Undoubtedly one of the most talked about characters on South African television, actress Vatiswa Ndara tells us about her experience thus far as the evil Nomarussia on Mzansi Magic’s iGazi.
In our candid interview with Vatiswa, she first informed us about how Connie and Shona Ferguson tricked her into playing the character of Nomarussia, whom she first thought was actually a good person.
“Let me tell you…Connie and Shona tricked me into playing this role. They told me Nomarussia is the good one and Ndlovukhazi is the bad one and when I read the script I was already brainwashed because at the beginning I thought Nomarussia was a woman who loved her son dearly," she laughed.
But on further reading the script, Vatiswa came to the realisation that this was not the case at all.
“When I continued to read the script the character grabbed my attention immediately. I thought to myself. ’Wow ok, this woman is crazy!’ but having read the entire script, it captivated me and I did not want to put it down. My main concern was to do justice to the script and portray Nomarussia the best way I could.”
Read: #iGazi The love/hate relationship with Nomarussia
Due to her excellent representation of Nomarussia, Vatiswa has admitted that she’s had phone calls from close friends suggesting that she not go out after watching a certain episode, due to her character’s evil ways.
“People who really know me have called and suggested that I not go out, after a particularly hectic episode because they think people are going to be angry at me. But what I found is that people get surprised when they see me. They say I look totally different from my character, if anything people applaud me for the character I play. Thankfully I haven’t met viewers who are not impressed with my character.”
One of our most memorable episodes from iGazi was when Nomarussia painfully gripped her son's groin (played by Thami Mngqolo) as she threatened him about the throne.
READ: Brenda Ngxoli on black excellence and Vatiswa Ndara
Viewers were shocked at the sudden act and we just had to ask how they managed to perfect that particular scene?
“In that particular scene everyone was just having so much fun, there was no holding back. But we took strict precautions in making sure Thami didn’t get hurt. Also, there were just so many different camera angles in ensuring that we shot that scene perfectly, for everyone out there I did not really grab his groin everything was acted out perfectly.”
Vatiswa added that viewers should prepare to hate Nomarussia even more as she continues to bring out the big guns on #iGazi.
Update:
Check out the love letter she wrote to her fans ahead of the DSTV Mzansi Magic Viewer's Choice Awards
Image Credit: mzansimagic.dstv.com