Elizabeth O.
Sharon Ooja Responds to Claims that She Only Gets Roles Because She’s Pretty
Speaking about her experience with typecasting and pretty privilege in the movie industry, Sharon Ooja said:
“Girl no matter how conscious you are about being typecast, the industry is what it is. So like you have to almost struggle to break out of your stereotype.
Oloture was me breaking out of my stereotype I believe. It was really hard because I know what I look like. I know when I walk into a room, I know the energy I would bring. But how many people see beyond that? How many people see the passion? Because acting is you putting yourself in another person’s shoes, that’s what you are as an actor, you’re willing to tell other people’s stories with your full chest.
So obviously Oloture and Glamour Girls were very different roles. I would consider them me still breaking out which is what I think I’m still doing. They were both hard, they both took a lot from me because in Oloture, I had to play a journalist who was going undercover.
Now in Glamour Girls, I was a gutter snipe who was genuinely trying to make it to the top. And when you’re me and in real life, you’re just happy and then you have to put your foot in the shoes of someone who’s not eating, then you realize that you’re in a bubble.
That’s what acting does, it brings you back to reality. When you play certain roles you realize that you’re so privileged. So you see things from a very different lens when you play roles. That’s why I’m so happy I’m an actor, I get to live other people’s lives and be very understanding.
I’m not going to take away the fact that I’m a beautiful woman and I’m not going to dumb myself down because you think that’s what I am.
It will not work against me. What I will do is show you that I more than that. And everybody is beautiful in their own way.
So yes I have experienced pretty privilege a lot of times but at the same time it has worked against me because it’s like “enhehn, it’s because she looks like this”. So what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Unpretty myself for you?
