Sharon Ooja Responds to Claims that She Only Gets Roles Because She's a Pretty Girl

Sharon Ooja is one of the most popular newer actresses in Nollywood. Sharon entered into the national consciousness majorly when she starred in NdaniTV's Skinny Girl in Transit. Since then, Sharon has been in a host of movies including Oloture, The Perfect Arrangement, and the upcoming Glamour Girls.

Throughout her career, one critique and sentiment Sharon has heard over and over again is that she cannot really act and only gets roles because she's a pretty girl. During a new interview with Netflix podcast, Never Late | African Time, Sharon opened up about this assumption, experience pretty privilege and being typecast. Here's what Sharon said.

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Speaking about her experience with typecasting and pretty privilege in the movie industry, Sharon Ooja said:

Girl no matter how conscious you are about being typecast, the industry is what it is. So like you have to almost struggle to break out of your stereotype. Oloture was me breaking out of my stereotype I believe. It was really hard because I know what I look like. I know when I walk into a room, I know the energy I would bring. But how many people see beyond that? How many people see the passion? Because acting is you putting yourself in another person's shoes, that's what you are as an actor, you're willing to tell other people's stories with your full chest. So obviously Oloture and Glamour Girls were very different roles. I would consider them me still breaking out which is what I think I'm still doing. They were both hard, they both took a lot from me because in Oloture, I had to play a journalist who was going undercover. Now in Glamour Girls, I was a gutter snipe who was genuinely trying to make it to the top. And when you're me and in real life, you're just happy and then you have to put your foot in the shoes of someone who's not eating, then you realize that you're in a bubble. That's what acting does, it brings you back to reality. When you play certain roles you realize that you're so privileged. So you see things from a very different lens when you play roles. That's why I'm so happy I'm an actor, I get to live other people's lives and be very understanding.

I'm not going to take away the fact that I'm a beautiful woman and I'm not going to dumb myself down because you think that's what I am. It will not work against me. What I will do is show you that I more than that. And everybody is beautiful in their own way. So yes I have experienced pretty privilege a lot of times but at the same time it has worked against me because it's like "enhehn, it's because she looks like this". So what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Unpretty myself for you?

What do you think about what Sharon said? Do you believe she really only gets the roles she gets now because of her looks? What do you think of her response? Let me know all your thoughts by leaving a comment either below or on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post.

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