Nollywood star Rotimi Salami has spoken out about the tough challenges he faced in the movie industry due to his physical appearance. In a no-holds-barred interview on Feelrightnews TV‘s YouTube channel, Salami explained how he was repeatedly rejected by producers who believed that his face and body shape did not fit the type of characters they had planned.
It was not that simple at all in the days of our movie screenings because it was actually quite far from where I was staying,” he said, explaining how he would go so out of his way, hoping to get a role—only to be turned down.
He got only a single offer for three years, which made him wonder if he was ever going to be an actor. The most brutal rejection, he furthered, came when producers straightforwardly told him his appearance did not suit Nollywood’s main acting roles.
I wept when some producers told me that they were not able to give me offers for films based on my body and face,” he admitted.
Most of the filmmakers, he said, preferred actors with bigger muscles, excluding him from the table. Based on these grievances, Salami decided to continue with higher studies while keeping his dreams intact.
