Kumawood actor, Clement Bonney popularly known as Mr Beautiful, has been missing in action more than a year and there has been speculation that he has probably quit acting but he has told Showbiz that he can never stop doing what he loves.
“I can never stop acting, if you really want to see me happy, put a camera on me, it is my passion and I can never stop doing it,” he said.
In an interview on Saturday, Mr Beautiful said he hasn’t been active on the screens because the local movie industry isn’t doing well and there are a lot of unprofessional people in it.
“The situation at the moment is that the industry is bad, when you have an industry where tomato sellers are becoming producers, that is what happens,” he stated.
Mr Beautiful, who says he recently shot a movie for Ernest Abbeyquaye titled Headmaster, said he likes to associate himself with good creative content.
“In as much as I love to act, I don’t settle for mediocrity and always like to associate myself with good quality productions. The movie Ama Ghana for instance became a hit because of Kohwe and myself, we brought our A-Game to bear on the production and that is what I mean by good creativity.
“I have great talent and that is why I don’t settle for mediocrity, I receive a lot of scripts but I don’t honour them because sometimes the directors don’t appeal to me, there are other times too that they give you scenes to act without dialogue, I can’t act that way so I reject them,” Mr Beautiful said.
“How come Shirley Frimpong Manso and Abdul Salam Mumuni’s movies sell, why are the local ones not selling? People who are not competent are shooting movies and that is why we find ourselves in this situation.
“The truth is that the industry started going down during President Kufour’s regime. That was the time we were doing Keysoap Concert Party. During that era, the late Eva Lokko of GBC increased the rate for airtime so we lost the sponsorship from Key Soap. Myself, Agya Koo, Akrobeto, Mercy Asiedu and others are all concert party products so when we got into film acting, it was very easy for us,” he added.
Of course, Mr Beautiful couldn’t run away from the fact that his association with former President, John Mahama affected his career.
“When they saw me with President Mahama they said when they shoot movies with me, it doesn’t sell in Kumasi but that is not true. We are not matured in democracy, political opponents are seen as enemies which should not be the case. If it is true that my association with President Mahama won’t make my movies sell in Kumasi, then we have a very long way to go.
“Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey and other Hollywood stars all have political parties but because they are far advanced in democracy, they don’t face this kind of discrimination,” he stated.
Mr Beautiful also blamed the media for the movie industry’s woes. “TV stations really annoy me when they talk about the movie industry because they are also the cause of our downfall. They bring in foreign stuff and translate into Twi for their audiences, how do they expect us to survive?
“I also believe that we don’t have a strong body to regulate our industry for us and that is why we find ourselves where we are now,” he stated.
