in Hollywood. That was not quite the case.
“They wanted what I had but for their benefit. It was all about their story.
“It was all about how, even if it was our story, I could make it more authentic to their own understanding of whatever Africa is because they did have a lot of literature in their archives.”
