9th December, 2023
By Fikayo Babalola
In a recent interview with ‘Your View’ on TVC, Mercy Aigbe recalled how she had auditioned for a role with a producer who offered her a minor role instead of the one she had auditioned for.
When she questioned this, the producer said she needed to be close to him in order to be considered for the role she had originally wanted.
“I once met a producer in Surulere, and I expressed to him how much I would love to act. He told me he had an upcoming film, and invited me to his office for an audition. I passed three stages of the audition. After the last audition, I was given a minor role. I told him that was not the character I was auditioning for, and he replied that the director said he did not know me, and that was why he said I should be close to him (the producer),” she said.
Mercy Aigbe felt this was inappropriate and that she was being sexually harassed.
She narrated how the producer tried to touch her inappropriately and how she reacted by ripping up the script and leaving the office in tears.
She said she felt disrespected and that this experience made her question whether she wanted to be an actress anymore.
She explained that she had left a well-paying job to pursue her dream of acting and was a single mother at the time, so this incident was a major setback for her.
“He had been making passes at me before then, but he did not come out clean to me until that day. He then stood up and tried to touch me. I was very upset, and I told him he could not do that to me, because I had earned the role.
“That was a huge insult to my person, and I thought if that was what it took to be an actress, I did not want to be an actress anymore. I tore the script and eventually left. On my way home, I cried because I had left a well-paying job to join Nollywood, and I was already a single mother at the time,” she recalled.
However, through hard work and consistency, Aigbe eventually found success in the industry.