Pascaline Edwards

Improve talent not looks - Pascaline advises young actors

Linda Safoa Antwi Showbiz News Apr - 10 - 2022 , 10:00 4 minutes read

Celebrated actress, Pascaline Edwards, is cautioning the new crop of actors to invest in improving their talents rather than their looks since the latter has little to no impact on the success of one’s career.

According to the mother of one, who shot to fame with a lead role in a Stab in the Dark in the 90s, it was quite worrying that the new crop of actors are spending so much on their physical appearance than their creative skills.

Speaking with Graphic Showbiz at her La residence in Accra recently, Pascaline Edwards said even though she had good looks, her talent was the driving force for her career back then.

“Okay, if people assume that my good looks back then contributed to me getting many lead roles, then how come I’m still getting roles to play even after three decades.

“Just last year and at beginning of this year, I’ve been busy on the sets of Inside Out, Case Study and Or On Nothing series not because of my looks but how well I interpret my roles. If it were just good looks and with old age gradually catching up on me, do you think I would still be called for roles?

“And this is where I have a problem with all these actresses going under the knife for banging bodies. What is the essence of all that? This is not only happening in Ghana but all over the world and I don’t know why the subject hasn’t generated meaningful conversation.

“Why would you subject yourself to serious health complications in future by undergoing surgery just to get roles in movies? No, which producer will even call you for a role you can’t interpret just because you have enticing hips, buttocks or have good looks?” she asked.

Pascaline Edwards has seen it all in the Ghanaian movie industry, playing lead roles for almost three decades.

However, the Leopard's Choice actress claims she doesn’t qualify to be called a celebrity since her current living conditions were far below that of a celebrity.

She mentioned singer Stephanie Benson and Kojo Antwi as the only Ghanaian showbiz personalities who qualify as celebrities in its right term.

“We misuse the word celebrity in Ghana but truthfully, are we living the lifestyles of celebrities? In my case for instance, I don’t even own a luxury car or live in a mansion but these foreign celebrities even own islands.

“Perhaps, the best description will be star figures and not a celebrity since I think we are misusing the word and belittling the status. I don’t want anyone to put me in a standing higher than me since I’m gradually working my way up to the celebrity status.

“In Ghana, I can only mention Stephanie Benson, Kojo Antwi and Daddy Lumba as celebrities since they have seen and achieved it all with their respective careers. How many awards do I even have?” she said.

Pascaline Edwards is best known for her roles in the movies A Stab in the Dark, Forbidden Fruit, The Mask, House Arrest, My Father’s Wife, Messages, Deadline for Asante, Without Her Consent, Jewels among others.

She told Graphic Showbiz the storylines for the movies at the time were both entertaining and educative but same couldn’t be said of some of the latest Ghanaian movies.

According to her, the elements of education and information were absent in the current movies and they are just serving the audience with entertainment.

“We used to have good storylines which were really educative and informative but now, it appears most of the movies are just ‘concerts’. We have thrown all our storylines away and not serving humanity with our creative talent as we were taught back in the day. I think it is about time we went back to the drawing board,” she added.