Veteran actress, Ireti Doyle, has said she nearly lost her first television commercial job because she was not the right skin colour.
She said she did not match the client rep’s version of an “ideal.”
Using the trendy slang for dark skinned girls “Melanin Poppin” the fifty years old actress said that now being dark is in vogue.
Appreciating herself she said being “loud and obnoxious” is not quite the same as “bold and audacious.”
She wrote:
“I shot my 1st tv commercial over two decades ago. It was a major deal for an upcoming actor; for the visibility and the paycheck.
“I nearly lost that gig for being the wrong skin colour. I didn’t match the client rep’s “ideal”.
“Thankfully, the director, Mr. Wale Fanu wasn’t a pushover. He told the chap to let him do his thing or take him off the project.
“Fast forward 20yrs, “Melanin Poppin” has become a # and the dark-skinned girl is having her day in the sun.
“It might take a little while longer, but eventually it will be clear that.
“loud and obnoxious” is not quite the same as “bold and audacious”…And that being polite, soft-spoken and demure, is not “fake”; neither is it a “weakness”. ?@kelechiamadiobi(AMVCA 2016)
