Veteran actress, Janet Ackom of the famous ‘Obra’ TV series and Osofo Dadzie has recounted how she struggled to survive without being paid.

She said, for her and many others at the time, money was not the main focus due to the passion they had for the craft, but life became unbearable as she had to cater for herself and her family.

The actress opened up while reminiscing about the early years of the Obra TV series on Joy Prime’s Prime Morning with Roselyn Felli.

Although they were the stars within the period, life was tough as they had to survive with little or no money.

How was it like embodying the whole celebrity status because you said you were not really being paid but everywhere you went people thought you had money? The host, Roselyn Felli, asked.

“That’s what they think. We loved the work, but they didn’t pay us. It made us suffer because when you wore a dress out, you would have to wear the same dress to church,” she recounted.

The painful experience made her never believe she would own a house since she depended on the little she made. Although she was not earning, Mrs Ackom made time for acting sometimes at the expense of her marriage, and her husband allowed her.

But why did she not stop acting?

“I had just finished Form 4, and it was around 1973. I didn’t go to secondary school, and I didn’t learn anything. So, if I stopped acting, what am I going to do? And I loved acting,” she said.

Unlike Grace Omaboe, affectionately called Maame Dokono, who also revealed on the show that she received a lot of properties, including lands as gifts from people who appreciated her efforts, Mrs. Ackom never got any gifts.

Since Mrs. Ackom started acting, she has relied on commercial transport popularly known as 'trotro' for all her movement till date.

“Obra” in Akan, meaning Life, was a Ghanaian television drama series that was very popular in Ghana in the 1980s towards the 2000s. The casts graced Ghanaians with an unlimited mixture of fun, drama, and education about life.

Janet Ackom began her acting career in 1975. She emerged from the ‘Osofo Dadzie’ series and joined the ‘Obra’ team later in the 90s. She became one of the spotlight characters of the series, as she was known for her hard-hitting roles.

Today, the series is still airing on GTV, as always, with some of the original cast and new characters. However, it has been halted for some time due to circumstances, which the actors refused to disclose.