Overcoming their bans, the trio went on to stamp their names on the history of the Nigerian movie industry – But things could have been different if these stars had lacked actual acting talent, as nothing else would have sufficed – In sum, entertainers need to improve on their skills before making outrageous demands as anything else is putting the cart before the horse In 2005, several A-list Nollywood actors were banned from all forms of acting and commercial activity in the Nigerian movie industry. The Actors’ Guild of Nigeria placed a one-year ban on eight actors, Stella Damasus, Nkem Owoh, Pete Edochie, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Genevieve Nnaji, Chinwe Okeke, Ramsey Nouah and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, for charging too much for movie appearances owing to their popularity and fan base.
In the end, the actors were ‘vindicated’ as they returned to acting and carried on with their normal work in the industry as though nothing had ever happened. Today, hardly anyone remembers that there was ever a ban on names like Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nouah and Omotola because they all went on to achieve individual successes following the ban. For instance, Omotola went on to make the 2013 Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world; a list including pioneers, icons, artists and world leaders. Genevieve Nnaji, on her own, has gone on to ink major deals with corporate brands as well as to enjoy positive media reviews both locally and globally, from the Oprah Winfrey Show to CNN.
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Ramsey Nouah has also enjoyed corporate deals as well as the media spotlight from international platforms. Other than the aforementioned corporate deals, their exploits also spread into Nollywood as they re-launched their acting careers following the “break” with major, best-selling movie appearances.
But things could have played out a different way if this were the American movie industry. These “bigwig” actors could easily have lost the plot in a more severely competitive industry. Taylor Lautner is a good example of an actor once tipped to become the next big name in Hollywood, but who failed to fully realise the great career predicted for him. But what exactly was the issue? Why did Lautner lose his hold on the American movie industry? The answers are clear. The 24-year-old first came to mainstream prominence playing Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga TV series but years after the franchise ended the young man is still struggling to attain that household-name status.
The Twilight Saga, a movie series, started airing on November 21, 2008, and its last edition was released on November 16, 2012. Insiders say Twilight was such a huge success it was “not easy [moving] out of the shadow of a hit like [it]”. But the greater truth lies in the fact that Lautner tried to become a successful actor in other projects for two reasons. First, the movies did not do well in terms of sales and box office numbers, with some of them even failing to break even despite huge budgets. Secondly, Lautner was asking for too much at the time coupled with his not-so-successful movies.
For his 2011 role in Abduction, he charged the producers $5 million and at the end of the day the movie managed a measly $28 million in the US after gulping a $35 million budget. After the miserable returns from Abduction, the actor demanded $7.5 million for Stretch Armstrong and $10 million for David and Goliath but he would get none of those parts in the end: the films were put on hold indefinitely by the producers. Lautner was also widely regarded as being an inferior actor vis-à-vis the demands he made at the time. Movie critics were critical and described him as “awkward” and “[looking] like a stranger in his own performance.”
Put these major factors together and you can see that he stood no real chance of being great as far as acting is concerned. The fact that his movies were not selling enough, with some barely making the money invested in them, and the fact that he was seemingly not worth the amount he was demanding, made his case a critical one. And that has been his story.
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If Lautner were more skilled an actor, Abduction’s failures wouldn’t have weighed so heavily on his resume. “But most critics agreed that while the film’s story was flimsy, Lautner’s inability to convey any real emotion on screen was a huge part of the movie’s problems.” So in a nutshell, talent is everything. And no matter the hype and media buzz, the absence of talent will always make a deep hole in the overall story. When Drake jumped on Wizkid’s Ojuelegba in 2015 and helped the song garner international buzz especially in America, the pop star was more widely received around the world which led to the collaboration on One Dance and a subsequent number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
But when Alex Frank of Fader magazine reviewed the song in Fader’s list of 107 best songs of the year 2015, he wrote that no matter the artist getting on a collaboration with a less prominent artist, no one can improve on perfection.
He wrote:
“Drake hopped on this song from Nigerian artist Wizkid for a remix, generously making the song more famous (at least in America) than it might’ve been on its own in 2015. But let me state this clearly and definitively: the song never needed him. No matter the celebrity, you can’t improve on perfection, even if the Skepta verse that accompanied Drake’s on the remix was pretty great.”
Lautner was reviewed as not-so-talented and instead of improving or fine-tuning his craft, he went on overpricing himself and orchestrating media stunts involving numerous affairs with women, with whom he broke up around the time of the premiere and the promotion of the movie. During those pseudo-romantic escapades, affairs which were aptly timed to key into his movie projects, he “dated” and “broke up” with Lily Collins, Maika Monroe, Marie Avgeropoulos and Taylor Swift.
He kept making all the wrong moves in the wake of his average acting skills, in an industry so competitive there is hardly any elbow room. He has had to pay for it in the years since. Though there have been several attempts at reviving his career, Lautner blew his chances in the past.
Now, back to the Nollywood trio of Genevieve, Ramsey and Omotola. It is clear that they have enjoyed sizeable recognition and success in their careers regardless of being deemed too “pricey” by Nollywood marketers and the Nigerian actors’ guild. But each of them was and is armed with a distinguished understanding of acting and all the dynamics of 21st century theatre and media maneuverings. Even if these three were not totally distinguished, Joke Silva was. And yes, she was also a part of the banned Nollywood A-list actors in 2005, only her name was not announced, probably owing to respect for her status.
In sum, if these Nigerian movie stars did not have a rich catalogue of movies that they acted in or produced; if they did not have the requisite acting skills; if the media was not favourably disposed to them and their every move and if corporate brands did not consider them worthy of several endorsement deals, then it would have been a different story altogether today. The truth is, however bright a start one’s career gets, there is only so much buzz it can garner if there is no substance behind it or enough work from the artists in question. Otherwise, no sooner has the buzz faded than the truth will come to the fore, and at this point reality sets in faster than the speed of light, and the world realizes that it was all a charade; that the prior buzz was nothing but a flash in the pan.
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