Pakamisa Zwedala as King Tshawe on 1802: Love Defies Time. Picture: Supplied
Actor Pakamisa Zwedala spoke to The Citizen about his new role on 1802: Love Defies Time. He has been playing a bad guy for most of his career, and now he is ready for viewers to see his soft side.
Pakamisa plays the character of King Tshawe on the show, a father to Nomabala who was promised to the second son, Melisizwe, until Khosi came along and the conflicts began.
He said preparing for this role was tricky for him at first as he received a call in the evening to show up on set at 5 am the next morning. As a result, the first day was the most challenging for him.
Speaking about the most satisfying scene for him, the actor said:
“It has to be the arrival of King Tshawe, that I play, so that whole sequence of him arriving (at the Majola kingdom), because what they did back then, is if you were promised to marry into that family, then we would send you to go live with them. So you can learn their ways.
“So the first time you see my character as he comes to the village. And he greets, obviously, the royal family, and then he turns to his daughter, you know, that interaction for me was just so short and so fulfilling.”
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Pakamisa said when he first met his new character on paper, he understood how different it was from his previous characters.
“For the first time, I’m playing a person who doesn’t only think of himself. If you look at my career, I’m always playing the bad guy, you know, the gangster, the killer, etc.
“Now I’m playing a guy who has one daughter, and I have a daughter in real life, so approaching this character was a beautiful thing for me, even as a performer to play a different type of color on TV. So for the first time, you get to see the softer side, you see the smiling, “he said.
The actor said it is interesting how the show is exposing the gaps between now and then, especially in the Xhosa language.
He highlighted that the Xhosa that is spoken now is not the same as the one that his forefathers spoke.
“So it’s been an interesting transition to find that Xhosa, and funny enough, I am Tshawe myself. The clan names of this character are my clan names in my real life, so in terms of research, what is important is understanding my people as Pakamisa Zwedala because that’s exactly the character and the language more than anything,” he told The Citizen.
Pakamisa will make his first appearance on 1802: Love Defies Time as King Tshawe from next week Monday – Wednesday at 20h30 on 1Magic.
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