Actress Xolile Tshabalala sat down with BONA to discuss her recent role in the Netflix drama series, Blood Legacy.
The 20-episode drama series premiered on the popular streaming platform, Netflix, is based in KwaZulu-Natal captures three siblings at war for the reins of their father’s multi-billion rand company Spear Industries.
Xolile Tshabala playing one of the lead characters, Khanyisile Ndlovu Adesina unpacks her role in the drama series and shares insight into her acting journey.
In the series, Xolile’s character is the middle sibling alongside her brother Mandla Ndlovu played by Buyile Mdladla and Siya Ndlovu portrayed by Mike Ndlangamandla.
Speaking on her portrayal as Khanyi in the series, Xolile said, “I just love the fact that Khanyi is an independent and powerful woman, who is just comfortable in her skin. It’s also nice to see black women not make excuses and be unapologetic themselves.”
Throughout her acting journey, the actress has had very notable roles including shows such as 4Play: Sex Tips for Girls, Secrets & Scandals, Blood & Water, and Housekeepers just to name a few, describing her character from other shows she has done she shared that her role as Khanyi is to clean up her father’s legacy and is determined to make a change, adding that, her role in 2020 on Netflix series: Blood and Water as Nwabisa Bhele was more of a desperate character.
She says, “She just wants to clean her father’s legacy. Even though sometimes it’s hard for her, she wants her family name to be upholded in a better light than just being. Where part of the rich, wealthy people are mostly followed by scandalous affairs. She just wants to clean up her family legacy in Spear.”
When asked what it took for her to channel and prepare for the role of Khanyisile Ndlovu Adesina, she said that for every role she has done, she digs deep into understanding who she is doing it for. At the beginning of the series, her character lives in a semi-exile in Cape Town working as a journalist, whose later called back by her father with hopes for her to run the company and revive it.
“I asked myself, who do I want to inspire when playing this character, given that Khanyisile is a CEO so the answer would be young people who want to be CEOs one day. So at the moment, I know exactly who I’m doing this for. Then the character comes easy so that I can play the character with full understanding, adding, the character is not going to be perfect.”
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She further explained that when channelling a new character, she draws up a timeline for the character and goes through a journey with them, adding, “Another question I ask myself as an actor, is what kind of a bird would she be? And then I walk like that bird for a while, I observe that bird and see how it functions then, I know who the character is and by the time I get on set, I’ve got my material as I understand the background story of the character.”
Sharing her experience whilst being on the Blood Legacy set, she said that she worked with amazing directors, and thanked the cast and crew for the hard work throughout the shooting. She also emphasised the importance of respect in the workplace as being one of the leading characters doesn’t mean anything on set but how you respect others.
She says, she loved working on set with the cast and crew, adding, that it was a full circle for her to work with director Nozipho Nkelemba, as she worked with her on Intersections on a scene she (Xolile) directed.
At the time of the premiere of the series, the South African movie industry had lost veteran actress Connie Chiume, who played the matriarch role of Madlamini Ndlovu in the series.
As the actress worked closely with the late veteran actress on set, she remembered Connie, as someone who was fun, adding that, she loved to travel to set with her because she always gave pearls of wisdom.
“She was fun, she was funny, she was hilarious, and you would not her sitting in the corner as she had a naughty streak about her, but you just love her was just love.”
Blood Legacy become one of the most popular TV shows on Netflix South Africa gaining over 1,5 million views in the first week.
As we hope for a season 2, Xolile ended the interview by saying, “One day will know and that day will be closer than you think.”
Catch Blood Legacy on Netflix.
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