Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe in an interview with Encomium magazine has set the record straight regarding her outburst at Thisday Style after she failed to make their Nollywood’s Best Dressed Cover.
According to the actress who recently revealed she can never act nude, it had nothing to do with being best dressed, but everything to do with the fact Yoruba actors are not regarded as part of Nollywood.
She told Encomium magazine,
“Why will I be fighting because I was not on the list of the best dressed actresses of any paper or magazine? After all, I don’t dress because I want anybody to rate me. I only try to wear whatever suits me at every occasion. So, the point I was trying to make has nothing to do with best dressed list. “My observation for quite some time has always been that those of us in the Yoruba movie sector are always being underrated.
They have this erroneous impression that we’re not educated, so we should be treated as ‘rass’, local and second class actors. We’re not worthy of being celebrated. So, I am still asking, is it because we’re doing indigenous movies and that’s why we are being denied robust media attention being enjoyed by our counterparts in the English movie sector?
“They rarely address us as Nollywood stars, instead prefer calling us Yoruba movie stars. I think this is the right time for those who came up with the Nollywood identity to come out and tell us if Yoruba actors are not included so that we can also form our own wood. Or those categorizing us are the ones creating an impression that we’re inferior because we’re into Yoruba movies. I think there should be an end to this embarrassment. Imagine publishing a list of the best Nollywood actors and not even one Yoruba actor was there. Or are they saying we’re not worthy of being celebrated?”
Mercy Aigbe is popular for movies like “Victims,” “Oju Ife,” “Atunida leyi,” among others.