The Story⚡
Demi Banwo turned down MTV Shuga and nearly passed on The Other Side of the Bridge. After years of small roles and waiting for the big break, he chose to build his own path instead. In this episode of The Actor’s Chair, he sits down with Akintunde Damilare to reveal how he did it.
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Demi Banwo is a classically trained actor, producer, and one of the most deliberate voices working in Nollywood today. In this episode, he opens up about the nearly decade-long period where he was doing one or two days on set at a time, taking whatever came while quietly building a management agency and his own production company.
He reveals he turned down MTV Shuga at a time when many would have jumped at the opportunity, a decision that could have taken his career in a completely different direction. He also nearly didn’t do The Other Side of the Bridge, the film that eventually became deeply personal to him.
He takes viewers deep into his character-building process. For every role, he creates playlists, writes extensive lists of similarities and differences between himself and the character, and once stayed awake for 48 hours straight to genuinely reach the rage required for a murderous character. Interestingly, he says the characters closest to his real personality are often the hardest for him to play.
A large part of the conversation centres on The Other Side of the Bridge. Far more than a boxing film, it became a deeply personal project for Demi — a reckoning with grief, identity, and the deep divides in Lagos. He explains why he felt he had to make this film before he could move forward with anything else, and how earlier work like Giddy Up eventually led to bigger projects such as Gangs of Lagos.
On the business side, Demi is sharp and unapologetic. He breaks down how actors should protect their day rates, always show the full rate on invoices (even when giving discounts), and never allow the platform — whether cinema, Netflix, or YouTube — to determine their value. He argues strongly that royalties should be treated as a genuine business partnership, not an optional extra.
He also shares candid thoughts in the green flag/red flag segment, touching on follower counts, accent casting, marketing fees, and why it’s problematic to meet your director for the first time only on set.
This episode stands out for its honesty and practicality, a clear-eyed look at both the craft and the often-ignored business realities of being a working actor in Nigeria.
Watch Full Episode Here
In Summary
Demi Banwo’s episode delivers one of the most practical and insightful conversations yet on The Actor’s Chair, showing exactly what it takes to build a respected career from the ground up. Stay tuned for the next episode of The Actor’s Chair on Shock Africa, where a new actor steps into the chair with their own story, process, and hard-earned lessons from the industry.
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