TVC E, MOVIES – Veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Silva, has described discrimination between light and dark skinned actors in the industry as “irritating.”
The filmmaker in an interview with Pulse Nigeria said Nollywood should take a cue from her American counterpart in order to get the best out of either a black or a light skinned actor.
She said: “I find that so irritating. I really do, and that’s where we come back to skills. It’s a cop out for a director of photography to prefer light screened performers to dark skinned performers.”
She continued by saying : “If we take the trouble to watch films from other parts of the world, and see how when you have both white actors and black actors, see the lighting, see how the black person is lit.
I’m not talking about working with a light skinned person of color, I’m talking about working with a dark skinned person of color – Samuel L Jackson for instance. Ebony black, and always incredibly lit. Where’s our own excuse?
“You just never get it in theatre. It does happen in films here, but it’s because of laziness.”
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