Ghanaian actor Don Little has shared a candid account of how difficult the beginning of his acting journey was, describing years of being sidelined, underused, and poorly compensated in the film industry.
During a discussion with Empress Gifty on UCook on May 3, 2026, he explained that his earliest roles were so minor they often ended up being cut or barely noticed in final productions.
“The first movie I shot, I played the passerby role. When the movie was out, I wasn’t in it. I was really pained because at that time, I would hawk, and the little amount I earn, I would take it to the set,” he said.
He added that in his bid to secure better opportunities, he went beyond just auditioning and sometimes tried to win favour from directors through gifts and goodwill gestures.
“Sometimes, when you want to get noticed by directors or try to impress them in a way so that they would want to work with you, I would buy gifts for them. At the end of the day, they would just use me as a passerby, where someone would ask me for directions. When the movies come out, I wouldn’t see myself in them. That happened so many times,” he disclosed.
Don Little also revealed that he experimented with skit-making in hopes of building visibility, but that path did not deliver the breakthrough he expected at the time.
“A man in Kumasi then asked me to start shooting short skits with him. Whenever something trends, I would rant and criticise the people involved in skits, but that one too wasn’t picking up for me,” he explained.
According to him, things began to change after he crossed paths with fellow actor Yaw Dabo. Their collaboration on several projects eventually pushed him into the spotlight.
“I later met Yaw Dabo, and we shot a couple of movies too, and that’s where I gained recognition,” he said.
Even with growing recognition, Don Little said financial challenges did not disappear, as he continued to face unfair treatment from some producers.
“The producers were paying me according to height, so I wasn’t earning enough, and I sometimes don’t get paid at all. They would always be giving excuses, so I later realised they were cheating me,” he stated.
He concluded that the situation eventually forced him to take a tougher stance on his worth and payments, even threatening to walk away or involve authorities when necessary.
“It got to a time that they would call me for a shoot, and I wouldn’t go. I sometimes threatened them that if they didn’t pay me, I would get them arrested, and they promised to do better,” Don Little recalled.
Watch his remarks below.
I featured in several movie shoots, but my scenes never made it to the screen; it was painful – Don Little #UCook pic.twitter.com/4Bs4HO7ui7
— UTV Ghana (@utvghana) May 3, 2026
