Nomzamo hobnobs with Hollywood royalty
Actor waited six months before landing her gig in Coming 2 America
This is Nomzamo Mbatha’s Hollywood debutante ball and I have cracked an exclusive invite.
The guest of honour is fashionably late – 30 minutes to be exact. I have been in a Zoom waiting room for 30 minutes gaping at a blank screen with the words “waiting for host to start this meeting”.
It had hit 9pm on a Thursday night when I jumped onto the call. The only update I have received was at the top of the hour when the host sent me a text that reads: “Nomzamo’s running about 12mins late...”
So I wait as 12 turns into 30 minutes. Mbatha is in LA, she is part of the press junket for her anticipated Hollywood debut in Coming 2 America – the sequel to the 1988 comedy with Eddie Murphy. This is a big moment for the 30-year-old actor from KwaMashu in Durban. Having witnessed closely Mbatha’s ride to Hollywood from Isibaya, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to wait – she’s worth every second.
“Mr E it’s you,” she says as she gets on the line. I’m greeted by her big bright smile.
Just 24 hours earlier I was introduced to her character Mirembe during a screening of the film set to premiere on Amazon Prime and cinemas nationwide on March 5.
Mbatha doesn’t make a cameo appearance in the film; Mirembe is a pivotal character in the remake.
“This has been one of the most life-altering moments of my life from the moment I was called to audition,” she says.
“Being in this seat today is a culmination of all my hard work. This film is the narrative of my life. Nomzamo is coming to America.”
Much like Mbatha, the character is a feisty African woman who dons box braids and stays chic in layers by local knitwear brand MaXhosa by Laduma Ngxokolo.
“I remember when I was doing fittings with Ruth [E. Carter] and I was just screaming ‘You got MaXhosa’, and she was asking me how to properly pronounce it.
“Finally being on set and seeing all the people that work in the palace wearing MaXhosa I was just so proud.” Nothing has me bursting with African pride than the countless times Mbatha uses the expression “mxm” in the movie. It’s the kind of finesse Mbatha brings to the film that only Africans can understand. “I definitely brought that element in. That is your traditional African woman, you can’t get that anywhere else. There were scenes where I spoke isiZulu, but because there is so much that the film has to offer we didn’t get to see that. “For me I wanted an amalgamation of what African women are. African women we are very outspoken, sassy, smart and witty.”
Mbatha shares the screen with some of her heroes including Eddie Murphy and Tracy Morgan. It comes as no surprise she was star struck the first day on set. “My first day on set was unbelievable and hilarious. Tracy Morgan played music on set 24/7. Just dancing, singing along and reminiscing.
“Then there was being on set with Eddie, watching him walk in and be consummate professional. I was surrounded by Hollywood royalty.” In 2019, Mbatha packed her bags and jetted off to Hollywood. It’s believed that Hollywood is an epicentre where dreams and egos come to die. But that wasn’t the case for Mbatha, who waited six months before landing her gig in Coming 2 America. Along the way, Mbatha auditioned for the role that went to Thuso Mbedu in The Underground Railroad.
“It was not easy waiting for my big break. Everyone celebrates the wins because that is what we announce.
“No-one is out there posting on social media that I just went to an audition and I don’t think I did well. It’s a lot of hard work and dedication. You need family support because living in a different continent was a huge culture shift and shock.
But I stayed the course because you have seen people that left their homeland and taken that leap of faith.”
Mbatha has never had any formal acting training, but holds an accounting degree from UCT. Her breakout acting role as heroine Thandeka Zungu when Isibaya premiered in 2013 is what catapulted her into stardom.
For now it’s a mystery what exciting move Mbatha will pull next. She’s keeping mum too, because as she puts it, “my feet are always on the ground and the work should always speak for itself