...but that has not stopped Phakamisa from doing what he loves, acting.
ZAlebs recently caught up with the actor to find out more about life after acting on Isikizi and more.
Phakamisa who is undoubtedly passionate about his craft has not only stuck to one project but several acting projects which has seen him act alongside the likes of iGazi's Andile Nebulane. This is what he had to say about that particular project
"We've currently finished shooting a movie, called The Red Room which is the same movie that I'm shooting with Khanyi Mbau and another gentleman by the name of Vaughn. It's a nice little cast that we have there." Said the actor
The film was set to be released to be released in August but has since been pushed back to a later date.
Just this week, Phakamisa debuted his new character on Isithembiso. He will be playing the role of a man by the name of Mandla. It's something different from uMcethe on Isikizi.
Speaking about uMcethe, Phakamisa shared that it took him about a month and a half to get into the Mcethe character.
"A lot of us theatre actors need about a month with a script, to just read and find out where the character was born and all those things. So it took me about a month and a half to study the character and create a character because the only thing that was on the script was what you saw, but you don't know about his back ground, what made him become evil. So I had to create that whole background so that you believed his evilness."
"There was a lot of work I had to do for that character, I didn't become evil in my life (laughs) but it was a really tough process. To be honest, I'm still struggling right now to be uPhakamisa again, I'm still fighting uMcethe in a certain way, he kind of haunts me. I didn't know this until like last week, I was just like 'What's going on, I'm not fully happy' so I just started doing some inner soul searching but I'm still stuck, I still got this character, uMcethe in me, because I did a lot of research on him and he was quite evil."
Phakamisa goes on to explain that the reason why he puts his heart and soul into every actor he plays is because of his passion for acting and because he wants to honor his late father who also loved acting.
"I really love acting and a lot of people ask me 'Why acting?' and I tell them that I'm honoring my father. It's what my father loved, he wasn't an actor, he was a mechanic in Umtata back then. But he loved story telling, whenever he came back from a date night with my mom, he would wake us up and he would reenact everything they did during their date night and I loved that, and that's why I act. To act is a very spiritual thing for me." Said the actor.
Although Mcethe was a very devious character, Phakamisa admits that he would take on a role like that any day and because being an actor is spiritual for him he always looks for characters that will teach him something about his life.
"If I had something to learn about myself is that a role will come along that will always teach me something about me. The role of Mcethe has helped me search for my Xhosa roots, it has brought me back to my language and has also brought me closer to my ancestors as well."
Main Image Credit: Twitter