Ghana lacks script writers, unprofessionalism high - Ecow Smith-Asante

Actor Ecow Smith-Asante has supported fellow actor, Gavivina Tamakloe’s claims that there are no outstanding script writers in the Ghanaian movie industry.

He was speaking to KMG on the Daybreak Hitz (Showbiz Review) show on Hitz FM.

“We really have just a few script writers, we don’t have really outstanding ones who will give you a script and you go like woooow.”

“If you ask me right now to list a couple of script writers I might be found wanting. I might not even be able to mention three,” he added.

According to him, the subject of script writing affecting the industry is an aspect he will always talk about anytime he is given the platform.

Recently, actor Gavivina Tamakloe made a similar comment saying he almost quit acting because he was tired of the same stories being repeated and the unprofessionalism on the part of producers.

“Actually I had decided I wasn’t going to be in the industry. I was walking out of it and this script came and brought me back into it, I was tired of the same stories been recycled.”

Ecow recalled that, “Sometime back people were just picking stories either from the American movies or Indian movies and will change it here and there and make it a movie.”

He further stated that “Now people are really writing scripts but it’s still not deep enough, so if he [Gavivina Tamakloe] mentioned something like that I will agree with him.”

The actor advised that people who are trained and also have passion for the job should sacrifice a bit and write marvellous scripts that people can identify them with.

Commenting on the unprofessionalism of some Ghanaian movie producers, he said, “We lack professionalism to a very large extent in the sense that little things that make an actor comfortable is always missing on set.”

The actor cited instances on set where an individual was entitled to a bottle of water for the whole day.

According to him, most movie producers usually do not even adhere to time. He singled out movie producers Shirley Frimpong Manso and Kwao Ansah saying, “They are almost always on point and on time”.

“But it does not exist in almost all other private production because people have a little money and they want to squeeze everything to get to make a production so they scratch and squash everything professional aside,” he concluded.

Actor Gavivina Tamakloe and Ecow Smith Asante are not the only industry players raising these concerns, earlier this year, Ghanaian actor, David Dontoh also shared the same sentiments.