Esteemed Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe, reveals her near departure from the Nigerian film industry due to encounters with sexual harassment.
The revelation came during a recent interview on ‘Your View,’ a talk show on TVC hosted by Morayo Afolabi-Brown.
Mercy Aigbe recounted an incident where a producer made inappropriate sexual advances towards her after a movie audition, despite having secured a role in an upcoming film.
The single mother emphasized how she had just quit a well-paying job at the time for the movie role, and unknown to her the sexual harassment awaiting her in her first shot at acting.
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“I met a producer in Surulere, and I expressed to him how much I would love to act. He told me he had an upcoming film and invited me to his office for an audition in his office.
”After I had passed three stages of the audition, I was given a minor role, which I told him that was not the character I was auditioning for, and he replied that the director said he did not know me, and that was why he wanted me to be close to him,” she said.
Mercy added, “He then stood up to touch me. I was very upset and I thought if that was what it took to be an actress, I don’t want to be an actress anymore. I tore the script and left; I cried on my way going home because I left a well paying job to join Nollywood, and I was already a single mother at the time.”