Kgomotso Christopher
What’s going on in your favourite actress’s head?
Kgomotso Christopher’s flirty, wicked sense of humour has made Scandal!’s (2005- current, see more on p20) premier mischief-maker, gambler and golddigger Yvonne Thebe a firm fan favourite. She’s had our eyes glued to the screen ever since she played scorned wife Nox in the e.tv drama 4Play: Sex Tips For Girls (2010-2012), as well as the late, lamented super-stylish Katlego Sibeko in Isidingo (1998- current). While Kgomotso admits that “I get to watch very little TV, including my own show and it feels bad to even have to say that”, she has fond memories growing up as a TV fan…
What was the first TV show you acted out with
friends? We were from the generation of TV1, 2 and 3. As children, we’d mostly watch Sotho shows. Our favourite used to be Mopheme (1987). Mopheme (played by Khotso Nkhatho, who portrayed seven different characters on the show, including Mopheme’s alternate identities Metsi and Tshitso) is someone who nowadays we would probably say has some sort of mental disability. Not diagnosed, but he’s a community reject. He’s odd, he speaks in a strange way and he does odd things. If you go to any child on the street who was born in the ’80s or ’70s, they will know what Mopheme is and we so loved pretending to be Mopheme and putting Mopheme in all sorts of crazy situations to mimic what we had seen him do on TV.
Who was your first TV crush? There was a presenter who was originally from Zimbabwe on one of the teenager shows. Herbert Schwamborn (host of the talent show Shell Road To Fame in the late ’80s and ’90s, now performing as the rapper Metaphysics), the guy with dreadlocks. He’s half- German, halfZimbabwean. If you can tell me where that guy is… What did you do when an adult moment came on while were watching TV with family? Most kids of the ’80s wouldn’t watch TV unless our parents allowed us to watch with them. What they were watching was the news. And if it was not the news, it was definitely going to be one of those family-friendly shows like Bophelo Ke Semphego (1985). I never had a lot of those awkward moments until I was quite a bit older and we were watching one of those Western shows like Bold & Beautiful (1987- current) or Days Of Our Lives (1965- current). By then we were old enough that we didn’t have to run away. My
parents wouldn’t say anything. Everyone would just go silent. Or you would go get a glass of water. Whose TV wardrobe do you want? Nakedi Ribane who was on Bophelo Ke Semphego as Senthaolele. The fashion she would have on that show, not necessarily her fashion as an actress – we didn’t really have access to what their lives were like outside of TV. Back in the day, we didn’t have those kinds of magazines or TV shows. So we would fall in love with the wardrobe of the character, especially anyone who played a diva, like the character that I play now. I have the best wardrobe for a lot of my characters! If you worked behind the scenes, what job would you want? I’ve always wanted to go into producing because I’ve got a natural instinct for stories that work and for concepts that work and don’t work. Whether it’s music or television or theatre, I’ve always hoped that I could move into the creative and development side of content. I don’t have the money to be a producer right now though! What is your nightmare scenario while filming? On television luckily you can always have a re-take, but working on stage always makes for fun and gives that adrenaline because anything can go wrong. The nightmare is going backstage and waiting for a prop that is supposed to be there for your quick- change and it’s not there. These are things that have happened. With all the reboots happening, which series would
you like to reboot and be part of? It’s tricky because I’m not a TV series person, but on the local side, I would love remakes of two girls’ shows that we had a couple of years back. Society (2007-2010) needs to come back and I know that the producers are ready with many seasons left to the show, but there is an issue of rights and our copyright laws. The same could be said of the show that I starred in – the first starring role that I got – 4Play: Sex Tips For Girls. That series has a season 4 waiting, it’s written! And again, it’s all about the issues that we have in producing and TV making right now. What show and episode made you cry most recently? Ironically I do a lot of crying as my character. She cries at the drop of a pin or a hat or whatever it is. I did watch a very moving film recently – Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies Story (2018). That really tugged at my heartstrings.