Actress Halima Abubakar, winner of Best Actress Supporting Role, 2011 AfroHollywood Award, UK, spoke with P.M.Entertainment in London about herself, the movie industry and other issues. Of course Sexual harassment in Nollywood. Nollywood is Africa leading movie industry power house producing more movies in a year than Hollywood, but india-Bollywood is the number 1 in the World, winning more movies shoot in a year.
Interview:
There is this allegation that there is sexual harassment in the movie industry, how true is this?
Of course, there is because immediately I came back 10 years ago, a member of an unprofessional clique calling themselves film producers, tried it with me.
Who is the person?
Do you expect me to mention anybody's name? No, but one of them tried such with me but my god brother, Micky Robson, warned me against the person. Well, I will say I was lucky because I have people who were guiding me.
Was the person pestering you or wanted to do otherwise?
No, but the person insisted that I should come and collect my script at his hotel room and I told him 'do people collect script in hotel rooms?' Another incident was when another guy had an audition for a movie entitled Eagle Bride and asked people to pay N500 each, a lot of people actually paid the money.
Did you pay?
No, I did not pay because he asked me to come and pick mine in a hotel and I wondered why it is me, among hundreds of people, would go to a hotel and pick my script, when I did not even have a dime to pay in the first instance. Anyway, I told Micky and he warned me not to go and I did not.
Do women harass men in Nollywood?
Yes, they do because a lot of confused girls that came into Nollywood lately don't know their bearing as they just came flaunting their bodies and when somebody tries to show interest in them, they cry foul and say that they are being harassed, yet they were the ones harassing the men. They do it because they are not ready to work hard because you can not tell me every man is harassing you sexually, so something must be wrong. Well, I'm an actress and when I am on location I see these things happening and when you try to advise them, they will tell you that they know what they are doing.
So what is the level of Nollywood for now?
We are growing rapidly for now. Nollywood is a big industry that can make the country proud.
How do you see Halima Abubakar in the next 10 years?
My prayer is to be happily married and raise a good family.
When do you hope to get married?
Everything is in God's hand.
Do you have a relationship?
I don't discuss my private life on the pages of newspapers.
But who is the lucky man?
No, I won't discuss that.
Who then is your ideal man?
My ideal man is the person I am dating.
Source: P.M. Entertainment
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