‘It’s not my duty to protect actors’ marriages’ – Producer, Biodun Stephen

Biodun Stephen, a Nigerian movie producer, has stated that it’s not her duty to protect actors’ marriages.

She stated this while responding to one of the critics of kissing scenes in Nollywood.

Speaking in an Instagram video, the movie producer noted that actors and their spouses are fully aware of the demands of the profession and should take responsibility for managing their relationships.

Insisting that directors should not be blamed for challenges in actors’ marriages following the scenes they cast, she explained that actors have rights to decline smooching roles.

Highlighting the roles of producer and director, she said her duty is not to salvage actors’ marriages but to ensure actors are treated professionally during filming.

“There’s this lady that always has a mouth for Nollywood. She said something about the kissing, Nollywood, and producers. And she said something about producers taking things easy on having actors kiss because we’re possibly ruining their marriages.

“Kissing is not really part of my craft because I want you people to watch my movies with your children but that doesn’t mean that when an opportunity comes for it, I won’t embrace it. I will embrace it as long as the story calls for it.

“One of the things we’re selling actors on screen is believability. You’re selling an emotion, you’re selling a chemistry, you want people to believe this love so that they can root for it.

“Yeah it can be done without intense kissing but when you are now bringing things like the marriage don’t work.

“I think that responsibility is on the actor who has chosen the profession and also on the spouse of that actor who has accepted that my spouse is an actor and so therefore things like kissing and rubbing might occur.

“And they must have made their peace with it. That responsibility is not my responsibility.

“We have actors who will say to you that I’m sorry, I can’t kiss for personal beliefs and there are actors who say I don’t mind kissing.

“My job as producer or director is to protect you as actors. My job is to present you properly to the audience without mailing your person but my job is not to break your home because that’s not on me. I did not put a gun on your head to work for me”, he said.