As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, 8th of March, Ghanaian actress Akofa Edjeani has called for more female producers, directors, and writers in the film industry.
She mentioned that women have different perspectives and understandings of women’s issues, which they can reflect in their stories.
She criricized the way some male creatives portray women in a negative light and argued that female creatives can better highlight the strengths and ambitions of women in their stories.
She said that women producers and scriptwriters empower women in their stories and that she wants to see more of them in the film business.
“Women producers and scriptwriters empower women in their stories than men do because they don’t understand us. It shows in most of their stories. So they tend to portray women as gossips or husband snatchers, all the negatives. You see some stories, once the man is dead, then they’re selling charcoal or they’re crying,” Akofa stated.
“When women write, we write from different perspectives. When you are writing about women, it’s richer because we understand what we go through. We highlight our strengths and ambitions and the things that women can do and how they can bring all those strengths to build the home, to build the nation and to make things work,” she further added.
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call for action to accelerate women’s equality.
Akofa Edjeani Talks About Fair Gender Parity In Industry
Multiple-award-winning actress, Akofa Edjeani disclosed that Ghana’s film industry works with a fair gender representation of casts for roles for both men and women.
She noted that there is no discrimination in the film industry for the number of casts for roles to be played by both men and women.
The President of Women in Film and Television emphasized that for the movie industry, the story line mostly determines the number of women to be casted in the movie.
“In the movie industry, I think yes because it depends on the demands of the story. it’s the story that determines how many women are employed. If the story is about a cast of 20 and females are 10, yes, then 10 females will be needed but if they have only two females in the story [then two females will be needed]. So really it depends on the story,” Akofa said.
“Other places we gave females in direction, costume, make-ups, special effect make-ups and all the other things even camera. So yes, in the industry I think there’s a fair representation,” she explained.
Commenting about equal salary for women who play the same role as men, the actress indicated that payment in the movie industry is based on “what you are bringing to the table, the clout that you have.”
“So I could paid more based on whatever. Your scenes might be more than mine but I would have to be paid more because of the name that I have couched for myself. So that is how it works in the entertainment industry,” she added.
“If you are using Adjetey Annan even for two scenes and you are playing about 40 scenes because he is Adjetey Annan and the work that he’s done for himself and who he is and what he can bring on the table, the crowd he can pull. He has to be paid more than you so that is how it works,” Akofa remarked.
She further noted that it is not about gender issue in the entertainment industry but rather the number of people that can be filled in a hall.
“Can you fill a hall? Maybe this is your first major movie and nobody knows you so even though you’re playing the lead, the person playing the supporting is a star and therefore the star has to be paid more,” she revealed.
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