Enyinna Nwigwe, a star of Nollywood, has likely been absent from your TV screens lately since she has been hard at work in South Africa filming for the Netflix series “Kings of Jo’burg,” whose second season just recently debuted. In addition to our own Enyinna Nwigwe, the TV program features a number of South African performers.
So the issue that everyone wants answered came up in a recent interview with Arise TV: how different was filming in South Africa compared to Nigeria? Enyinna Nwigwe, who is known for his candor, talked openly about two key differences between filming in South Africa and Nigeria. He said the following.
ONE: South Africa’s Trailers.
When asked about the major differences between filming in Nigeria vs filming in South Africa, Enyinna Nwigwe cited the trailers in South Africa as the first major difference. Enyinna said:
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ENYINNA NWIGWE: From my own experience, in South Africa, you get on set, you’re put in a trailer. Your trailer has the drinks that you’ve listed that you like, non-alcoholic while filming. It’s got food, it’s got fridge with fruits and everything. It’s got all your costumes lined up, it’s got an air conditioner if it gets hot. If it gets cold, you have a heater. You have your bed, you have your couch, you have a TV. So when you’re not on set, you’re comfortable. So wherever it is the location is, you don’t have to hang about waiting outside, hanging in one room where there is no light, so you’re constantly focused on your work. And when you’re not working, you’re resting proper.
TWO: 12 Hour Turnaround
The second big difference Enyinna Nwigwe pointed out was the adherance to the 12 hour turnaround time in South Africa. Enyinna said:
ENYINNA NWIGWE: Secondly, the 12 hour turnaround time is completely adhered to because their guilds and unions work. So if 2pm is lunch, nobody touches anything after 2pm and it’s a collective thing. So it’s not like the producer wants you to work but you’re saying “oh you do know it’s 2 o’clock, we have to eat, then the producer will be like ‘I will not hire you again'”, no! You don’t work on Sundays and if you must, there is a pay for that. So everything is handled by the union so there’s no rancor about ‘oh that sound man is rude, he could not even push the bag till 11, 12, when we don’t have a location tomorrow’. So everything is just laid out clean and followed through to the T, and they don’t work you beyond 12 hours.
Nawa! What joy when Nigeria actually finally starts to work well across every industry. Just in this same Africa, the difference between Enyinna’s description of acting in South Africa vs acting in Nigeria is already so much. What do you think about what Enyinna Nwigwe said?