Setting The Record Straight: Married Actors’ Kissing Scenes Aren’t Producers’ Fault” — Nollywood Filmmaker Biodun Stephen

In response to the ongoing controversy surrounding kissing scenes in Nigerian films, Nollywood director Biodun Stephen has stated that directors and producers shouldn’t be held accountable for issues in actors’ marriages.

Stephen responded to remarks that actors and their spouses, not producers, should be held accountable for reducing kissing scenes because they might damage actors’ homes.

She said;

“I think one of the things we are selling as actors on screen is believability. You’re selling an emotion, you’re selling chemistry, you want people to believe in this love,” she said, adding that such chemistry can be achieved “without intense ki§sing, and it can be done also with intense ki§sing.”

“When you now begin to say things like, ‘the marriage, the home,’ I think that responsibility is on the actor who has chosen this profession, and also on the spouse of that actor… That responsibility is not my responsibility.”

“My job as a producer/director is to protect the actor… But my job is not to break your home because that’s not on me. I did not put a gun to your head as an actor to work for me.”

“Our job… is to protect them every time… I’ve never presented an actor on screen in a lurid way; they are always protected. That is my job. My job is not to salvage the marriage of the actor.”

In my opinion, producers should not be solely blamed for married actors participating in kissing scenes. It is ultimately the actor’s personal comfort and boundary that matter most. Actors are in the best position to assess their own comfort levels with a script and have the right to reject any scene they are not comfortable with. Respecting their choices and boundaries is essential, and responsibility should be shared between the scriptwriters, directors, and actors, rather than placing blame solely on the producers.