In an interview with top Ghanaian actress – Yvonne Nelson-was a revelation in so many ways one the leading Nollywood stars. Yvonne is a great and talented actress someone who combined poise, beauty and style. But also heard of some unsavory things ascribed to her the rumors of sexual orientation which some say verged between pure lesbianism and bi-sexualism and all manner of dishonest activity that had been whispered and published about her.
Some years ago, she came out with a movie, “Heart of Men”, in which she seemed to have appeared in frontal nudity. A development that set off a firestorm of protest among Nollywood lovers with many condemning the exploitation of graphic sexual images to promote and sell movies, which was a deviation of what Nollywood had always been seen to represent: a family friendly entertainment medium.
Why All The Misconceptions?,
Yvonne: I have been hugely misunderstood. “That is why I am willing to address some of those misconceptions now. Even though it pains me to have to talk about them, but I will. I am nothing close to the roles I play in movies. People should understand that I am an actresses and I get scripts that expect me to act in a certain manner. As a consummate professional, I am not going to turn down those scripts because i was expected to act in a certain manner,”she said. “I am aware that some people took exception to the role I played in the movie “Heart of Men” where there appeared to be some form of frontal nudity, but the truth of the matter is that there was no such overt display of nudity. But let’s even for the sake of argument say there was some nudity, why are we so judgmental and somewhat hypocritical?
The same people who took issues with that movie watch Hollywood movies where sexually graphic scenes are shown in a most morally appalling manner. We don’t condemn such roles; we, as a matter of fact, celebrate such roles. I am not an advocate of nudity or sexually graphic images in our movies. I have actually spoken against some of those tendencies; I will never appear frontally nude in any movie no matter the fees promised.
“I have morals and my morals are held closely to my chest. As you may recall, I was not the only person in that scene; there were others, and I am always at a loss when my role appeared to have been the one that garnered the most reaction. If you have been following the industry, which I believe you do, overt resort to nudity has been greatly reduced.
It was a phase-one that was experimented by some producers and realizing that it ran counter to the values that Nollywood or Gallywood espoused, the producers went back to doing stories that are heavy on family values.”
One of the rumors that dominated the industry, last year, was one that centered on her sexual orientation. It was widely speculated that Yvonne Nelson was a lesbian or, at best, a bi-sexual. Until this moment, Yvonne had not commented on that rumor and when she was asked
What is your real sexual orientation?
Yvonne: “Look at me….what do you think? Of course, I am not a lesbian.
Lesbianism is against my religious beliefs, it’s against my cultural norms and I think it was very mischievous for people to insinuate such about someone they hardly knew.
The rumor was started by a notorious website in Ghana last year when they reported that they had never seen me with a man. In their warped and twisted calculation, I was thus a lesbian. Can you imagine such crass reasoning?
That they had not seen me with a man, and may have seen me with my girlfriends going out to have fun, and then automatically I was a lesbian. It was a hatchet job, an attempt to discredit me, but they all failed. I am heterosexual and would remain one till the end.
When you are in the public light as I have been blessed and privileged to be, your life becomes a public property and some mischievous people will say all manner of things about you. It comes with the territory, so I forgive them.”
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