Movie Producers Discourage Me Because Of My Stature-Ghanian actor speaks out

Movie making you can’t tell how tall someone on screen is. There are all sorts of tricks to make people appear taller on camera, like surrounding them with other short people. But compared to Nigerian movie stars like Aki and Porpor, the height of Ghana’s Joe Shortingo who is known in real life as Joseph Pamfo, is easy for the viewer to tell without checking on an altimeter.
We had the opportunity to chat with Joseph Pamfo at the Legends and Legacy Ball concert which took place  at the Accra International Conference Centre where he was one of the special guests.

In the interview, he revealed that he had been in Ghana for so many years after he traveled to Switzerland where he had the opportunity to attend a series of film festivals including Switzerland’s acclaimed Locarno Film Festival due to the role he played in an international movie titled, Baba’s Song, which he shot with popular German film actress, Franka Potente, who is well known for her role in the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean.
He continued that, after he came back from Switzerland he decided to go on a short break to continue with his education at the University of Ghana, to study Human Resources Management which took much of his time.
As to why he is not thinking of studying film making, he stated that he already knows much about movies and has long years experience in film making so he decided to rather work on his other future aspirations in Human Resources.
Joe shortingo who has starred in over 30 Kumasi and English films lamented that, for so many years that he has been behind the scenes, he has realized that most of the Ghanaian film producers are too business minded and always want to find a quick way to get the money they invest into a particular movie, which ends up not making them invest more into the technical aspect and by so doing, affect final movie produced.
He added that although movie producers in Ghana have engaged themselves with low quality movie production, he believes some particular producers in Kumasi are working hard to meet a very good standard in productions.
Talking about his relationship with movie stars, producers, crew members and fans, he whispered that, sometimes some movie producers discourage him because of his stature but he doesn’t give up because of that, but rather works hard by bringing out his best.
Talking about his physique he added that, sometimes for one to win the best actor in an award or get all the top roles, physique counts but other times, it doesn’t matter. “Because of my stature, I struggle to get major lead roles and if you are an artiste and you don’t get lead roles or major roles, it becomes difficult for you to win top awards, what creatures of my size need is good producers and directors, script writers to write scripts that will fall in my favor,” he said.