NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE
SHE looks nothing like the pretty girls she’s played on TV. Gone are the figure-hugging clothes that showed off her dancer’s physique and the perfect make-up accentuating her exotic looks. For her role in the new TV drama Lockdown, Lorcia Cooper wears drab standard-issue prison garb and her face is all bruises and scars – and she loves it.
“I think people are just so shocked that I’m playing a character such as Tyson – but yes, that’s me. It’s given me a chance to show what I’m capable of.”
Shot at Constitutional Hill – a former prison complex in Braamfontein, Johannesburg – Lockdown has been compared to hit American TV show Orange Is The New Black. The edgy series, set in a fictional high-security women’s prison, is centred on the rivalry between Ma Z (played by Dawn Thandeka King) and the confrontational Tyson.
It premiered on DStv’s Mzansi Magic channel on 9 January and stirred up a buzz from the get-go. Lorcia’s character in particular got viewers talking.
“It’s been one episode but you’re already killing this role, I’m hooked,” one fan said on social media. “I love what you did with Tyson . . . SCARY!” another said.
The 38-year-old actress has been off the small screen for more than three years and is thrilled to have landed a role that’s so different from the pretty girl parts she played in soapies Backstage and Scandal!.
In the almost 17 years she’s been in the industry Lorcia has often been told she doesn’t look tough enough to play anything other than a likeable woman. But she’s proving these naysayers wrong with her chilling portrayal of tough-as-nails Tyson – named after boxer Mike Tyson because she’s the prison’s boxing champ.
“Lockdown is my comeback, and what an amazing comeback!” she says, adding that it’s all thanks to Mandla Ngco-ngwane, the show’s writer and director. “He saw beyond my looks and saw that I have the ability to transform myself.”
Although the role has taken her completely out of her comfort zone, Lorcia says channelling Tyson’s character comes easily to her.
“I was raised in Cape Town and was surrounded by people like that a lot of the time,” she says. “I recalled their energy, how ruthless and hard they were.
In her gritty new TV role Lorcia Cooper plays a scarred and hardened convict – and she’s loving it! By SHANAAZ PRINCE Picture: DINO CODEVILLA
That gave me a tangible reference and I just threw myself into it.
“I love playing characters who are nothing like me. I’m hoping that in the future I’ll get more roles where I’m not playing the pretty girl; roles that are informative without being stereotypical – roles that stretch me.”
LORCIA started out as a dancer, winning the FNB Vita Best Female Dancer Award at the age of 19. It was through dance that she got her first big acting break – as dancer Charmaine Jacobs in season 1 of Backstage.
She’s since worked as a choreographer for stage and TV shows and during her recent break from the small screen she spent some time behind the scenes as a director.
But it was more about taking time out and she’s grateful for it.
“I feel so blessed to have had those years because you learn about yourself when you’re removed from your day-today routine.”
Once she started auditioning for roles again she came up against the harsh reality of how the entertainment industry has changed thanks to the rise of social media.
“I feel there are many performers who’ve worked really hard at being good at what they do but because their [social media] following isn’t that good they get turned down for work.
“Not all people are motivated by the social media sphere. There are people who have accounts but are not interested in just posting stuff that’s ‘appealing’. Unless I’m doing an underwear campaign or a swimsuit campaign, I’m not going to post pictures of myself in my underwear to get followers,” she says.
“Our industry isn’t a popularity contest. I’ve learnt to speak the truth – I say what I mean, what’s in line with my purpose, and I’m not ashamed of it. Skill should trump following – not the other way around.”
But Lorcia is quick to give praise where she believes it’s due – and recently she’s taken to social media to hail her Lockdown co-stars.
“Best set I’ve worked on to date and not only because of the product but because of the women I was privileged to work with. I salute you,” she wrote.
“I’m also grateful to Mzansi Magic for choosing to do the show,” she tells us. “Doing a prison show is daunting because you’re telling the story of women who ended up in prison and you need to portray them without judgment. Lockdown has taught me to look at things differently.”
TYSON might be bringing her critical acclaim, but the role that means the most to her is that of single mother to her daughter, Jannah (9). “Her name means heaven [in Arabic],” the actress says. “She’s my heaven on earth. She’s my motivation. When I wake up every morning and I see her, I’m just filled with gratitude.”
Jannah gives her a sense of calm in the sometimes crazy showbiz industry, she says. On weekends she and her mini-me enjoy going on drives, market-hopping and indulging in food tasting.
“We’re both huge foodies so often we’ll go to places just to experience tasting something. We love picnicking too – we’re big picnickers. And we love popcorn, Coke and movies. Friday is pizza night, religiously! We eat clean during the week and pig out on the weekend from Friday night to Sunday morning.”
Mom and daughter are clearly close. “We love talking. I’m mindful that I want to be present on this journey with her. It’s not the amount of time you have with your kids, though – it’s the quality of that time. But if you have both, it’s even better.”
Between work and spending time with Jannah, Lorcia indulges in her first love – dance. She teaches contemporary dance and gives dance therapy classes at Eunice Marais School of Dance in Irene once a week.
Her passion for dance started at the age of four and soon she was entering ballroom and Latin American dance competitions with her brother. Dance is also what prompted her to leave Cape Town for Mmabatho with the North West Dance Company at the age of 18.
“When I was in matric I told my mom [Avril] I was leaving home,” Lorcia says. “At 18, she trusted me enough to let me go to Joburg on my own.
“My mom and my old dance teacher, Debbie Turner, are the women who inspire me to be good at what I do.
“No matter where I am, what I’m doing or what I’m going through my mom reminds me to be who I am, to be the best me I can be.”
Lorcia trusts that there are great things ahead of her. “Besides wanting more roles that stretch me, I’m definitely interested in doing more directing. I’d like to balance the two. It’s possible to do more than one thing – how else did I become a dancer, choreographer, actress and a mom?
“I believe that everything I need God has already put inside me.”