Adebayo Salami, a veteran Nollywood actor, says he can’t honestly explain why he doesn’t get roles in English-speaking movies.
The actor, who has been in the business for over fifty years, said this in a recent interview with The Point Newspaper.
Salami, popularly known as Oga Bello, noted that there’s a possibility that the English film producers have the impression that his command of English is below par.
He explained that he would never lobby for a movie role but rather promote his culture by devoting his full attention to Yoruba movies.
Salami said: “They do not invite me to feature in English movies and I cannot lobby for it. Maybe they feel that my spoken English is not up to standard; I do not know honestly.
“The fact is that I would give Yoruba movie more priority than English movies, because I like to promote my culture. My culture is who I am and where I belong to.
“Anytime I get invitations, I am ready because for me, acting is acting; the only difference is the medium of expression.
“If they invite me, I would surprise them. I have done more than eight English movies in the past”. he said.
Oga Bello also expressed joy over his children’s involvement in the movie industry, saying that he’s fulfilled to have such uncommon grace.
He added that although he has 18 children, he would never encourage anyone to follow his example.
“I will not encourage younger ones to have such figure; the fact that I have many children is by destiny because I did not plan for it. It happened when stardom came and there was nothing I could do.
“Now, I believe it is my destiny, because God gave me all I needed to use to train them but not everyone would have the grace or opportunity like Bello,” the actor said.
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