Anel Alexander
What’s going on in our favourite TV star’s head?
Say the name Anel Alexander and 7de Laan (2000-now) fanatics will race back to her role as church mouse Liesl Landman (2004-2006). The actress, now starring as Susan in action series Trackers (Sundays, M-Net *101, 2019), played out Liesl’s crush on Neil Sandilands’ character Bart Kruger (2000-2005 and again in 2007) and the love-birds bonded over pigeons. Offscreen Anel is married to local actor
James Alexander (or James Gracie as he is known in
Los Angeles, where they have lived since 2016) –
James plays Lemmer in Trackers. They married in 2003 and played a couple in Binnelanders (2005-now) back in 2007.
But it was Anel’s first love – music – that originally got her hooked on TV…
What was the first TV show you acted out
with friends? It was the magic of movie musicals such as Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound Of Music (1965) and Annie (1982). That captured my imagination as a child. Many songs were sung into my hairbrush… even in adulthood…
Who was your first TV crush? MacGyver (1985-1992), but the original one with Richard Dean Anderson. I was never that school girl who had centrefolds of stars all over my walls, but I kept one of Mac in a special folder I had for years.
What did you do when an adult moment came on while you were watching TV with
family? All of a sudden I’d be very busy with something like clearing coffee mugs or rearranging pillows. Our family rarely watched that kind of thing, so when it happened I always wanted to die.
What have you wanted ever since you saw it on TV?
Any Aston Martin from the James Bond films.
Whose TV wardrobe do you want? Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) from political drama series House Of Cards (2013-2018).
Whose TV house would you love to live in? Any house on drama series Billions (2016-now). Pick one!
What shows are you fanatical about now? The
Prime Video comedy series Fleabag (2016now) and dramedy series The Marvelous
Mrs Maisel (2017-now). I’m loving strong female leads we are starting to see on the smallscreen.
If you worked behind the scenes, what job would you want?
I already do! I’m a producer and currently working on my fourth feature film Semi-Soet 2. I wrote and starred in the first movie in 2012.
What is one of your favourite plot twists from a show?
The Red Wedding (season 3 episode 9) of fantasy series Game Of Thrones’ (2011-2019). I couldn’t believe they killed all those characters!
Which character is your favourite hero? I’m not so sure about hero, but my current favourite villain is Villanelle from drama series Killing Eve (2018now). Actress Jodie Comer created the most interesting, layered female villain I’ve seen.
What is your nightmare scenario while filming? I’ve lived it filming the final scene of 2015 movie Sink. The entire scene takes place in the rain at night. Having been drenched for almost 12 hours straight, hypothermia settling in, a fellow actress and I were told that something went wrong with the camera and we had to do it all over again. We both looked at each other and just started crying.
With all the reboots happening, which series
would you reboot and be part of? Spy thriller Alias (2001-2006) – I’d play Jennifer Garner’s role as Sydney Bristow. I think I’d be a great spy and would love to play the various characters she pretended to be… and kick some ass along the way.
If you could play any character on any show, who would
it be? I would love to be part of a comedy ensemble on a show like Scrubs (2001-2010) or Modern Family (2009-2019) or Veep (2012-2019). Comedy can be hard, but I would love to be part of something where you get to work with cast, writers, directors and showrunners who’re at the top of their game.
What are you bingeing on currently? Drama show Ray Donovan (2013-now). I can’t believe that I never watched it before.
What show made you want to be on TV? As a child, there were plenty, but I remember sport drama series Friday Night Lights (2006-2011) being a gamechanger for me as an actress. I remember feeling: now that is the type of series I want to be in.
And your TV icon is? Talkshow host Oprah Winfrey. Living in LA, I got to attend the premiere of her 2017 movie The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. Oprah was there. It was the first time in my life I felt what makes a Justin Bieber or Beyoncé fan scream uncontrollably.