2 actresses who have lost roles
Roselyn Ngissah, Helen Asante share experiences in acting career
Body shapes affecting selection of actors for movie roles
‘Too fat or skinny for a movie role!’ This has been the nightmare of some Ghanaian female actresses throughout their journey until they were able to challenge the status quo.
These stars who have struggled with movie directors in their quest to drive focus to their talent and not their body weight had a tough time doing so.
The pressure on female actors to be ‘thin but curvy’ has been the source of all these struggles.
This is because the showbiz industry is somewhat a difficult space for anyone who doesn’t fit its narrow beauty standards.
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As it turns out, it has affected some of the most talented actresses in the Ghanaian movie as good roles have once eluded them.
By speaking out on various platforms, most of them have confessed to suffering depression as a result.
Let’s take a look at some female actors who have had a hard time in their career due to body weight.
Roselyn Ngissah
One of the best female actors in Ghana, Roselyn Ngissah, has recounted how she once struggled due to her huge body stature.
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The actress said it got to a point where she was either offered zero roles, or the least, masculine characters.
Roselyn said she was often given police officer roles to an extent that fans mostly queried whether she is indeed an officer in real life.
The plus-size actress said all the feminine main character roles eluded her at a point.
“As for the challenges, it’s a whole lot. It has always been my body size. Everybody said I was big. I always play cooperate roles, that’s what I always got. People meet me in town and they always think I’m a CID. After my movie foreplay, that was when people started to have a different mindset about me,” She told Emelia Brobbey on the ‘Okukuseku’ show.
Helen Asante
The Ghanaian actress has disclosed how she lost some chances to star in movies because of her petite body size.
Helen recounted a point in time where mature roles eluded her because movie producers will rather opt for thick women.
In an earlier interview with Elsie Lamar on Talkertainment, Helen said she got frustrated to a point where she craved the chance to join the Hollywood industry because she felt her body size will be more appreciated there.
“This was my number one challenge at the start of my career. I lost roles because of my weight. They never thought I could play certain roles I knew I could. I was never given the chance to play the role of a typical Ghanaian woman. At a point, some people even thought I wasn’t Ghanaian because I didn’t have the back or front. I was denied such roles because I was flat.
“It is not about the size but rather about the character you’re playing. If you give me a character like this, by the time I’m done with hair, costume, and so on, I won’t even be recognized. So what happens is that these producers give women with big bodies a mature role and petite women like myself a child role,” Helen stated.
