Seyi Omooba breaks her silence following reports that she has also been dropped by her talent agency
It has been a tough week for homophobic actress, Seyi Omooba. After being announced as the star of the Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome theatre production of The Color Purple, things quickly began to unravel after Hamilton star Aaron Lee shared a screenshot to Twitter where the actress said she doesn’t believe being gay is right.
Following the backlash over her expression of such homophobia, especially in the light of the fact that she’d been cast to play an LGBT figure, The Color Purple production dropped her from the cast.
And now, the talent agency Global Artists representing her no longer lists Omooba as a client.
According to The Stage, the agency represented the actress and had a page dedicated to her on the website. But following the row surrounding the revelation of her homophobic social media post, Global Artists has removed the page as well as a post announcing she had been cast in the production.
YNaija editor, Bernard Dayo, also made a now-deleted post where he satirized the actress’s response to the row, writing that she released a statement through her publicist to protest that she was born homophobic and should not be punished for that, even though she thanks the Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome theatre for the opportunity they granted her.
Clearly not appreciating the literary audacity, Omooba – who had remained remarkably silent throughout the row – took to Twitter to denounce the allegements of the YNaija piece.
And the response to her tweet was swift and scathing.
Bernard Dayo is amazing. I lol’ed so hard at that article.
Please na…links to the post, even if it has been removed. I wantu laugh too
How do you expect to see the post to laugh over when it has been removed?
Nna, I fear o!?
Seyi Omooba, the actress cast to play a bisexual character in the upcoming UK production of The Colour Purple, was recently axed from the project after a 2014 homophobic Facebook post resurfaced. ”I do not believe you can be born gay. I do not believe homosexuality is right, though the law of this land has made it legal.” she said in the post. The two theatres staging the show – the Curve in Leicester and the Birmingham Hippodrome – said the actress’s comments had “caused significant and widely expressed concerns both on social media and in the wider press”.
But now through her publicist, Omooba revealed that although she respects the decision of the producers to axe her from the production, she shouldn’t be punished for her homophobia regardless. ”I was born this way, homophobia is a natural reaction to homosexuality which is an aberration. I want to thank the casting agents, the referrals and everyone involved that led up to me being cast as Celie in The Colour Purple, Frank Collins, Susan Hawthorne, Gina Balogun, thank you. I still stand by my Facebook post from 2014. Nothing has changed.”
The responses though…these white folks are so mean…lmao. Nigerians always learning the hard way even those you thought should know better….
Social media can make or break you ….
Such a promising career (sighs)