Jarrid Geduld scores his first Safta
AFTER 17 years in the acting industry, his outstanding performance in Die Ellen Pakkies Storie has earned Jarrid Geduld, 29, his first South African Film and Television Award (Safta) for best actor in a feature film.
This was his second award for the film – last year he received best actor at the Silwerskermfees.
To truly embody the character of Abie, Geduld lost 13kgs, spent days with Ellen Pakkies and Abie’s friends to understand him, and took his mind to the dark depths of addiction.
Up against the likes of Schalk Bezuidenhout and Irshaad Ally, while Geduld was confident, he felt the competition was stiff.
“I always knew what I did with playing this role was something special, I prepared very well.
“I knew I was going be a very tough competitor for anyone nominated alongside me but the competition was stiff, any one of us deserved it,” Geduld said.
“This is an accumulation of everything you’ve ever worked for. Growing up in the industry, having ups and downs, I’ve been watching the Saftas for seven years and thinking ‘that’s what I want’. So it was happy and sad.
“I feel I achieved something – for the first time I feel proud of myself. I want to thank the public for going on this journey with us, thank you for going out in numbers to buy a ticket, supporting South African film and television.”
Die Ellen Pakkies Storie is the harrowing true account of a woman who was tried for murder, after she killed her son whose tik abuse put the family through a living hell.
The story is built around the question: What do you get when you combine a troubled mother-son relationship, drugs and murder?
Told across two timelines, the movie shares the story of Ellen’s (Jill Levenberg) stormy relationship with her 20-year old drug-addict son, Abie (Geduld).
“The best way to educate people is through my art. I understood the lifestyle, coming from a life of drugs and addiction, I wanted to lend my talent and knowledge to share this important story,” said Geduld.
He described Abie’s turning point as an identity crisis.
“Growing up as the son of Ellen and Odneal Pakkies, when he was confronted by the possibility of Odneal not being his father, it made him question his entire life. That became the driving force behind his downward spiral, the question of ‘who am I?’
“He felt he was living a lie. “Then finding out he was a product of rape, made it worse.”
The film took four awards in the feature film category at the Saftas, including best actress (Levenberg), best actor (Geduld), best director (Daryne Joshua) and best music/score (Quinn Lubbe).