Nollywood actor: “How Playing a Gay Role Boosted My Career”

Iremide said; “When the audience can relate with the character, that’s great news for me. People have come to resonate more with the character, way more than I expected, and that is the joy for me as an actor when the audience can relate with the surface; that’s great news for me.

“Acting as a queer character in Nollywood as Lolu Adeleke. It has been the biggest queer representation in Nollywood on that scale, and it feels great to be one of the performers of something like that. I was expecting some backlash, of course, because acting a queer character in a homophobic country, you don’t know what to expect.

“Still, you know what to expect, but so far, so good; despite the bad and negative sides I have seen, I feel like the love has overshadowed the bad side. For me, I don’t want to focus on the negativity that comes from playing that character; the love and the people that do appreciate the work that I do is what I pay my attention to.”