David Oyelowo Speaks Out on “Influencers as Actors” and the Industry’s Obsession With Follower Counts at AFRIFF

In an age where social media influence is a cultural currency, do TV and film projects need to cast influencers to become a hit? And does an actor’s follower count or online presence really matter? It’s a debate reverberating across industries, from Bollywood to Nollywood to Hollywood, from Kenya to South Africa. As social media visibility increasingly shapes casting decisions, the number of followers an actor has become part of the selection criteria for some producers and casting directors.

Even veterans like Scarlett Johansson aren’t spared these pressures: the actress revealed in a March interview that studios and her team often urge her to join Instagram to promote her projects. More stars have weighed in on the issue, among them Maya Hawke and her father Ethan Hawke, as well as other voices across the globe. Bollywood casting director Mukesh Chhabra calls it “a natural evolution” in a world where social media has overtaken television and modeling as the biggest entry point to fame.

British Nigerian actor David Oyelowo is the latest actor to add his voice to the discussion. Speaking at a panel during the 2025 AFRIFF’s inaugural Film and Content Market (AFCM) that took place from 3 November – 6 November in Lagos, Oyelowo argued that actors should be judged on their work alone, on merit and work ethic, not on online clout. He decried what he called the industry’s “latest standard” of hiring influencers for their reach, saying that no “self-respecting director” would ever cast based on follower counts rather than merit.

“We have not seen any correlation between people who have a lot of followers and the audience actually turning up to support them,” Oyelowo said. “You put that influencer or YouTuber (in a film), and what it does when I watch your movie is it takes me out of the movie. I don’t respect you as a filmmaker, and I don’t respect the film, that’s the point when I check out.”

Oyelowo also spoke about the growing pressure on actors to build personal brands on social media.

“There can be such an emphasis on branding that you lose sight of what your brand should be. The only branding you need as an actor is excellence, that’s what keeps you going. And your branding shouldn’t be sexiness or all that stuff because that doesn’t last. What you do by branding yourself that way is put a ‘sell-by date’ on yourself. But you cannot be sexy or jacked forever. The only thing that lasts is excellence and truth.”

Known for acclaimed roles in Selma where he plays Martin Luther King Jr., The Butler, and Queen of Katwe, Oyelowo is also a director and producer through Yoruba Saxon, the talent-led production company he co-founded with his wife in 2014. He’s also the co-founder of Mansa, a free ad-supported streaming platform centered on Black culture.

Oyelowo also criticised the growing obsession among actors with documenting every aspect of their lives, even while on set, calling it “a real problem that’s only going to worsen as that behaviour becomes normalised.”

“The amount of time I see people filming everything they’re doing for content… Put that damn phone down and observe human beings. You cannot be a mirror to society if you constantly have a mirror to yourself in front of yourself,” he said.

Oyelowo’s stance echoes George Clooney, who recently told The Hollywood Reporter that young actors should get off social media.

Clooney said, “I talk to kids all the time. I talk to kids at SAG and things, and they’re all on Instagram and everything. And when I was directing and I was casting, and it was between two actors, the casting director and the studio would come to me and go, ‘Well, she’s got 175,000 followers on Instagram, and the other girl’s got 30,000.’ Those were literally the discussions we had. And I said to all these actors, ‘Get the fuck off of it. Get off of all of it. Because if you’re not on it, you have nothing to be compared to.”

On the other hand, Nollywood actress Jemima Osunde, speaking on the Running Lines podcast in April, voiced frustration at what she described as a growing trend of filmmakers prioritising social-media presence over performance, requiring actors to become content creators and influencers to land a role.

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