Veteran Nollywood actress, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, who has been in the movie business for over four decades has shared her school of thought about kissing scenes with her younger colleagues.
According to the octogenarian, any actor who turns down a kissing role is not a genuine thespian. A recipient of the national award she further stated that an actor who turns down such roles is just ‘play-acting’.
While admonishing this set of actors, the legendary screen diva during an interview with TVC said, “Acting is believing, we are projecting life.
“There is a difference between play-acting and wanting to show how other people feel. And that is what I do. “I read for instance in Nigerian papers where people who marry an actor who has been kissed.
“And somebody says, ‘All my years in acting I have never been kissed, I do not allow anybody to kiss me. Well, you are not an actor. You do not bring your personal preferences into play.
She further stated, “You can do that when you are play-acting, but when you are acting, you are that person. So to start moralising about acting means you are not an actor, you are play-acting.”(sic)
The movie star made her acting debut in Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Lion and the Jewel’ at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1966. She returned to Nigeria in 1971 and has since featured in several blockbuster movies home and abroad.
