South African actor goes global

A lot of us can remember acting out our favourite scenes from the films we watched in our childhood. Still, pursuing a career in ‘make believe’ did not pan out for a lot us – for a number of reasons.

Twenty-three-year-old Boris Petrenko’s story reads as something similar; he too would watch movies and imitate the scenes, but as he got older and started high school, he immersed himself in sports, so a career in sports science seemed like the next obvious choice. When he was in Grade 11, however, his school held auditions for their annual theatre production – that year’s show was Grease.

“At the time I loved Grease. It was my movie; I used to watch it almost every single day. I auditioned, only to find out that you have to dance and sing, and I couldn’t do either. Long story short, I got into the cast and I thought ‘this is awesome’,” Boris said of his ‘light bulb moment’.

The late nights and long hours really drew him to performing and this grew into a love affair as he auditioned for subsequent school productions. Soon he received senior full colours for Drama and that became the spark that lit his career path. He enrolled at AFDA where he completed his degree. Acting allowed him to explore someone else’s story and their psychology, but Boris admitted that accent work was one of his favourite things about acting.

His most recent role on TV was in the medical series ‘Vutha’ on SABC 2, where he played ‘Clyde, the pharmacist’. Having done theatre at AFDA and now working in television, Boris revealed that he actually enjoys working in film. “I like playing with the stillness. I did a monologue from the movie The Notebook for my audition for the opportunity that I have just received to go to America. Whenever I perform that, I always get told that there’s something really beautiful about my stillness. I really like to play the emotion behind the lines. Theatre is great and I love it but for me … stillness,” he said.

The opportunity in question is the annual International Modelling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention that will be held in Orlando, Florida. It is an opportunity for artists globally to showcase their talent to the world’s top agents, managers and casting directors. The Strubens Valley resident went through the first round of auditions, which were held on Zoom. “From there I got shortlisted to perform at the International Arts Talent Showcase where they had judges from the New York Film Academy, Rhavynn Drummer from Tyler Perry Studios, and a couple of guys from The Voice,” he explained. The next step was waiting for a call-back, which is every actor’s stress point, and luckily his call finally came, albeit later than expected. He leaves for the USA in July.

Boris said the IMTA is the perfect opportunity to be signed with one of the top production houses in Los Angeles, and to take the knowledge from the experience and bring it back to the South African film/TV industry. “The quality of the work that we are producing is fantastic, but we could take it a step further.” He also admitted that the industry could do with more unity and encouragement among artists and performers.

He acknowledged that the industry is competitive but a few words of encouragement from a fellow performer could go a long way. He said, “Something as small as ‘hey, you did great in that take’ would not only make your co-star trust you, but it would make them feel really good about themselves and their performance.”

With such a positive attitude and talent to boot, Boris will definitely be impressing Hollywood’s finest.