Actress Habibat Jinadu has revealed that she began bleaching her skin to secure movie roles, saying preferences for fair-skinned actresses made it difficult for dark-skinned performers to find work in Nollywood. Speaking in an interview with BBC Yoruba, Jinadu said directors at the time favoured actresses who were both fair-skinned and chubby, leaving fewer opportunities for those who were dark-skinned or slim.

“Back then, if you were not fair, nobody would call you for jobs. Whenever they turned the light on us on a movie set, the director would say I was too dark,” she said. Jinadu said she initially tried to ignore the comments, but an insult about her appearance increased the pressure she felt to change her complexion. “I didn’t pay much attention to it until someone said I looked like a monkey,” she recalled.

The actress said those experiences influenced her decision to bleach her skin in the hope of improving her career prospects. “I bleached my skin because if you were dark-skinned, then you would not get a role. Also, if you were not chubby but slim, you would not get a role,” she said. According to Jinadu, she began receiving more acting opportunities after changing her complexion. “So, I went ahead, bleached my skin and started expecting to get roles. And indeed, I started getting roles,” she said.

However, she said the change also affected how people recognised her away from film sets. “But people could not recognise me any longer. If I stepped out to buy something, people would go like, ‘You look familiar,’ ‘You look like an actress,’” she recounted.

Jinadu also described problems with her skin, saying minor knocks and scrapes during filming began causing injuries and tears. “Then, I started sustaining injuries and tears from minor bruises on sets and all,” she said. The actress identified her pregnancy in 2023 as the turning point that led her to stop bleaching.

She said becoming pregnant prompted her to reconsider the practice and discontinue it. Jinadu added that her decision to stop attracted further criticism, with people insulting her over her appearance. “When I eventually stopped, people started abusing me and calling me all sorts of names,” she said.