Multi-disciplined Touré de force gears up for next chapter
ACTOR Nakhane Touré has solidified his position as South Africa’s hottest property. The 30-year-old Triple Threat actor, singer and author is gearing up for the next chapter in what is fast becoming a glittering career.
He will release his forthcoming music album, You Will Not Die, on Friday and will follow this with a European and southern hemisphere tour.
Touré said the album took 4½ years to make because he was busy with other creative pursuits, such as a starring role in the controversial yet internationally acclaimed movie Inxeba: the Wound, and the writing and release of his 2015 debut novel, Piggy Boy’s Blues.
“I started writing the album and then decided to write and act; it all got in the way,” said Touré.
The album explores different themes with some of the stand-out songs being the gospel-like Interloper and the pop style of Clairvoyant.
Interloper took three years to make, even though Touré said the lyrics were not difficult to write.
“It took the longest to write even though the verses came easily. The chorus came in last because there was a guitar solo there but I decided to make it more glamorous. The song is about irrational jealousy and anonymous sex,” he said.
The movie Inxeba: The Wound was banned after the Film and Publication Board’s Appeals Tribunal reclassified it from 16LS to X18, the same classification as pornography. But the Pretoria High Court overturned the X-rating. The award-winning film returned to cinemas on Friday with a classification of 18.
Touré said he could not believe it when the film was banned from cinemas and said that because of his combative nature he wanted to challenge the ruling, adding that he was happy that this had now been overturned.
“The banning just made no sense to me. I just sat there gobsmacked that we have entered into this fascist and homophobic realm. Are we so homophobic that we are going to say the only place you can exist is in porn?”
Touré went through the initiation ritual himself as a gay man – even though he did not want to go through it.
He said that he still received homophobic messages on a daily basis.
He said the process of making the film was a gruelling one, as filming often lasted up to 10 hours a day.
“Creating any kind of art is painful. I just put so much of myself into it… to understand the character.
“The other is the method acting way where you have to dig deep into your past and your own trauma and find that authentic pain to use in the character,” said Touré.