Source: classfmonline.com
Auntie Bee has said she has gained little from acting except for popularity.
She spoke to Nana Romeo on Accra 100.5 FM’s midmorning programme, Ayekoo Ayekoo, on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
“Since childhood, I’ve loved acting and working in film so much that I didn’t learn any other trade or craft,” the hit TV series Effiewura star said.
“I couldn’t even concentrate on having children for the same reason,” she added, noting the inconvenience of being unemployed in film due to pregnancy and childrearing.
“I was totally in love with acting. I learned to do nothing else,” she confessed, lamenting: “I’ve now come to understand the proverb: ‘Nothing is permanent.’”
Auntie Bee said her years of experience have taught her so much that “if I were back to my younger years, I would learn to do 10 different things or get involved in many ventures so it would profit me.”
She mentioned that before film, “we all started with [Key Soap] Concert Party,” a comic theatre show which toured the country and appeared on TV.
She highlighted that the Concert Party tour “took us to many towns and villages” where it was common to stay and work for many days, making it difficult to save sometimes.
“Acting could take us to a place, and while there, we would be hit by economic hardships. You’d come home with little or nothing and find yourself depending on the little you had at home,” she explained.
Auntie Bee said, “The only pleasure for us and even those before us was the opportunity to travel about and work a little to feed ourselves.”
She lamented: “When the industry became lucrative, we are not as popular as before to be booked.
“At first, theatre offered an abundance of work but not much money. Then came film. Even then, those who made money and acquired properties, per my observation, were those who advanced swiftly through the favor of producers.
“There are those who inherited family properties, came from well-to-do homes, or were combining acting with other businesses as well.”
When asked, Auntie Bee seemed to struggle to mention what she gained from acting.
“It was even football that took me abroad. Often, for movies, I was sidelined for international opportunities even though my name was on the list,” she said.
“It’s only fame that I got out of acting. I am recognized wherever I go. Acting did not give me marriage. Acting gave me nothing except a little money to spend with my children. Nothing. Well, the car I use up to today is what Rev Obofour or Nii Adotey Gyata gave me for my acting when I went to visit him.”
Auntie Bee expressed her openness to acts of kindness towards her, such as “land to build a convenience store on or a house for my contribution and service to the country through acting.”
Auntie Bee has acted on stage and on screen for close to 40 years.
