MASALI A WINNER IN NOUGHTS & CROSSES
MASALI Baduza didn’t take long to reach the limelight. Just a few short years out of college and the young 23-year-old bagged a starring role in BBC drama Noughts & Crosses.
Her role as Sephy Hadley has given her the chance to truly appreciate the character.
“I thought it would be a beautiful character to play, especially as a young black woman today, and to see us portrayed in a way where we don’t have the struggles we have. It was a really great play on race.”
The show, adapted from a book by the same name, is set in a parallel 21st Century Britain that sees black people (Crosses) rule over the lower-class white population. Baduza’s character falls in love with someone from the opposite race and their story unfolds from there.
“I had never, up until that point, gotten a script where I read the character brief and it was a black girl who was in a world where she was privileged and educated and the world was for her. That was a very interesting take on race relations we face today in our own society.”
Baduza said getting into that character was not difficult. “I have always asked myself how it would be like if black people weren’t oppressed, if we weren’t disadvantaged. Getting into that mindset was therapeutic, seeing how life is like with ‘no struggles’.”
Noughts & Crosses is Baduza’s first starring role.
The show was shot over six months, primarily in South Africa and some scenes in London.
Baduza’s love interest is played by Jack Rowan.