Actress Joke Silva Reveals she was secretly blacklisted from Nollywood
Joke Silva, one of Nigeria’s most prominent and prolific actresses, has disclosed to the surprise of many, that she was secretly blacklisted from Nollywood.
In an interview with Chude Jideonwo, Joke narrated her ordeal;
“Years ago we did this film and the producer, you know at that time, that was the time when all the marketers were getting involved in movies. And this marketer came to our house, we were living in Ikeja at the time, brought money for myself and my husband to come on this movie that they had already started shooting and they wanted us to play the parents of the star of the film. We said, ‘okay why not’ and the money was right there so ‘okay, let’s go’. Then we started shooting. It was Fred Amata who directed at the time. We started shooting and things were going a bit rocky until one day, we were waiting for the lead actress. We got on location, they told us we had to be on location by 8 in the morning and we got on location on time. We were never late. Got dressed. And we were waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Till 4 in the afternoon.
When the marketer then brings the star along with them to location, I turned around and I looked to Fred and I said ‘Fred, I’m contracted to work with you for 2 weeks, I will give you 2 extra days on those 2 weeks cuz I know what location can be like. After those 2 days, if we don’t finish, I’m walking’. Fred said ‘I totally understand’ but I’m sure he didn’t believe I would do it. When those 2 days were up, we still had one scene and it was supposed to be a very crucial scene in the film. I didn’t show up o! I didn’t show up.
It was a big marketer at that time and this guy couldn’t believe it. (He was shouting this and that,) ‘get her here’, I said ‘get to where? Abeg’. And because of that, I was secretly blacklisted for quite a while. Mine was never announced but it was done and I really couldn’t give a f**k.
Joke isn’t the first actress to be blacklisted from the industry. Nollywood stars, Genevieve Nnaji and Rita Dominic have talked about their own blacklisting experiences and it turns out Joke wasn’t left out either.
Joke Silva has a career that has spanned more than 30 years and she has starred in a slew of Nigerian movies, television shows, and stage plays over the years.
