After the release of her film “Lion Heart”, Genevieve received a lot of attention around the world. Many thought, it was an opportunity for her to feature in Hollywood films.
Speaking as a panel member at the 2024 AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum/Afreximbank Annual Meetings, the actress revealed how Hollywood received her after the success of her film “Lions Heart”.
According to Genevieve, Hollywood only saw her as a commodity and wanted to use her to their advantage. She added that, they wanted to make everything fit to their perspective of an African story.
“For the first time, I realized I was a commodity. I thought, you know, given what I had done with Lionheart, and all of that, I was going to have an opportunity to do more. Getting there and having the kind of support that obviously CANEX is bringing on board, but I thought I could find it in Hollywood. That was not quite the case.
“They wanted what I had but for their benefit. It was all about their story. It was all about how, even if it was our story, I could make it more authentic to their own understanding of whatever Africa is because they did have a lot of literature in their archives,” she said.
The veteran actress further mentioned that, despite the opportunities provided by Hollywood, she decided to stay in Nollywood to contribute to its success. She wants to contribute to telling African stories the African way.
“But I am Nollywood. I could have gone to Hollywood a long time if I wanted to. But I had a dream to build an industry in Nigeria that could rival it. That’s because I’ve always believed in that. I have always believed that we were capable of actually owning an industry like that, that told our story for our people. I wanted that. I respect what Hollywood is doing. I respect what Bollywood is doing and I felt like Nollywood had an equal chance at it.
“So when I found it wasn’t quite what they had in mind I was like I’m just going to wait this out and the Covid happened and the worlds switched at that point and Africa sort of became it,” Genevieve added.
