Veteran actor makes a case for an upturn in the movie industry
Blankson suggests ways to revive Ghana's movie industry
The amount of money paid Ekow Blankson for his roles in movies is “nothing to write home about”, said the actor as he delved into issues that have contributed to Ghana’s dying movie industry.
In his interview with Ismail Akwei on GhanaWeb TV’s The Lowdown, the veteran actor said the narrative would have been different if he played such roles in Hollywood.
“Unfortunately, it’s a hand to mouth salary. It is not anything to write home about,” he said. “I believe that the kinds of things that I have done, if I was doing a Hollywood, I’m sure the kind of attention and detail that I attach to filming here, then you can say you’d buy a house, a car, you can get married. But really, I’d say that the monies I have made has been a hand to mouth. My cars that I bought are from corporate salaries and stuff like that.”
“Sometimes, we use it for fuel,” he further mentioned as he threw more light on how meagre the amount is.
Having done some movies for international brands like Netflix, Mr Blankson asserted that the payment structure is “way better”, adding that “contracts were signed ahead of time”.
"Their set-up is really different and really classy. They treat you well. if you’re getting a three thousand cedis for a movie that has about a hundred scenes here, with the Netflix, you could get something like eight thousand."
He mentioned that in Ghana, some actors get less than three thousand Ghana cedis for a 100-scene movie.
On the back of assertions that the Ghana movie industry is dying, Mr Blankson proffered some solutions for its revival. While urging that funds should be pumped into the industry, the veteran made a case for movies to be well marketed and distributed.
“We need funds. The industry needs funds to operate. We have an industry but we don’t have a film economy. We have a film industry; we have people who make up the film industry but we lack in the place of film economy.
“As a country, we need to understand what our films can do for us and I’ll speak on the authority that I’ve traveled and I know what content does. What are we as Ghana doing? Today, look at Nigeria. Nigeria has beaten Bollywood. Bollywood was second in the world; it was Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood. The reason is that they understand and get funded, get help,” he said.
Watch the show below.
