The conversation around professional actors, journalists and media personalities versus content creators and influencers remains an ongoing global discourse. While they all exist and belong in the creative industry, there is both resistance and acceptance of creators being able to do it all and why those in hiring positions are increasingly leaning towards them.
Award winning South African actress and voice over artist Jo-Anne Reyneke recently got candid about behind the scenes content creation on set, the responsibility put on actors to push shows and movies and influencers being being hired for acting roles over professional actors.
“When I’m on set I’m not creating content and I don’t have my phone on me. My focus is purely the scene so that might not be the place for content creation. I prefer productions that hire someone to do that. I’m conflicted when productions put it on the actor to push the show or when productions employ a person with three million followers over the thespian thinking three million will watch the show. That never translates to that,” she said.
“There’s still a lot of fine combing that has to do… the thespian that studied specifically to tell people’s stories should always get preference over the influencer, unless the influencer is hired to play themselves.”
The Bad Influencer leading lady was speaking on a panel discussion about women reshaping Africa’s narrative across Art, Film and Fashion at the 2026 Forbes Woman Africa‘s Leading Women Summit.
“I’m not a fan of us breaking this world that we’re trying to connect, to create content for those that are not here,” she concluded.
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