Nigerian Actors Lack Hollywood Look, Accent, Says Stella Damasus

Veteran actress Stella Damasus has shared her thoughts on why Nigerian actors often struggle to land roles in Hollywood.

Having spent much of the last 15 years living abroad, Damasus explained that many Nigerian actors don’t fit Hollywood’s stereotypical image of Africans, saying they are often not dark-skinned enough and lack the “right” accent that casting directors expect.

Damasus in her conversation with Arrow House, said Hollywood has stereotyped all Africans as having East African accents and are as dark-skinned as Kenyan-Mexican actress, Lupita Nyong’o. These are stereotypes, she said, Nigerians don’t fit into.

“Hollywood filmmakers insist that there is a particular accent that Africans who want to act in their industry must have. SO, that’s why they forced our people to put it on …

“I’m like, we (Nigerians) don’t sound like that, maybe one or two small countries in East Africa. I’m Nigerian, they are Ghanaians. We are different people and we all sound different. We (Nigerians) don’t sound like this. That’s what Hollywood wants. That’s what they are used to.”

She continued, “Most of the Nigerians who have done big screen movies in Hollywood are people who were raised in England. Most of them have a different type of accent. And they (Hollywood filmmakers) said to me, “We want an African to be very dark. That’s the kind of African that we are used to. We are not used to your kind of African. We want Lupita dark. You are not dark enough and you are not white enough to be half-caste, so it would be hard to place you. You are not mixed race. Then, your accent, you don’t sound American or British, neither do you sound African”.

“And I’m like, “How do you think Africans sound? Because Africa is full of a million and one countries. And inside those countries, we have different dialects and different accents,” concluded Damasus.