A day before the audition that changed his life, his car broke. All he was worried about was how he’d get to his audition the next day. In the end he had to get a taxi, but there were none going exactly where he needed to be.
“I will never forget that day of my life. I had to walk for 33 minutes to get to my audition,” says Lebohang Msiza, who plays Nkosana in SABC2 telenovela Lithapo.
When the 28-year-old actor got off the taxi from the East Rand, he had to use his phone to find his way to the venue. “As I was walking, I remember saying to myself, ‘Are you going to walk for 33 minutes and be nervous when you get there? No way. This has to be mine’,” he says.
The pep talk prepared him for the audition. When he got there, Lebohang saw experienced actors and actresses but that didn’t get to him. “I would remind myself, ‘Remember, you have to walk back another 33 minutes to get a taxi’,” the actor says. Weeks later, his “yes” came.
Unlike Lebo, Nkosana would find walking for such a long time to get to an audition “lame”. His character gets under people’s skins because of his unbelievable sense of entitlement and his narcistic personality. He comes from a home of milk and honey. “I’ve had moments of reading the script and going, ‘No, Nkosana, are you really going to do that?’”
But as an artist true to his craft, Lebo is always excited to get on set to portray this character.
After years of praying and working hard towards his goal of acting in a big show, it’s all working out for Lebo. His parents insisted he go to university, and that’s the only reason he enrolled for a Bcom in accounting.
But he later dropped out. “I felt like I was suffocating while doing accounting,” he shares.
Now things feel right for the actor and Lithapo viewers can expect more jaw-dropping moments with Nkosana.
