It is no secret that the Nigerian movie industry is certainly more lucrative than our local movie industry thus resulting in the exodus of many Ghanaian leading big screen acts getting more involved in Nollywood productions due to what they refer to as more lucrative fees offered by the Naija producers. It is usually quite surprising and rare to come across a Nollywood act looking to move into the Ghanaian movie industry on a long term basis.
For Canadian born Nigerian actress, Laquita Lawson however, the local movie industry looks to offer much more than most of her compatriots might imagine. Laquita – whose first big screen appearance was in “BURNING POINT” by Nigerian production house Stanford production in 1998 – believes that even though the GH acts may be doing their thing there is so much more she and others like herself can bring to the game and she is determined to do just that.
In a career spanning many years she’s starred alongside big names as Uche Jombo, Andy Chukwu, Ghana’s Kofi Adjorlolo and many others. However at various points in time she’s taken brief breaks from the business to pursue her other interests mainly as a result of what she refers to as a lack of professionalism in the movie industry. She explains better, “One thing about the local movies is that they improve quite ok but their paste for growth is still slow. is either the production is good and the actor are performing poorly or the actors are good and the production is bad. i think we should try and create the balance.”
After one of such breaks – where she moved back to her birthplace of Waterloo, Ontario Canada- Laquita says she’s back and ready to make Ghana her new home.
So what other movies has she starred in? She answers, “I have done quite a lot of movies, mostly in Nollywood, namely:- ‘Mission for justice,’ ‘Cheaters,’ ‘Men on the run,’ ‘ Up to u,’ and ‘Daughters of men’ among others.”
Her favorite among the lot would have to be “Up to you,” directed by renowned Nollywood director Prince, in which she played the challenging role of a single mother. Her latest movie project in the pipeline is ‘Daughters of men’ shooting for which wrapped up in December 2010.
This year , Laquita Lawson is looking to her movie making experience and criticisms to the test with her first project behind the camera as she plans to produce her own movie very soon right here in Ghana. In collaboration a group of individuals from Hollywood, she also intends to kickstart a project aimed at nurturing upcoming talents in the industry as part of a greater yearning to improve upon the state of the movie making industry in Africa with special emphasis on the Ghanaian and Nigerian film industries.
