Nollywood actor Deyemi Okanlawon talks about the difficulties he faced establishing a successful career in the entertainment industry.
He talked about how his initial lack of social media presence hampered his development as an actor in a recent interview on the Echoo Room Podcast.
The actor Deyemi claimed that because of his little internet fan base, producers rejected him despite his talent.
He said that after realising that some people value an actor more for their internet character than their skill, he decided to concentrate on developing his personal brand.
In his words:
“Not having Instagram followers hindered me. I would tell myself, ‘I’m the guy who comes to kill himself on set. Why am I being judged by the number of followers I have?
“I said to myself, there is no point fighting it. There’s always going to be a new set of people who focus more on the brand than the craft. So I said let me start some brand-building.”
Recall that, Deyemi Okanlawon responded to a trolling incident on social media by saying that a fan compared his aggressive movie advertising tactics to that of a newbie.
The actor expressed his annoyance at the uninvited message on his Instagram page.
In an Instagram post, he disclosed that his aggressive marketing strategy is motivated by his previous financial hardships, characterising it as “brokenness.”
“Someone said ‘Deyemi you be senior man na, why you dey promote your film like say you be rookie’… for a brief second all the many ppl who depend on me flashed through my mind, I smiled and blocked the id*ot!
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Clearly ruffled by the criticism, Deyemi Okanlawon emphasized the challenges of financial instability, pointing out the degrading and frustrating nature of being broke as a man.
“Being broke as a man is very degrading and frustrating. To every man who’s putting in the work to change his financial status for the better, I hope you win soon bro, I hope things get better for you real soon,”he added.
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