Pearl, Panther, Queen
Pearl Thusi, nicknamed Mamma Panther, is now playing Queen Sono in a Netflix series, a high point in a career that still fills her with wonder, writes Leonie Wagner
Two khaki-clad security guards remain impassive at their posts in the Houghton Hotel as a boisterous laugh bursts through the door of the Waterfall penthouse. It’s Pearl Thusi, here in person while her face is on billboards all around SA as Queen Sono, Netflix’s first script-to-screen African series.
On the balcony overlooking manicured lawns, the actress born Sithembile Xola
Pearl Thusi takes a last deep drag of her cigarette during a quick break between interviews. It’s a revolving door of media today, everyone wanting a bite of the star before the show’s release. The first season of
Queen Sono was available on Friday in 190 countries but when we met Thusi had no idea how the show would be received, despite all the hype.
“The billboards are a lot to take in,” she says. “I’m trying to keep very calm; this industry has taught me that you’ve got to do that. I wait for the moment to actually arrive before I celebrate because I’m always a little bit nervous and I don’t want my head to get too big.”
Thusi has a lot to celebrate. Apart from the ground-breaking show, this week she became the first South African celebrity chosen as the face of a limited-edition makeup range by cosmetics giant MAC.
In her spare time, such as it is, she is studying anthropology, psychology and African languages at Unisa.
“I’ve always just believed that the world is my oyster,” she says. “I never thought anyone had a choice but to believe that. I always thought: ‘If I don’t believe in my dreams, who will?’ ”
Kicking ass
In Queen Sono, Thusi plays a spy and the daughter of a murdered revolutionary, Safiya Sono. Working for an undercover
South African agency tasked with protecting the people of Africa, her character uses unconventional methods to get the job done, kicking ass and breaking rules while seeking the truth behind her mother’s death.
Although the circumstances surrounding her own mother’s death are different, Thusi understands the pain of losing a parent. In some ways, playing a character grieving her mother was cathartic, she says, although she also felt a bit guilty about tapping into her own loss to enhance her performance.
“I need to learn to stop feeling like
I’m abusing her memory,” she says of what actors call the emotional recall technique. “You have to have a very healthy relationship with that acting style.”
Therapy sessions and acting classes have helped her learn how to draw on her past while not digging so deeply into her pain that she becomes too affected to function on set. But dealing with her emotions wasn’t as challenging as filming on 37 locations over eight weeks in the middle of winter. Thusi jokes about being a black woman who doesn’t like the cold but says her enjoyment of the part helped her cope with the harsh conditions and logistical chaos of filming everywhere from Sandton to Soweto, plus stints in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania.
Fierce strength
Her nickname in real life is “Mamma Panther”, which matches the aura of fierce strength she exudes. But she can also be vulnerable. As a child she was teased about her light complexion, which has made her sensitive about “colourism”. This came to a head during a social media storm last year in which Thusi was attacked by trolls claiming her success is solely based on her light skin. As always, she fought back hard.
“Last year was tough,” she says. “Many other years were also tough but particularly last year. I guess the darker it is, the closer the dawn, and that’s important to remember. I’ve had enough dark times to know that you just need to be patient and things will look up again.”
Her mother died when Thusi was a teenager. Her father helped her hold on to her confidence even when she was bullied. She recalls how, growing up in KwaNdengezi in KwaZulu-Natal, her dad constantly reaffirmed that she was beautiful and smart. He couldn’t have been prouder when she was crowned Miss KwaZulu-Natal in 2005.
Her father made her feel special but, like everyone, Thusi sometimes suffers from impostor syndrome.
“I don’t think of myself extremely highly. I just come in and get the work done and I go home,” she says. Sometimes she can’t believe where she is in her career.
The former Pinetown Girls’ High School pupil played warrior princess Tala in Scorpion King: Book of Souls, starred alongside Queen Sono director Kagiso Lediga in the romantic comedy Catching Feelings and featured in films such as Kalushi and Tremors 5: Bloodlines. Her local TV credits include Rhythm City, Zone 14, Soul City and Isidingo.
In 2016 she scored a big break when she was cast in the US television series Quantico as a Harvard law school graduate from Zimbabwe.
One of the things she likes about working overseas, she says, is that noone knows who she is or cares if she goes to the grocery store in her pyjamas. Being anonymous also provides relief from the haters.
“That stuff is painful,” she says of those who attack her on social media. “You eventually develop a strategy to avoid it or fight it, like when you are bullied in high school. But now the whole country has the opportunity to bully you. You just have to roll with the punches.”
She doesn’t always do that, as evidenced by the heated spats she has engaged in. Thusi doesn’t live for applause and her unapologetic approach has cost her in the past. Has she considered being more filtered in her responses? She laughs and says it’s too late, especially since she sleeps so well at night knowing she’s living her truth.
“The industry I work in is an illusion,” she says. “It’s difficult to live an honest life because everyone is trying to wear a mask or be appropriate, but I’m not here for an illusion, I’m here to be myself. I want to live a life that makes me happy, so a lot of the time I don’t subscribe to the idea of being an illusionist, pretending like
I’m something a lot more exaggerated than what I really am. Rebelling against those types of rules has bitten me in the ass many times — financially, reputationally and on social media.”
But for every detractor there are many who love and support Mamma Panther.
One of these is media mogul Basetsana Kumalo, who not only inspired
Thusi but gave the young actress her first laptop and paid her travel expenses when she had to bury her grandmother.
Thusi’s eyes shine as she reels off a list of all those who have mentored her in various ways: Hugh Masekela,
Miriam Makeba, Abigail
Kubeka (who plays her grandmother in Queen
Sono), Joe Mafela (who played her father in Zone
14) and Darlington
Michaels (who played her father in Isidingo).
“What type of life am I living?” she asks, shaking her head in wonder.
“People who I never thought would even breathe in my direction know my name, they know I exist and they had to play pretend with me. I used to watch them play pretend on TV and then they had to do it with me. They were forced to pretend they love me. Isn’t that amazing? What a life!”
The centre of her life is not her work but her two daughters. Her real purpose is to make them proud and inspire them, she says.
“I want them to think, ‘My mommy did that’, and for them to know they can do the same. When they are older I want them to understand that they are part of an important legacy, to know that this is what African women are capable of and they are also capable of doing great things.” During her time in the US she became set on the idea of telling innately African stories. While she’s always taken it for granted that she tells African stories because she is African, it became more important to her to tell authentic stories that show Africa’s diversity to the rest of the world. This is partly what prompted her involvement in Queen Sono.
She also wants to make a more tangible contribution to the world, which goes back to her childhood dream of becoming a wildlife vet. In 2018 she represented the Humane Society International Africa in their fight against canned lion hunting and last year she joined the World Wide Fund for Nature SA to promote water conservation.
“The biggest part of me