Renowned Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe, has opened up about the challenges she faced, almost leading to her departure from the Nigerian film industry due to experiences of sexual harassment.
During a recent interview on ‘Your View,’ a talk show on TVC hosted by Morayo Afolabi-Brown, Mercy Aigbe shared the harrowing details of an incident where a producer subjected her to inappropriate sexual advances after a movie audition, despite already securing a role in an upcoming film.
The single mother emphasized that at the time, she had just quit a well-paying job for the movie role, unaware of the sexual harassment she would face in her initial foray into acting.
“I met a producer in Surulere, and I expressed to him how much I would love to act. He told me he had an upcoming film and invited me to his office for an audition in his office.
”After I had passed three stages of the audition, I was given a minor role, which I told him that was not the character I was auditioning for, and he replied that the director said he did not know me, and that was why he wanted me to be close to him,” she recounted.
Mercy added, “He then stood up to touch me. I was very upset and I thought if that was what it took to be an actress, I don’t want to be an actress anymore. I tore the script and left; I cried on my way going home because I left a well-paying job to join Nollywood, and I was already a single mother at the time.”
