'Youngins' character, Tshepo Masemola. Picture: Supplied
Tshepo Matlala has become the breakout sensation of Tshedza Pictures’ boarding school telenovela, Youngins.
The rising star portrays the character of the class clown extraordinaire, Tshepo Masemola.
Masemola is a guy who always has a joke up his sleeve or a prank ready to go. Whether he is in the classroom or roaming the school corridors, anytime is tea time.
Matlala said his passion for physical theatre, clowning, and miming has made it easy for him to bring Masemola’s character to life.
He also admits that the credits are also due to the support of the Youngins production team.
“You get a script, and from the writing you see, ‘Tshepo gives birth in class’ (episode 7). Tshepo (as a trained performer) knows that Tshepo, the character in the story, exaggerates every moment. So, this birth is gonna be something out of this world.
“The assistant director and the director give you an idea of how the scene should play out. And the performer in me comes out to support Tshepo Masemola. I fell in love with physical theatre, clowning, miming, and slapstick, so I take all those things to that performance because Tshepo’s character is larger than life.”
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Matlala said: “I’m very good when it comes to planned improvisation within the script. It’s up to me to direct the narrative of what’s supposed to happen in that scene. When I’m bored sometimes, I’m thinking, ‘How is this thing gonna play out?’
“And if I’m still wearing my personal clothes, I don’t feel anything. But the moment I wear that school uniform, in the environment that he’s in, with the people that he sees, something shifts.”
Highlighting the similarities between Tshepo Matlala and Masemola, the actor opened up about one of the things he did for the laughs at school.
“In school, we used to have a feeding scheme. Our Arts and Culture teacher is teaching, and it’s about to be 12 o’clock. I have to go and eat. I haven’t eaten in the morning. And I was like, ‘This lady is eating my time! So what must I do now?’ I opened my bag, took out my empty plate, and tucked it under my jersey.
“And the moment it was 12 o’clock, I ran out of the class! All the classes could see me running, and they were like, ‘Ah, it’s that time.’ Because if Tshepo’s not out of the class, it’s not lunchtime. But when I got there, some kids had come out before 12 o’clock, and already, the queue was long! So I went in front, and I took the whole pot and ran away in the other direction. Then, I started dishing up for myself. I knew I was gonna get in trouble the following day, so it had to be worth it.”
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