Ghanaian actress, Akofa Edjeani has unfurled some of the challenges women face in the showbiz industry.
Although she admits that sexual harassment obtains in every sphere of life, she said on Showbiz A-Z on Joy FM that the behaviour is prevalent in the entertainment industry.
According to her, she lost a movie role when she declined to have sexual relationship with a film director.
“I remember we were shooting somewhere after Kumasi, I think. Unfortunately, the producer was a Nigerian. We were going to shoot two movies back to back. So based on that, the executive producer had begged me to bring my rates down, that because we were doing two movies he would pay a certain amount, which reluctantly I agreed to.
“Now here is the director who asked me to come to his room. I said ‘come to your room and do what?’. He said ‘to watch a movie’. I said ‘watch what movie? I mean come on, whatever you want to tell me, I don’t need to come to your room’. Apparently, he wanted something else. I said ‘like seriously?’ Are you serious?”, she told the host Kwame Dadzie.
Akofa explained that she was not cast for the second movie because she did not consent to the director’s sexual demands.
“I didn’t go to his room and guess what, that caused me the next movie. And when I asked the executive producer he said it was the director who was casting but I said ‘you were paying me this amount because we agreed on shooting two movies’. And he said there was nothing he could do about it because it was the director that did the casting,” Akofa stated.
She said throughout her career, she has always believed in her talent, a reason she has never given in to any sexual demands for movie roles.
Akofa, therefore, advised young women who want to get into the creative industry, should believe in their abilities and not fall for the wiles of such men.
Other women on the show were comedian Jacinta Ocansey, event executive Whitney Boakye-Mensah and musician Mimi Andani. Showbiz A-Z airs on Joy 99.7 FM on Saturdays from 2pm to 6pm.
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