Actress Lydia Forson has discounted claims made by Juliet Ibrahim that no one in Ghana can go into acting as a full-time job.
Using herself as an example, the actress and social media activist, said before she moved into managing her current business, she was doing acting as a full-time job which relied on for income.
“Actors all over the world have supporting careers when they’re coming up, but once you hit a certain status it will take your full time and you have to function as a business”.
In a recent interview, Selassie Ibrahim said there must be something wrong with anyone who makes such a claim, adding that anyone who claims to act full time in Ghana will die of hunger if they don’t have any side job to augment the meagre income they make from acting.
Selassie Ibrahim advised her colleagues to venture into other businesses and make acting their hobbies to get money to support their lavish lifestyle on social media.
According to her, the film gigs usually come once every three months and that cannot sustain anyone to depend on only acting.
‘…I keep telling them you cannot tell me you are a full-time actress in Ghana, there is something wrong with you. You cannot call yourself a full-time actress or actor, you must be sick in the head. You will be hungry and die a pauper. You need to find something else to do. If it is a business you can do, call it a hobby. I have a setup and other stuff, but how about an ordinary person acting? You called every three months for a role in movies. It cannot sustain you,” she said.
But, her colleague actress Lydia Forson has shot down the claims by Selassie Ibrahim, saying her statement only goes to denigrate the already struggling industry.
She added that she was a full-time actress for several years before owning her business.
She wrote: “I get the point she’s making but this only denigrates an already struggling industry, especially where women are concerned. Too many people don’t understand filmmaking and Showbiz as a whole and it’s why some of these very nuanced conversations are overly simplified. I was a FULL-TIME ACTRESS for many years before I ever owned any business, and whiles I did struggle at times, I understood the ( BIZ) in SHOWBIZ and knew that I had to run myself like the brand I was, it’s where your money comes from.”
Lydia Forson added: “Loving an industry and being in it doesn’t mean you completely understand it and it’s why we need a lot more conversations on SHOWBIZ as a whole and with people who have an appreciation of its complexities”.
Lydia Forson insisted that saying acting is a hobby only cast negativity on “what we do; what she does as a producer, the people she hires and how much money she spends to produce one movie is not a hobby. Much love to all actors, filmmakers (including auntie Selassie) for continuing to sustain an industry that isn’t always easy.”
