In an explosive exchange, the President of the Ghana actors’ guild has sent a strong warning to Deloris Frimpong Manso concerning her recent commercials on holding auditions to find the next ‘Afia Schwarzeneggar’ Delay has been running commercials on the coming auditions for about two weeks now.
Personally my main issue with the auditions for the series started when I noticed there was a price tag on the audition. Actresses who wish to audition for the role have to pay 30 Ghana Cedis which I find completely wrong.
It is unacceptable to charge or be charged for an audition. I tell people this constantly, if they are charging you for an audition, do not pay. It is within your rights as an artiste not to pay for auditions.
Anyway, that’s where my problem ends but The Actors’ Guild President Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, seems to have a bigger score to settle with Delay. And I think he could have put his point across without sounding so Chauvinistic and disrespectful of women.
In his words on peacefm;
Delay has no right to hold auditions to search for an actress to play the role because she is neither a member of the Ghana Actors Guild nor the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG).
“This time, she will not get it easy. If she thinks she knows big men and so she can find her way through, we would also tell her that we are the Ghana Actors Guild. We have been quiet for some time now because we want sleeping dogs to lie but this time if you want to touch us, we would touch you because it is becoming too much…You see, when people come to small limelight, then they want to use it against others. It is not right. It is not right at all.”
He said her charging for the auditions is also fraudulent and she is exploiting the public.
I agree on the fact that it is fraudulent and criminal but Mr. Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, the part on knowing ‘big men’ was uncalled for. Can a woman not rise by fair means in this country anymore? Does it always have to be through men?
Anyway, you know Delay will respond to this don’t you? And she did!
Delay said ;
“There is no law in Ghana that states I must be a member of the Ghana Actors Guild or FIPAG before I hold auditions to pick actresses for a TV series for which I write the script, direct the production, select the cast, pay for airtime, pay the cast and crew and even decide which TV station I air it on…
“Mr Odoi Mensah is an adult and should know that when he says I think I know big men so I can have my way through, it is an insult not only to me, but to the female members of his Actors Guild as well. Who said a woman must know big men before she becomes a success story?
If that is his mentality, I wonder why he thinks I must belong to his group…In any case; the Ghana Actors Guild is not a statutory body that gives license to actors or actresses. He can ask his members not to come for my auditions but he cannot ban any Ghanaian from acting for my series and I wonder how to select a cast without holding auditions. So you see? Instead of keeping quiet and pretending he is focusing on the welfare of his members so we continue to respect him, he is embarrassing himself with a battle he cannot win; a battle that at the end of the day, would push us all to test the laws of Ghana on whether or not the Actors Guild is a statutory body established by a legislative instrument or a parliamentary act.
Any group of actresses can easily come together tomorrow morning to form another group. So let him secretly go for his interlocutory injunction to stop us. Then we take it from there and see what the law says about freedoms of association. I’m not a film producer to belong to FIPAG,” Delay explained in an interview with NewsOne.
She went on to state that charging for audition forms is a very normal practice which she will continue. And she will definitely hold her auditions at the set time and let anyone dare to stop her.
She also added that people need to stop being jealous and hating because she is producing something worthwhile.
I wonder what is worthwhile on that afia schwarzeneggar show. I just hope they settle their issue amicably and allow us to have our peace
if nobody close to her has told her that her show is full of trash with no common sense in it, then they dont like her….