Kgomotso fulfilling destiny
STILL HOPES TO PORTRAY A LESS GLAMOROUS TELEVISION ROLE IN THE FUTURE ‘I can’t imagine a life without my husband. He’s my earth angel.’
She has portrayed numerous characters in different television channels, from soapies to drama series and even comedy, and, with all that, it remains impossible to fault Kgomotso Christopher’s fine acting skills.
It’s no surprise when she says acting is a spiritual calling, and the art of becoming and allowing oneself to become a vessel that carries and portrays the stories and journeys of other people is fulfilling her purpose in life.
“More than anything, my relationship with acting goes beyond my career. It feels like a destiny and purpose I was brought here to fulfil. That feeling means I never feel like I am working when I’m acting, as much as it is my profession. As they say, love what you do, and never work a day in your life.” Explaining how she manages to carry off any role, Christopher says she believes it’s because she approaches her roles as a trained surgeon would approach a patient on the operating table, with clinical precision and armed with knowledge about the operation at hand.
“As much as I do believe the best approach to acting is intuition and instinct, my academic training and techniques learnt at school become invaluable in building characters and approaching a role.
“I use various learnt techniques of character building and finding the uniqueness of each character,” she explains.
“Just like people, every character is unique and my job as a trained and experienced actor is to find those unique characteristics and build an individual.
“I do my research, people study. I prepare. My preparation for every character I portray is consistent. The tools I have allow me to interrogate a character in such a way that when it’s time to perform, I let the instinct take over, supported by my preparation. There really is no secret.”
She believes that if actors approach their acting in the same way as any other professional tackles a job, the chances are very good that the work they produce will always be distinguishable. “I was always drawn to the arts, specifically acting, which is why my parents spent so much money on me to do speech and drama classes throughout school and ultimately allowed me to go the National School of the Arts to specialise and matriculate in drama,” she says
However, Christopher says growing up in a generation where acting wasn’t considered a profession made it hard for her parents to think she would ever become a professional actor.
“I was also a bright student and matriculated not only in the arts subjects but also in the sciences and mathematics. So, naturally, they felt I had better prospects in taking a traditional career path and letting go of the hobby of acting after high school.
“I was always a realist and I understood their perspective, which is the reason I chose to do a traditional degree with double Majors in Law and Political Sciences from UCT while pursuing my interest in the arts.” Christopher plays the role of Yvonne in e.tv’s Scandal. Yvonne is a beautiful yet manipulative woman.
She is the ex-wife of Hector Thebe and mother to Naledi. She uses her beauty to get what she wants from men, but does not give anything in return.
She has never worked a day in her life, but has all the riches she desires.
It is a role the actress has been portraying for little over a year and she has received massive love from her many fans.
Despite this and being nominated in the Best Actress category at this year’s South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas), Christopher explains that she took on the role with many doubts.
“At some point after the audition I tried to convince the production that I wasn’t appropriate for the role. I had just walked away from a role that was synonymous with my name for SA audiences.
“Getting acknowledgement for the work I’ve done with the role so far is humbling.”
The talent says for her being nominated is exciting.
“It is not my first Best Actress nomination at the Saftas as I received one for the role of Katlego Sibeko on Isidingo. However, this nomination is all the more special because it’s for a character I’ve portrayed for little over a year. Knowing that audiences and the acting fraternity have so quickly welcomed and warmed to Yv is heart-warming.”
The 38-year-old actress says she only takes on roles that challenge her, explaining her current Scandal role.
“Usually the main challenge and the reason I reach for such roles is that they are completely different to who I am, which is the definition of being an actor; one who is able to transform themselves into another.
“The other challenge is playing a character who is predominantly a Sesotho speaking woman, when in fact I’m Tswana and,