Young local actor works hard to make his dream come true

Zack Botha (27) is working hard to find superstardom.

He fell in love with acting when he was six and his parents rented the first two Lord of The Rings films on VHS.

“We started the Friday night with The Fellowship of The Ring and by Saturday afternoon we delved deeper into the magical land of JRR Tolkien.

“What really sparked my interest were the characters Frodo and Sam, following the creature Gollum to Mordor.

ALSO READ: Tembisa Red Devils celebrate 20 years in entertainment

“The way this creature was crawling on the floor, speaking with his voice and switching between his alter egos, inspired my young self to try and mimic his movement, his voice and his lines,” he said.

Botha was active in the South African film industry between 2010 and 2018.

He took a hiatus and now he is back at it again.

He said that he has done everything that is expected from anybody wanting to be a professional actor in South Africa.

“I have done everything according to the playbook of professional SA actors 101, and I stopped after eight years and left the industry to pursue another career path abroad.

“It is not that there isn’t enough done to open doors for new talent, the film and television industry is just hard, plain and simple,” he said.

ALSO READ:  Same Love Entertainment to host second annual pride festival

“If you don’t fit the role, or you don’t look the part, or someone who looks just like you is a more preferable choice in the casting room because they are more experienced, famous in the local market, or they get along better with the casting directors and producers, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”

He added that since he has returned to acting, he has taken a different approach.

He’s not trying to open the door to someone else’s film or soapie or play, but he’s writing, rehearsing and performing it all on his own.

“I am pitching my concepts on my own.

“I am opening my own doors.

“It’s initially harder to follow the self-production route, but it’s far more rewarding in the long run,” he said.

Botha said that he would like to work on a project with a huge budget with more renowned actors because doing big projects can be rewarding, and it’s fantastic to see how what you’ve created fits in to the bigger narrative of the script and the other characters.

“Working with other actors, household names or not, is always a new opportunity to learn about acting and if the set dynamic is good, then you get to play those moments over and over again, honing each moment of the subtext,” he said.

ALSO READ: Flames of entertainment at FTC Modderfontein

Botha will be staging a performance on November 30 at La Chateau Guesthouse in Terenure, Kempton Park.

After this performance, he plans on finding people who have a passion in their heart for stories and have a burning desire to be on the stage or camera and perform.

He wants to teach people the craft of acting and would like those wanting to share the stage with him, to do so with the letters and plays and poems that he explores.

“I would love to be able to have the characters and dialogues that were written by our South African Shakespeares and Molières to be performed.

“Either in a modern day adapted script or in its original Dutch or vroeë Afrikaans text.”

Botha added that he has a dream of training people to become actors.

“We actors are all looking for stages to perform and unfortunately, some of us have the belief that we need to perform on other people’s stages and perform other people’s stories and I want to break away from that belief system,” he said.

Additionally, he said actors need to follow their historic roots and build their own stages, and he wants to give others the space to perform on the stage that he’s building.

Residents wanting to attend the event on November 30 can buy tickets at the door on the day.