Eric Macheru may be prospering in his role as Leeto Maputla on Skeem Saam, which launched his burgeoning career in the industry, but he never imagined himself as an actor.
In an interview with the Daily Sun, the actor said that acting was not his first love and that he intended to be a soccer player.
“I wanted to play soccer, that’s what I wanted to do but then with playing soccer I was like, I need to study something.”
Like most people who wanted to pursue sports but went another route, Eric decided to study while playing soccer and claims that all he knew when he was in high school was that he wanted to pursue anything in the media.
Eric played with Ajax Cape Town after winning the Soccer Kings competition in 2005. However, his dream was cut short when he sustained an injury and had to withdraw from the competition. However, according to Tshisa LIVE reports, the actor stated that he will still find a way to pursue soccer, saying:
“I am going to go back to football. I want to do some coaching courses and if not coaching, then some analysis”
While attending AFDA, Eric began his acting career at Skeem Saam.
“I wanted to study multimedia...anything that has to do with the media, whether it was journalism, acting, writing…the acting part was truly speaking was never a part of the plan. I studied at AFDA, studied media, directing, writing in the arts...I’m guessing acting and all of these things was around my way while studying at AFDA”
“My first gig...I was a TV presenter, I did V-entertainment then started knowing about auditions...so I went to a couple of auditions and Skeem Saam was one of them”
Eric went on to say that he intended to pursue a career in broadcasting and that he expected to land jobs with major media outlets.
“I wanted to get more presenting gigs, I was looking for LIVE Amp, MTV Base, and all of those. At the time I wasn’t feeling acting.”The actor, however, says that he received an inbox telling him about the auditions which is now the reason why he is here today.“I got to the casting and bombed out. Wack wack wack audition and I didn’t get it.”
The actor went on to say that he knew he needed to be a part of the Skeem Saam cast and appealed to the casting lady because the storyline focused on his hometown.
“I called the casting lady and I begged for another chance...eventually they were like ‘come through’...I went and I killed it”
Reminiscing about his thoughts at the time the actor added...
“The fact that it’s a story based on home...it’s from my hometown ...I need to go and get this...It was close to home so I was like, I need to be a part of this”
Eric Macheru expresses his gratitude for the decision he made today. We're excited to see him return to soccer and see how his acting career develops.
