What did you take away from the character?
Given the current state of our country, women need to see themselves winning fights. That’s why action series like Unseen, led by Gail Mabalane, or Marked, with Lerato Mvelase, resonate so deeply. For the past six years, we’ve seen a growing wave of SA women fronting action-packed productions – but we still have a long way to go compared to Hollywood.
The first time I truly felt “Okay, a South African woman can lead an action series”, was when I watched Queen Sono. Since then, we’ve been inching forward. Showing grit matters. Women in action films remind us that submission isn’t the only option – fighting back is powerful, too.
What are your hopes for the SA female action hero?
We need to extend ourselves into worlds that we haven’t created ourselves. I believe South Africans are artistically strong enough to stand in a scene with Denzel Washington, and we don’t have to mimic our authenticity. We are different as South Africans. We get two weeks to prepare for roles while international actors get six months.
Our superpower is that we have the determination that trumps any experience because we go there with the openness to do the work, regardless of what it looks like. I also believe that this craft is medicine in the best way. Whether it’s to make you feel good, meeting yourself or showing people [themselves] when they feel unseen, I hope to represent SA on an international front.
This film will be in SA cinemas on August 22 and will showcase in over a hundred cinemas in the US in September – this is quite unheard of, as it’s usually expected for us to showcase South African stories to be viable artists, but this wasn’t the case for this film.