Trackers’ James Alexander on life in LA
Trackers star James Alexander and his wife Anel may have swopped SA for the USA but their hearts still lie with Mzanzi and milk tart!
ON SCREEN he’s the brooding, silent type, moving through the African bush in khakis and T-shirts, all glowering glare and clipped sentences. But the James Alexander we’re speaking to today is neither reticent nor, it seems, dressed at all.
“This is the first interview I’m doing in my pyjamas,” he says, chuckling down the line. It may be early morning in South Africa but it’s bedtime at James and wife Anel’s home in Los Angeles, California.
The couple moved there three years ago to see if they could crack the US market – but that doesn’t mean they’ve turned their back on the SA entertainment scene.
And that much is pretty obvious. James (41) stars as the mysterious Lemmer in Trackers, the acclaimed mini-series based on the book by crime writer Deon Meyer.
Anel (40) also appears in an episode of the show as a veterinarian and ex-lover of Lemmer.
The couple reacquainted themselves with life in SA earlier this year for the filming of the show, which takes place in Loxton in the Karoo, the bushveld of
Limpopo and Cape Town, among other places.
The result is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that incorporates terrorism, diamond smuggling and rhino poaching – and Lemmer is one of the characters at the heart of it all.
“The part was actually a lucky break,” James says. In May last year he was visiting SA for the first time in 20 months when a casting agency called and asked him for an audition video.
“I said I happened to be in the country and may as well come for an audition in person.”
For months after the audition he heard nothing and, once back in America, he became convinced he hadn’t landed the part.
Then in January he got a call. “Can you be in South Africa in two weeks’ time?”
And just like that, James and Anel were back.
“It was nice to be shooting in SA again, in locations and with people I know,” James says. “It felt as if we’d never left.”
WHEN they moved to LA in 2016, James and Anel were looking forward to the adventure. “Few people get the chance to discover a new country in their late thirties,” James says. But while it was exciting, it was also one of the hardest things they’ve done.
“We had to start from scratch – get driver’s licences, figure out the health system, even learn how to open a bank account,” Anel says during our call.
To add to the challenge, they’d sold their home in SA and gone over without the promise of employment – while having to fork out dollars for living expenses.
“Renting our two-bedroom home costs about the same as renting a full-on house in [upmarket Cape Town seaside suburb] Clifton,” James says.
“That first year everything is novel. The second year is hard because you start missing home, and by the third year everything gets a little easier. You start seeing the good things and realise your sacrifices are beginning to bear fruit.”
One of James’ highlights since moving to America was acting opposite Hollywood A-lister Keanu Reeves in the action movie Siberia.
The movie was shot in Canada and Russia in 2017 and the two actors, who play diamond smugglers, even speak Afrikaans to each other in one scene.
Keanu embraced the challenge of learning a new language, James says.
“He has a reputation of being Holly
wood’s Mr Nice Guy and that really is the case.”
Anel is focusing on her career as a producer and has worked on productions involving La La Land director Damien Chazelle and Glee actor Darren Criss.
The Alexanders’ decision to move to LA was born of a need to broaden their career horizons as well as to promote the SA movie and TV industry.
“We came to LA to learn, to build contacts and ultimately take work back to SA. We haven’t left the SA industry,” Anel emphasises.
James has also worked with the likes of Dr Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and says he isn’t easily starstruck – at least, not often.
But he was totally bowled over when he saw one of his all-time heroes, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, in a coffee shop.
“I was that guy who pretends to be doing something on his phone while secretly trying to take a pic of him,” he admits.
Hollywood isn’t all glitz and glamour, James adds.
“The competition is huge. Everyone you meet in LA is somehow involved in the business, from the barista at your local coffee shop to your Uber driver.
“You’re constantly reminded that you’re in Hollywood, trying to reinvent your career.”
WHEN James first moved to the USA, he had to choose a new professional name and opted to work under the surname Gracie. “We realised there are about 10 James Alexanders in America working in the movie business,” he says. “My agent suggested choosing a more unique name.” So he decided on his mom’s maiden name. “I’ll always be James Alexander in SA but internationally I work as James Gracie.” Trackers will be broadcast overseas too, which is why he appears as James Gracie in the credits. For his part in Trackers, James had to fly a plane, drive trucks, be in shootout scenes and work with rhinos. To research his character, he studied Deon Meyer’s novels Blood Safari and Trackers, in which Lemmer, a former soldier and bodyguard, features prominently. “Lemmer hates injustice. He wants to make things better and can’t help getting involved, even when he knows he shouldn’t. I’m like that too. If I see a chance to help someone, I will.” James and Anel had a lot of fun on the day she spent on set. As a vet, her character Suzan had to give Lemmer stitches in one scene. “James kept teasing me, saying I mustn’t poke him with the needle. So I practised on a banana,” Anel says.
When the cameras started rolling and she couldn’t sew the stitches fast enough, a real vet took over.
“That evening, when I tried taking off the prosthetic wound that’d been tied around my arm, it had been sewn onto my skin. We had a good chuckle about that,” James adds.
The pair have been married for 16 years and still seem madly in love. Their secret is to be open and honest about their relationship, they say.
“It’s not always moonshine and roses – we work hard at it,” Anel says.
“We got married young. I was 25 and Anel was 23. I think after 16 years we’ve figured out a few things. We’ve experienced a lot together, made sacrifices and learnt along the way,” James adds.
“We have a solid support structure in our family and friends and we also have a therapist we see to make sure we have the [emotional and mental] tools to deal with an issue before it becomes a problem.”
Although they’re doing well in LA, they often long for home.
“We miss milk tart, biltong and of course our friends and family,” James says. “Most of all, I miss the people and the feeling of ubuntu. Sure, SA has its challenges, but there’s the ever-present spirit of being in it together.”
Trackers airs on Sundays at 8pm on M-Net and is available for streaming on Showmax.