Why I Turned Down Nollywood Roles - Hollywood Actor Hakeem Reveals

Nigerian Born Hollywood actor, Hakeem Kae Kazim, has
revealed that he turned down several Nollywood scripts as
such scripts did not match his standard.

In an interview with HipHopWorld, the British-Nigerian, who
played George Rutaganda in the Academy Award-nominated
movie, Hotel Rwanda, also disclosed how director, Obi
Emelonye, wooed him over to Nollywood with the script of
Last Flight To Abuja.

"I did the TV series called 24, up in Los Angeles, United
States, then one Nigerian director I had met at some film
festivals said to me, 'Nobody knows you are Nigerian in
Nigeria'.

"I was shocked and he said, 'You have to come home and do
something'. Then a year and a half later, he presented a script,
Inale. It was my first experience coming back into Nigeria and
working in Nollywood. And then he said will I come and do
his movie; it was Last Flight To Abuja. Again, the reason
why I did it was because he was the director and one that is
trying to move the Nollywood film experience to a higher
level so I wanted to help him do that and so I came back and
did Last Flight To Abuja, which was an interesting filming
experience," Mr. Kae-Kazim said.

He also noted the discrimination of black actors in
Hollywood....

"Yes, there is discrimination in one sort of sense but the
major fact is that in Hollywood, whites are the majority there.

They are doing their own work and are just telling their own
stories from their perspective and most times they just have a
person of colour they want to put in as they deem fit. And I
think it's up to us to be able to tell our own stories.

The most important thing is for the African race both in
Hollywood and Nollywood to put together their resources to
provide infrastructure and to start a process of telling their
own stories so that the stories come from them and by them,"
he said.

Mr. Kae-Kazim described his experience with Nollywood
superstars, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Genevieve Nnaji, as
good. He talked about how great it was for him to have come
and experienced some of Nigerian talents and hopefully
influence the talent and help raise everybody's game.