Nigerian actress and singer Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has weighed in on the ongoing debate over the marketing strategies filmmakers and actors use to promote their movies in cinemas and on streaming platforms.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the discussion gained traction after filmmaker Kunle Afolayan stated at the Lagos Business of Film Summit that he would not resort to dancing to promote a film.
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Afolayan described the relentless demands of constant content creation required for modern film promotion as unsustainable.
But his colleague, Funke Akindele, responded to the remarks, saying she was not standing in the way of his progress and stressing that “the sky is wide enough for everyone to fly.”
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Afolayan later clarified his comments, explaining that they were not directed at Akindele, and added that he held “no personal issues with the actress.”
Enter Jalade-Ekeinde
Responding to questions from the hosts of E-Splash on TVC on whether she would adopt dancing as a promotional tool for her upcoming film “Mothers Love”, scheduled for cinema release on 6 March, Jalade-Ekeinde said she did not subscribe to that marketing strategy.
In the video posted on the station’s YouTube page on Tuesday, the 47-year-old said there was nothing wrong with dancing but stressed that she did not believe it should be used as a strategy to promote a movie.
She said, “I’m sorry, I will not be doing the dancing. It’s just not me. I dance. I love to dance. I’m sure a lot of us love to dance. I think the problem and the reason why a lot of people are kicking back at it is. You want to dance because you feel like it, not because you have to. There’s a difference, okay? So there’s nothing wrong with, oh, you’re promoting your movie and you guys are just having fun.
“That’s different, but when it becomes a chore, when it becomes, oh, this is what you have to do even to sell a movie, it’s not professional. I already did the project. I should go around, talk about the project, and promote it, and then let the people whose jobs are to distribute and do the advertising for the project handle that. That’s how it’s done in better times. Let me not use another word. That’s the professional thing to do.”
Not an actor’s job
Additionally, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) alumna said dancing to promote films was not meant for actors.
The mother of four stressed that actors are not content creators, noting that dancing is not part of their profession.
According to her, such marketing strategies are uncommon among actors in the United States.
“There’s nothing wrong with actors promoting their work, but when the onions are on the actor almost alone to do that, and then now you’re doing nearly demeaning things to promote a project. It wears you down to the point where you don’t look forward to another project, because you have to go through the whole process again. It’s exhausting. In the United States, for example, some actors are not even on Instagram.
“They are not even on social media. You will never find Daniel Day-Lewis on social media. I don’t even think you can see Leonardo DiCaprio on social media. These guys are actors. They know their job. They come, do their job, and leave. Whoever’s job it is to take that project afterwards and distribute, market, and promote it takes the project from that stage and goes to do their job. You do billboards. You do whatever you need to do. Don’t leave that burden on me. It’s not my job. Unfortunately, this is Nigeria”, said Jalade-Ekeinde.
She further stated that singers do not come to social media to dance or create all sorts of content to promote their songs.
According to her, dancing, content creation, and other trending marketing strategies should be optional and done for fun, not treated as a compulsory requirement for selling movies.
She said, “You don’t see singers. You know, I mean, you guys have your lovely musicians and everything. They don’t sing after singing and they don’t come and start doing another… My point is they don’t have to. If they do it, they do it for fun. I mean, if I’m promoting my music on social media and I’m just singing to my own song, dancing to my own song, that’s different.
“But, I mean, I’m sure a lot of actors just do that. You know, but if it now becomes, oh, I have to have a schedule to do that. I have to do this. I have to do that. I have to post a video. Oh my God. You just did somebody’s job, then they give you another schedule. You know, because you have to do all this content. And now it’s so bad that people don’t even get hired because, I mean, actors are not getting hired because they refuse to do that.”
Experience
Furthermore, Jalade-Ekeinde criticised the growing tendency among filmmakers to cast untrained individuals solely based on their social media followings.
She said this practice had led professional actors to miss out on job opportunities.
“There would always be influencers. There are influencers in music and entertainment. So there will always be influencers that you would hire now and then, to, you know, boost something. Maybe they’re reigning at that time. They are not actors. There are people whose job, and whose sweat, their time, their experience, are in this craft. You don’t compare them with those people.
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“I think the problem with Nigeria, with every profession, not just the entertainment industries, is that we don’t respect experience. We don’t respect the time that people have put into a craft. If we did, and we understood that this is what this person has been doing for a while, they have put in time and now have experience in this thing, and you respect them for that, then let them do their job. And they get someone else who does something else better to do that”, the actress said.
Jalade-Ekeinde added that the practice persists because filmmakers are trying to cut costs and therefore decide who will act in their films, while also assigning them additional roles, such as marketing the finished production.
“So you have bad acting generally, on screen, and then you disbalance the whole status quo thing. And then actors are out of work, and then you have this. I don’t want to call them charlatans sometimes. I’m not talking about any particular person; I’m just saying people who like to take advantage of stuff. It could not even be a big group of people; it could be someone who’s just famous. You know somebody famous for maybe doing something crazy on Instagram or social media for a minute.
“And then you make them act and continue to act. They’re not sick. It’s not just about the acting, it’s also about the discipline, you see. So it’s not just what you see on camera. What about things you don’t see on camera? I mean, that’s even nice when you say, What’s up?”
