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Falling in love with Nomzamo Mbatha

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Moratiwa (Nomzamo Mbatha) and Nat (Masego 'Maps' Maponyane in Tell Me Something Sweet
Moratiwa (Nomzamo Mbatha) and Nat (Masego 'Maps' Maponyane in Tell Me Something Sweet
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Nomzamo Mbatha has taken her acting career to new heights as the star of her first feature film, a romcom called Tell me Sweet Something directed by Akin Omotoso. She spends some time with Gugulethu Mhlungu and tells her more about the movie.

I meet Nomzamo in Sandton City early one evening and she’s all dressed in denim – known as a Canadian Tuxedo or, more popularly, iJean-to-jean – sporting a distressed shirt and skinny jeans. She wears a pair of black pump heels and a hat. Despite being in a lace frock, I suddenly feel underdressed for our date. “I’m so sick,” she announces as she sits down, a little congested from the flu. But even in her state of ill-health, she is cheerful and present. I can’t recall being that nice when I’m sick.

Meeting Nomzamo is something of an experience. She’s genuinely nice. She smiles, a lot, and each time it’s a genuine smile. And she’s beautiful. Not in the hyperbolic “OMG-these-shoes-are-beautiful” sense, but more like a not-contrived I-really-woke-up-this-way feeling, which seems a fairly obvious thing to say about the person recently announced as the first local face of global beauty brand Neutrogena.

Tell me sweet something

I ask the 25-year-old lead in Akin Omotoso’s Tell Me Sweet Something how the role came about.

“Akin tells the story of how he couldn’t find his leads and when he did the film the first time – as a short film – he wasn’t happy.”

When he decided to rework it as a full-length feature, he was told about Nomzamo and got in touch with her agent, the legendary Moonyeenn Lee, who has launched a thousand careers, including most of the cast of Tsotsi.

Nomzamo was busy – she plays lead roles in e.tv’s Umlilo and Mzansi Magic’s Isibaya – but not too busy for the highly respected Omotoso.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! It’s Akin! What if I make a fool of myself? He’s never going to forget it. The audition process is the most excruciating thing,” she says.

But her anxiety soon dissipated. “He was very chilled. We sat in the audition room and had a chat. I love auditions like that because it’s like the person wants to meet you and understand your range. So we sat and read through the script and he was like, ‘Okay. Thank you.’”

A few days later, she got a call to say Omotoso loved her and wanted to see her again because he had found a potential male lead and wanted to test the chemistry between them.

“I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ My agent wouldn’t tell me and eventually I got it out of them and they said it’s Maps [Masego Maponyane].”

Meeting Maps

In the movie, Nomzamo plays aspiring novelist Moratiwa, who has writer’s block. She hasn’t had much luck with love since her ex-boyfriend, Norman, went out to buy milk and never came back. She runs a second-hand bookshop in Joburg’s hip Maboneng Precinct.

Unfortunately, in the glamorous world of It girls and It boys, books are not “a thing”. Tired of having a recluse as a best friend, Tashaka (Thishiwe Ziqubu) convinces Moratiwa to go to a party at a new club, where she meets celebrity model Nat (Maps). Moratiwa isn’t impressed that he doesn’t read books. As she tells Tashaka, “He’s a model, what would we talk about?” Tashaka replies: “Who says you have to talk?”

Against all odds, Nat begins to court Moratiwa.

Tell Me Sweet Something marks debut feature roles for both Nomzamo and Maps.

“Akin really took a risk, but seeing the movie, it’s ... lovely,” she says, thoughtfully sipping on her hot water with honey and lemon.

“We read the script once and Akin wanted us to do these exercises where we didn’t talk, but responded to each other by giving and taking. And he loves doing that because it is beyond what you say and it’s about trusting the other person with your body.”

She says this was a big thing for her because “I’m from Durban and when we come to Joburg we’re guarded because there’s so much happening all the time. Also, Maps and I are from different backgrounds, so there was also that awareness ... and so there was some anxiety...”

But it worked out. And chemistry was only a part of it. “We did a lot of preproduction and were on an eating plan. We had personal trainers, an acting coach who was teaching us about improvisation and acting techniques, which is more hectic than a soapie,” says Nomzamo. The actress has never studied acting before – she started out as an accountant while auditioning to be on TV.

She says the whole cast became very close. “We did a lot of activities where we got very intimate, we shared our secrets, and did some crying, which was strange because you’re thinking, ‘Why am I crying in front of strangers?’ but that’s how we got to know each other. And that’s why when you watch us on screen, it’s not forced; we genuinely have that rapport with each other.”

Omotoso, she says, is above all an actor’s director.

On to bigger and better

I ask her why people should see Tell me Sweet Something and she immediately replies: “Because it’s different. It’s not a typical romcom ... I feel like we’ve done a lot of typical South African movies and by typical I mean dark, gory, violent, which is still what the world wants. Because the world still doesn’t understand that there are people with my complexion, that Joburg isn’t Hillbrow ... I feel so passionate about this project because I know I won’t be part of something like this for a long time.” She says the movie is “sweet and funny and charming. It shows a side to us we haven’t been able to show before. Our men are good-looking, we fall in love and we are beautiful!”

She makes as if she’s going to lick her hand ... “And you just want to lick it, it looks so good.” Aside from anything else, people should go and watch the movie because it’s local. “If you can watch Think Like a Man, Tyler Perry or Kevin Hart with your girls or your man and relate, how much more so a local story of love, made in spaces you know?”

I ask her if she ever dreamt of doing movies. She sits up, smiles broadly and says: “Every actor wants to do movies.” Then she leans in playfully, as if she’s telling me a secret, and says: “Anyone who says they don’t want to do movies is lying. Unamanga, shem!”

There’s plenty more to come from Nomzamo. She says she’s working on her second film and it’s a big one – one that will change her life. She can’t reveal what it is yet.

I’m burning with curiosity, but all she’ll say is: “It will only be discussed next month.

“But it’s going to flip my life because of the story, which is untold. It may have been told in the past, but with this project it’s being told right and from the horse’s mouth ... I’m scared because of what it will bring, but also it’s what I want and that’s why it chose me.”

Tell me Sweet Something goes on circuit on Friday, September 4

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