Red-carpet treatment for Hollywood and Nairobi film, TV stars
Hollywood stars Tony Jaa (left), Michael Jai White (right) and Ron Perlman who were in Nairobi on the first stop of an African tour hosted by Kempinski Hotels promoting their film ‘Skin Trade’. The group arrived in Nairobi on Monday at the beginning of a ten-day tour with stops in Nairobi, Maasai Mara, Kigali and Djibouti. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Apart from the annual Kalasha awards, Kenya hardly gives its local actors their deserved recognition.
Kenya’s Academy Award winning actor-fashion model Lupita Nyong’o has acknowledged more than once that she is not the only outstanding actor in Kenya.
The Red Carpet was officially meant for the three Hollywood stars who had come to Kenya, courtesy of the Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel.
But the carpet could have equally been meant as a marketing moment for all the local actors, TV and film producers and photographers who had been invited to the event specially to meet international celebrities Ron Perlman, Tony Jaa and Michael Jai White.
The three actors, who star with Dolph Lundgrun in the soon-to-be-premiered action thriller Skin Trade, were invited guests of Kempinski’s general manager Manish Nambiar who is also one of the producers of the action-packed adventure film.
During a press conference last Tuesday night, it was asked how stars based in the States who had made Skin Trade in Bangkok, Thailand, one of the leading global centres for sex trafficking, would find time to come to Kenya.
Clearly their coming was not meant to reflect badly on Kenya for its being another site where sex trafficking exists. No mention was made, for instance, of a 2011 report by the International Peace Institute (by IPI executive director Peter Gastrow) which claims that up to 20,000 Somali and Ethiopian girls and women are shipped to Nairobi and Mombasa annually after which they either “end up in brothels [or] shipped to other parts of the world.”
Instead, Mr Nambiar was looking forward to the actors having an outstanding stay at the Olare Mara Kempinski in Maasai Mara after which they could tell the world that Kenya is still a desirable destination to visit despite alarming reports to the contrary.
After Kenya, the Skin Trade team will go to Rwanda and Djibouti.
Another rationale for the actors coming to Kenya was given by Ron Perlman who recalled that he had originally come to Kenya more than 30 years ago to make his first movie, Quest for Fire.
“I have fond memories from that time so I was happy to have the chance to come back to Kenya,” said the award-winning actor best known in Kenya for his role as Clay Morrow in the popular TV series Sons of Anarchy.
Kempinski’s regional director of public relations, Lashley Pulsipher, further explained that Mr Nambiar had a passion for Africa and Kenya especially which he wanted to share with the cast.
Kempinski’s Kenyan staff must also have known that urban Kenyans love action-adventure films, especially ones featuring karate, tae kwon do or even the Thai version of martial arts Muay Thai, which is Tony Jaa’s specialty. Jaa gave a dazzling demonstration of Muay Thai with a whirlwind series of kicks, katas and acrobatic spins that was well received.
The Thai-born Jaa wasn’t the only martial artist in Skin Trade. Michael Jai White, the African American actor best known in Kenya for his performance in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I get Married 1 & 2, said he had eight black belts and used those skills generously in Skin Trade.
Back to the Red Carpet. There was a mix of local media people, including actors who were mainly TV and film stars, but also several who additionally worked on stage, like Mugambi Nthige who recently scripted and co-starred in Stories from the Mall, commemorating the Westgate tragedy.
It was an impressive array of local talent that featured veteran actors like Raymond Ofula and Joseph Kimani Wairimu of Nairobi Half-Life as well as younger talents like Jacky Vike of Papa Shirandula (on Citizen TV) and Maureen Koech of the Spielworks TV series Lies that Bind.
Yet the other reason Kenyan actors deserve Red Carpet treatment is because a number are well known internationally. Stars like Naomi Ng’ang’a, Milkah Ndegwa, Nduta Florence of Lies that Bind fall into this category since their show is screened all over West and South Africa as well as in the UK.
Apart from the annual Kalasha awards, Kenya hardly gives its local actors their deserved recognition. Kenya’s Academy Award winning actor-fashion model Lupita Nyong’o has acknowledged more than once that she is not the only outstanding actor in Kenya. The rest of the world, starting with the Kenya government needs to follow suit by giving more support for the arts.
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