Veteran actor, Mrs. Taiwo Ajai-Lycet, OON, has taken some of her colleagues in the entertainment industry to the cleaners saying they are only after glamor.
Speaking exclusively with the Next Edition, the iconic actor, dancer and voice coach noted that a lot of actors in the Nigerian movie industry lacked the commitment and discipline for meaningful acting.
She accused them rather of play-acting rather than acting.
She said: “An actor is like a teacher, a sayer. You are saying somebody else’s words, but you bring your intelligence, knowledge and everything and you expose that and you should be able to do it even in films and television.
“Because you are communicating ideas, that’s what your audience are fixated on. If you don’t do that, you are play-acting and not acting.
“Play-acting is what children do when they play mummies, doctors, teachers and all that. I have more respect for the children’s play-acting because they are rehearsing for the future, they are mirroring what they see around them and they are committed to what they are doing.
That’s the commitment an actor should have.
“They are not worried about their dress or whatever. They are dealing with ideas and they’re really committed to it. You can’t say the same for our glamour girls. Their market is very different, and the ideas they are flaunting is quite different from the ideas those children are playing at.”
Ajai-Lycet who expressed her preference for stage acting insisted that films can never beat stage experience.
Her words: “There are some films that are really knockouts, but you cannot beat a stage experience. It’s organic, it is almost religious, it’s spiritual, it’s a connection because you listen and hear what I’m saying and you switch on your emotional intelligence. You can’t beat stage. It’s right there and you have to know your onions. It’s not like television or movies where they can have take after take until you get it right. When you are on stage, you have one chance to get it right.”
