Actress and brand ambassador, Nomzamo Mbatha who stars as a love interest and barber in the much anticipated sequel, Coming 2 America was not only pumped up when she first saw Coming 2 America’s leading man, Eddie Murphy but also froze when she first met actress, Garcelle Beauvais.
Read more: Nomzamo Opens Up About Coming 2 America
Read more: Nomzamo Opens Up About Coming 2 America
Eddie Murphy who plays the role of King Akeem of Zamunda in the sequel, has expressed how he was both impressed by Mbatha’s work and personality in several interviews and has also stated how foolish he felt about his ‘African accent’ when he met her.
“She's a wonderful actress. Beautiful. We had a great time working together. She made me realise how shitty my African accent is; I thought it was good but she came with a real one and I realised that mine is horrible.”
In the movie, Murphy’s character has three daughters and goes back to Africa to find his long-lost American son who will become his heir to inherit his current title as a king.
The actress also got great reviews from the director of the sequel, Craig Brewer who sees a great future for Mbatha in Hollywood: “She has what it takes to go all the way.”
Even though Mbatha didn’t get support from everyone in the country, her move to America has always been in the pipeline as she saved money and left the soon-to-be cancelled novella, Isibaya to pursue her dreams.
"Why would you do that? You're someone in South Africa. You've built your name. Why would you want to move to LA and start from scratch? Why would you want to be in an audition room with other people reading the script, scrambling for the same opportunities? I wasn't booking jobs, I was going for auditions and 'go-sees', I was putting in the work."
Her journey wasn’t easy though as the actress almost gave up when she didn’t get any call backs after six months: "I'm tired and I don't know if I can keep doing this. I planned to go home and told my manager and my agent, 'You guys call me when there's an audition, I'll fly in for it but I want to be home. I miss everything about home'."
Then she receive the Coming2America call back just as she was about to come back home: "It's true what they say — as you're about to give up, the call comes."
Image Cred: TimesLive