With the casting of a British actor, Idris Elba as Okonkwo in the forthcoming adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s classic novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’ generating diverse reactions, a Nollywood great, Bob Manuel Udokwu has said Nigerian actors can play the role better.
Udokwu was a guest on The Morning Brief podcast on Tuesday.
The actor said Nigeria has top-class actors who can play the Okonkwo role better than Idris Elba, especially because they know where the story is coming from.
Adding that Nollywood has come of age, he said, ”We no longer have to do much to prove anything to the world. I said this years ago that Nollywood has come of age. Now we don’t have to do much to prove we have world-class talent here.
”There’s this conversation about Idris Elba being cast as Okonkwo in the Hollywood make of Things Fall Apart and I don’t have anything against that as an actor but I think that we have people who are top-class actors in Nigeria who can play that role better knowing where that story is coming from.
”What Nollywood needs now is collaboration and it’s beginning to happen. I happen to be part of another production that involves to major actors in India and another Hollywood-based actress. We need to have more collaborations with our counterparts in Europe and North America and it’s happening gradually. The bundle of talents we have in Nigeria is awesome.”
