Legendary Nollywood actor Hanks Anuku has opened up about how a viral video falsely depicting him as mentally unstable severely impacted his career and mental health.
The video, which surfaced online in 2022, showed the actor dressed in tattered clothes and appearing to talk to himself, leading to widespread speculation about his mental state.
Despite fellow actor Shan George’s disclaimer, many, including filmmaker Adanma Luke, continued to believe that Anuku was mentally unstable.
This led the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) to initiate an investigation into the matter.
In a recent conversation with content creator Lucky Udu, the role interpreter, however, addressed the incident for the first time, revealing that the footage was taken from a movie set.
He explained that the video was circulated by individuals attempting to tarnish his reputation.
Also, he added that the video caused him significant personal pain, resulting in lost friendships and being blacklisted by filmmakers.
“I was trying to get into character for a role I was going to play, a madman role. Someone who was not in his correct senses or right frame of mind,”.
“So I had to go naturally visit the environment on how I would play it in that same neighbourhood. I was just showing the way the director wanted me to do it, meditating and getting into character.
“I lost friends, producers no longer contacted me for jobs. I lost a lot of money, I lost jobs, and I was jobless. People did not care about me. It was God who directed my footsteps to a good soul.
“I went through pain, if you were in my shoes you would feel it. I was heartbroken for these people to do this to me,” he said.