Sisanda Henna starring opposite Megan Fox in flick

SA actor Sisanda Henna is starring opposite Hollywood leading lady Megan Fox in new action thriller Rogue.

Fox, 34, renowned for her role in the Transformer franchise, plays Samantha O’Hara who is leading a team of mercenaries on a rescue mission.

Henna, who has recently won critics in Trackers and Agent, portrays Pata, one of the mercenaries.

The character is a former

Kenyan Al-Shabaab member.

“The thing about Megan is that as much as she’s a megastar, she’s very petite, short and just tiny.

“She’s a gentle lady and team player — it was really a pleasure to work with her,” Henna said.

“The interesting part is her bodyguard; he’s a lovely fella, but very big and British.

“He lives in LA and protects movie stars across different sets all over the world.

“He was always this interesting figure that was always there.

“In the beginning you will talk to Megan and you look at this guy just standing there then you say ‘is it right or wrong?’

“But by day three all of that had changed.

“Day three was the first day of filming because we spent two days in boot camp together.”

One of Henna’s most memorable scenes was the final one they did that left Fox tearyeyed. “I will tell you a little secret; she was moved by one of my scenes and she was a little teary,” Henna said.

“We set up to film my final scenes with Megan and the director asked her how do you want to play this and what would you do with him sitting here?

“She then asked ‘Megan or Samantha?’

“The director then threw it back and said you tell me.

“She replied Megan will go over, hug this man [Pata] and kiss him on the cheek. I laughed because she was really moved by Pata, who came alive in the movie, that she would want to give him a hug, but these guys are soldiers; they have to be tough all the time.”

Henna said one of the most difficult things in preparation for the role was getting the Kenyan accent right.

“Part of the preparation was a lot of YouTube to get the accent right.

“I went to modern Kenya in terms of locating that accent,” Henna explained.

“The character is not welleducated, so we didn’t want a posh accent.

“We wanted it heavy, but neutral enough for a global audience to be able to hear and understand it.”

Rogue was shot in November in Johannesburg and will premiere exclusively to Boxoffice by DStv on September 11 — skipping cinemas as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It will screen on Showmax from December 3. The film is an SA-UK co-production between MultiChoice, Capstone and Mannequin.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment will distribute it in North America.

“This is a conscious move on our part to ramp up investment in African content,” Yolisa Phahle, CEO of general entertainment for MultiChoice said.

“This is just the start of bringing the Africa we love to the rest of the world. ”—