On becoming Lebo
BAHUMI MADISAKWANE: STARLET PLAYS A STAR IN SERIES
Black chick with rhythm gets into the groove.
Despite starring in a biopic based on the life of her father’s late best friend, actress and reality television star Bahumi Madisakwane insists her famous parents had nothing to do with her snagging a role in BET Africa’s upcoming mini-series on Lebo Mathosa.
Madisakwane said she had been consuming all things Lebo in the name of research for the role about a week before her audition. “Even after the audition, I researched things just in case I got the role. Then I stopped because I was like yoh, this is a long wait and what if I don’t even get it.”
After the 24-year-old found out the role was hers, she phoned a lot of people who had been close to the late star, including her friend and Boom Shaka bandmate Thembi Seete.
Madisakwane said she was grateful for the privilege of personally knowing Lebo and having access to people who knew her too. Chief among them and perhaps the biggest repository on all things Lebo was Madisakwane’s father, Somizi Mhlongo.
Yet she insisted the renowned choreographer and reality TV star was the one person she hadn’t turned to in her quest for information about the star.
Shortly after the interview, a more relaxed Madisakwane settled into a groove and told the story of the audition process from scratch.
To get as wide a talent pool as possible, the mini-series’ producers held open auditions for the role of Lebo. Madisakwane found out about this from a friend who encouraged her to audition via a Whatsapp text message.
She had auditioned for the role previously and claimed to have performed badly, which made her hesitant to try again. According to Madisakwane, it was this fear of failing coupled with her apprehensiveness about being recognised at the open call as the daughter of Mhlongo and actress-turnednews-anchor Palesa Mhlongo that made her decide to keep her interest in the role a secret from her parents.
Her hesitation was not unfounded as many of the other participants in the open call reportedly refused to do the paired audition with her after realising who she was. She eventually found someone who was willing to audition alongside her and got to redeem herself.
After receiving feedback that the actress they needed to play younger Lebo (the role she originally wanted) had to be much younger than Madisakwane currently is, she auditioned for the role of the older Lebo. She was then told she had “older Lebo’s voice but younger Lebo’s structure,” and this reportedly led to the mini-series’ producers casting her in the role of younger Lebo.
She enlisted the help of an acting coach in addition to tapping into the aforementioned network of people who had known Lebo. “What helped a lot was getting people’s opinions rather than watching past interviews of her in preparation for the role because my role isn’t necessarily the Lebo that we [the public] know.”
The actress said she had more faith in her acting skills than in her ability to sing and dance, but she trusted whatever the producers saw in her in her audition.
“I found out I can sing and dance when they said ‘you’re in‘. I’m just a black chick with rhythm and they were like, ‘oh you can dance?’ And I was like ‘cool’.”
She owes this growth to her new-found insight into who and how Lebo was. “Oh my gosh, this woman! She was a fireball, it’s like literally nothing could stop her from a very young age and it’s really inspired me. She had this carefree personality and I really love her confidence so much that I was just like, you know what, screw everything dude, like just do you and be you.”
Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story will premiere on November 6 on BET Africa (DStv channel 129) at 9.30pm.