New producers focus on gains than quality - Actor Kofi Falconer

Many players have talked extensively about the reasons the Ghanaian movie industry is in decline and veteran actor/producer Kofi Falconer is the latest to wade into the discussions.

In an exclusive interview with Graphic Showbiz recently, Kofi Falconer said while people may point to lack of funding, poor storylines and lack of professionalism, he puts the biggest part of the blame at the doors of producers.

According to him, most producers these days are more interested in what they will gain rather than telling good stories.

“If anyone tells you there are no good stories, the person is lying. There are good stories. There are good story writers but the producers are interested in those that will give them money quickly, they are focused on what they will gain when they invest and so these good stories are shelved.

“They do not think about the future, they do not think outside the box and they do not like going for actors who are skilled. It is only a few such as Shirley Frimpong Manso who are going for quality.

“In my days, when you wrote a script, you gave it to people to critique. Even as an actor, when you were given a script, you could give suggestions and all those steps made our movies excellent,” he said.

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When Graphic Showbiz sought Kofi Falconer’s opinion on the current crop of actors, he indicated that some of them lacked principles.

“Most of the people we have now are not disciplined. They do not understand that acting is a profession so having a minute role doesn’t make you an actor. When I say discipline, it encompasses a lot - the way you walk, talk, dress, etc.

“Some of the young ones do not respect time. You will give them a call time and they will come at whatever time they want. In my time, as soon as you showed such traits, the director or producer would just kill your character there and then.

“I had that experience with one actor and he got angry but I told him my piece of mind. Why will you not pick your calls on a day you are supposed to shoot?” he stated.

He was, however, quick to add that he couldn’t blame them much as well.

“I do not blame them too; it is because of where we find ourselves and the world we are in. Now anything goes. It’s all about money unlike previously when passion was the driving force. Again, the laws in the country do not work. In other countries, you cannot just go there and start shooting movies but in our country, it is like that. Everything goes,” he said.

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Kofi Falconer also urged the National Film Authority to be up and doing to revive the movie industry.

“It’s been a while since it was established; its purpose was to scrutinise the movie industry so that people would not just take a camera and go shoot anything or people would not just call themselves actors but till date, we have not heard anything.

"In addition to all that, maybe, just maybe, we had to suffer for the new ones to come and enjoy. We paid our dues by following our passion so they could come and make money,” he said.

Kofi Falconer has starred in several productions including EOCO Boss, Chronicles of Odumkrom and Big Man Wahala.