Actress Genevieve Nnaji recently revealed that she did not receive the anticipated support from Hollywood following the success of her 2018 movie “Lionheart.”
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She shared her experiences at the 2024 AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum/Afreximbank Annual Meetings on Tuesday, June 18, explaining how Hollywood was more interested in exploiting her talent and African stories for their own benefit rather than supporting her creative vision.
“For the first time, I realized I was a commodity,” Nnaji said.
“I thought, given what I had done with ‘Lionheart’ and all of that, I was going to have an opportunity to do more.
“Getting there and having the kind of support that obviously Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) is bringing on board, I thought I could find it in Hollywood. That was not quite the case.”
She explained that Hollywood’s interest was primarily in using her work to fit their narratives.
“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,” she noted.
Nnaji chose to remain in Nigeria to help grow the local industry rather than pursue Hollywood opportunities.
“But I am Nollywood. I could have gone to Hollywood a long time ago if I wanted to. But I had a dream to build an industry in Nigeria that could rival it.
“That’s because I’ve always believed in that. I have always believed 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,” she explained.
Reflecting on her decision, she added, “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 then Covid happened, and the world switched at that point and Africa sort of became it.”
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