Nollywood actress Nkechi Blessing Sunday has opened up about one of the most disturbing challenges she faced at the start of her acting career, receiving bizarre scripts that pushed extreme boundaries.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Honest Bunch Podcast, Nkechi revealed that one of her earliest movie offers demanded that she “sleep with a dog” as part of the storyline. According to her, the script was so outrageous that she immediately turned it down, insisting it would damage her image and attach a permanent label to her career.
In her words:
“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. Imagine my first ever movie, I am sleeping with a dog, it doesn’t make sense.”
She went on to explain that actors are often defined by their first major appearance, and she was determined not to begin her journey on such a controversial note.
“Whatever you start with is what people will associate you with. I didn’t want to be renowned as someone who sleeps with dogs in movies.”
Surprisingly, she claimed that several other upcoming actresses rushed to take the role after she rejected it.
“Immediately I threw the script down, so many girls grabbed it. I’m not sure any of them are in the limelight today.”
Nkechi said that after walking away from the production, fate stepped in. She met veteran filmmaker Emeka Duru, who encouraged her and eventually paved the way for her debut appearance in ‘Through the Fire’, produced by revered filmmaker Emem Isong. That role marked the true beginning of her Nollywood breakthrough.
Her revelation has since sparked conversations about the extreme pressures, questionable scripts, and exploitative hurdles faced by new actors trying to break into the Nigerian film industry.