Veteran Nollywood actress Stella Damasus has opened up about the challenges Nigerian actors face when trying to break into Hollywood.

In an insightful conversation with Arrow House, Damasus highlighted Hollywood’s limited and stereotypical portrayal of African characters. She explained that the industry often expects African roles to have East African accents and to look like Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, creating a narrow and unrealistic standard for Nigerian actors.

“Hollywood filmmakers insist that there is a particular accent that Africans who want to act in their industry must have. So, that’s why they forced our people to put it on… I’m like, we [Nigerians] don’t sound like that, maybe one or two small countries in East Africa. I’m Nigerian, they are Ghanaians. We are different people and we all sound different. We [Nigerians] don’t sound like this. That’s what Hollywood wants. That’s what they are used to,” she said.

Damasus also noted that most Nigerians who have secured leading roles in Hollywood were raised or trained abroad, often in the UK, which gives them an edge with accents more familiar to Hollywood casting directors.

She further added:

“They said to me, ‘We want an African to be very dark. That’s the kind of African that we are used to. We are not used to your kind of African. We want Lupita dark. You are not dark enough and you are not white enough to be half-caste, so it would be hard to place you. You are not mixed race. Then your accent, you don’t sound American or British, neither do you sound African.’

And I’m like, ‘How do you think Africans sound? Because Africa is full of a million and one countries. And inside those countries, we have different dialects and different accents.’”

Her remarks highlight the pressing need for Hollywood to broaden its understanding and representation of Africa’s rich cultural diversity