Nollywood actress Nkechi Blessing, has disclosed that one of the early movie roles she was offered in the industry asked her to “sleep with a dog,” a suggestion she promptly rejected.
In a recent episode of The Honest Bunch podcast, the actress discussed her early days in Nollywood and said the script was given to her while she was still a novice attempting to establish herself in the industry.
She claims that taking on such a job would have left a negative impression that might follow her for the rest of her career.
“Despite being a newcomer, I was given a script to sleep with a dog. I rejected it because I can’t start off my career like that,” she said.
Nkechi Blessing revealed that she was concerned about the long-term effect of taking on such a contentious role as her debut performance in a movie.
“Imagine my first ever movie, I am sleeping with a dog. It doesn’t make sense. It is going to be a tag because whatever you start with is what people would associate you with,” she said.
The actress stated that she did not want to be recognized or stereotyped for such an extreme act, resulting in the decision to safeguard her reputation and career in Nollywood.
She added, “I didn’t want to be renowned as someone who sleeps with dogs in movies.
“So I rejected that script. But immediately I threw it down, so many girls grabbed it. I’m not sure any of them are in the spotlight today.”
Blessing said that after leaving the production set, she met veteran Nollywood filmmaker Emeka Duru, who offered to work with her.
She continued by saying that Duru finally offered her the chance to star in her first film directed by Imem Isong.
