Local celeb – Tango Ncetezo
TANGO NCETEZO, 33, shares how she stays true to herself despite playing larger-than-life characters and how she believes her big role is yet to come.
Tango is quiet, reserved and soft spoken — a real lady. Her introverted personality even shows on her social media feed. She doesn’t share much about her personal life, choosing to keep it private. She much prefers letting her work as an actress speak for itself.
“I don’t do a lot of interviews,” she admits. “I’m a very shy person and I’m scared of people or just talking. But I’ve always wanted people to like my work because it’s my job and I’m passionate about it. I realise that without people I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she says.
Still, she’s thankful her career started when social media wasn’t yet that big. “It cemented the foundation of my work for me more than the hype of being being well-known. I struggle with the whole thing of being a celebrity, I don’t see myself as one,” Tango explains.
“I understand that, in the industry, it’s about the whole package, that you must tweet and people must relate to you and I’m slowly getting on with the times,” she adds.
Her personality makes it all the more remarkable that she works as an actress.“I’d say it was serendipitous, it wasn’t at all planned that I get into acting. I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I took a sabbatical (after school) for a year. That isn’t heard of in a black family, like uzohlala ekhaya wenzeni? I’d ever only been in one play in high school. I never thought I’d make a career out of it. My best friend’s cousin had started at the AFDA School that year and he was telling me all about the film industry and the things they were doing. I went with him one day and found it interesting and started researching and told my dad about it. He wasn’t impressed initially but he’s now my biggest
All the roles I’ve played have shaped and made me grow, because they’re challenging and total opposites of who I am.
supporter. I didn’t think I could act, I was at AFDA studying producing and directing, I still think I can’t act. That’s my secret,” she giggles.
Tango feels she hasn’t perfected her craft yet. “Look I’m constantly learning and see other actors and ask myself, ‘How did you do that?’ I still have to grow. I don’t think I’ve reached the epitome of what I think I can do.” Tango first caught our eye with her role on the SABC 1 drama series A Place Called Home but the journey to her first memorable role wasn’t easy. She had to get a nine-to-five job in sales, selling space in AFI Fashion Week. “It was really, really hard. I was without work for nine months after graduating. It was frustrating. Generally, you get a degree and you get a job but there was none of that for me. I got an agent, went to auditions and nothing was happening. My parents didn’t understand how the industry worked and neither did I. I finally got small roles then when I got A Place Called Home I didn’t even know I was the lead, Lindiwe. I got there and there were all these well-known actors and I was overwhelmed. We had a photo shoot and it never clicked until the show aired. I just thought we were all leads because I was in a cast with great actors I had watched growing up!” Tango has come a long way. She’s become known for her various roles — as Thuli on Thuli noThulani (where she plays a single mom), Peggy in Rockville and most recently Paulina on the new 1Magic telenovela The River. You might wonder what would be her dream role, since she has brought to life a few people. “There are many roles I still want to see myself in that I haven’t tried. Like an action movie — and I’d love to do theatre because I think that would challenge me to the core. But do you know how hard it is to play happy? Imagine having a bad day and having to play happy, giddy and giggling. That, I think, is difficult.”
As reserved as she is, Tango gets to play loud characters who are ghetto, and you wonder if she isn’t scared of being typecast as the shebeen queen. “All the roles I’ve played have shaped and made me grow as they were challenging, because they’re total opposites of who I am. It’s a nice feeling to get into that colourful world because my world’s quiet and very subdued. But I’m not scared of being typecast at all because I have a wide range. But after Paulina, I think I’m done playing characters like her,” she says. So how is she able to let go of her character and get back to being Tango after a day on set? “I need to be alone for a while, just be by myself because Paulina is loud, her make-up, her personality, everything. I just need time out for two to six hours to listen to some music, especially hiphop, but it all depends on the day,” she shares.
Getting to know Tango is wonderful. There is so much more to the softspoken lady than first meets the eye. Her star is still rising. And after more than 10 years in the industry, she feels like her big moment hasn’t arrived yet. She describes her defining big moment as a yacht. “I feel like my yacht, the Queen Elizabeth, isn’t here yet. That’s the big moment that will feature me in big-budget movies or working abroad. Right now, I have many boats and I’m happy and proud of them because they take me places and allow me to fish,” she smiles.