AN INTERVIEW WITH BONNIE HENNA (FORMERLY MBULI)
Bonnie Henna plays Precious Chamusso in 'Hotstuff'.
When were you born?
I was born in South Africa in Soweto at Baragwanath Hospital, 25 years ago.
I don't live in Soweto anymore, but its still home where my family live. I have one brother and one sister. I'm the eldest.
Did you go to school with them?
No, I went to Belgravia Convent then to Greenside High School. Both in Johannesburg. I started acting when I was in year 6. I was 13.
How did you find your agent?
Well, she found me, sitting at a bus stop going home from school with a bunch of kids. She was handing out pamphlets advertising her new agency, Professional Kids. She stopped at our bus stop and gave everybody little pamphlets and asked them to give her a call to book an appointment. At first she handed me a pamphlet and got back into her car, and then hesitated a bit and reversed and came back and said, "Please please come and see me. You have pretty hair." I had little braids up to my neck. I thought well OK, fine and I went to see her on a Saturday afternoon and on the following Monday I got my first job in a drama series called Viva Families. It was 1992.
What did you find it was like being in front of the camera?
I was a shy introverted kid, I had no friends really, I hardly spoke. But whenever they put a camera on me I became alive. Something in me just woke up.
So you became a camera junkie?
Yeah, I just felt comfortable in front of the camera. I felt at home being someone else, expressing myself.
How long did you do Viva Families?
I shot that for about 6 months. After that I became a presenter on a show called Tele School (1992), which was about maths and science and all this stuff and I was the anchor presenter for about a year Then I got a job on another show called ZAP Mag (1994-1996) a programme about sports, fashion, fun and food. After about two years I did another show called Limits Unlimited (1996-1997) which was also pretty much the same thing. I got a part in a film called Born Free 2 (1996), about freeing this lion cub. And around then I started modelling. I hadn't wanted to be a model. But I got into it, found an agent, well she found me again and I got all this work which was easy money for like three years. But it was very boring and I just used to sit there thinking what am I doing here. I couldn't speak or express myself in any other way apart from just standing there wearing these clothes and I missed acting. I was then cast in a Canadian series called African Skies (2001).
There was an American guy and a South African guy and I played the South African's girlfriend, living on a game farm with all these animals. And then I got into a local soap playing a super bitch character who became very famous in South Africa. Everybody was always talking about it. Backstage (2001- 2002). It was shot in Cape Town. I then decided I really wanted to be a proper actress and to do this well and develop my skills. I felt that I couldn't do that on a soap. It just felt like a sausage factory. You just come in there, make sausages and go home, picking up bad acting habits. I left the series, and got on to a short series called Gazlam (2003), meaning 'my blood'. I played an HIV positive character, very intense. It was about this group of kids living in an apartment block in Yeoville, Johannesburg.
After that I got Drum (2005), the film about Sophia Town. I played a singer, a jazz singer, a character based on two South African icons Miriam Makeba and Dolly Rathebe.
The last film you shot was called?
Zero Gravity (2005). It's a Danish film written and directed by a Danish director Jon Bangcarlsen. I play a maid who lives in the east of Cape Town. She has a young son and is in an abusive marriage. She falls in love with her boss whose house she cleans. He's 60 and blind. I finished shooting that in December 2004.
What are your ambitions?
I want to become one of the best actresses in the world, and I want to do really good work and work with some amazing people like Mr Phillip Noyce. So far that's all I will say. I just want to do really good work.
What do you like and feel about the character of Precious in HOT STUFF?
I love that Precious' experiences are connected with lots of South African women and the types of trauma they have been through. I feel so passionate about telling Precious story because she is both strong and tender. She allows herself to feel the full spectrum of her emotions without fear which is an escape from the emotional prison that I've seen so many South African women trapped in.
For further information about 'Hotstuff' just click on the link below.
