COVER: Mandisa Nduna on the quest to tell meaningful stories as her star rises
Multi-talented actress/muso Mandisa Nduna’s career has been on a steady upward trajectory since appearing on Class Act Season 2 in 2011. And while acting is about telling, over the years, this craft has became more intentional with her saying yes to roles that build a legacy for her.
This selectiveness has seen her shy away a little from the more frivolous characters that she could have played, carefully setting her eyes on the ball of building a meaningful legacy. Over the years, acting has become about telling the truth.
“And this is not necessarily my truth but it’s a truth and if I can give people an opportunity to look at me and relate to something, then I’ve done my job. People look at acting as faking someone else’s life, and maybe for some it is, but for me it has become about telling a story that someone has been through,” she said.
That intentionality, being selective with where she expresses her craft, has led her to Netflix’s newest original young adult comedy, Miseducation, that follows the lives of youngsters in university, navigating life and all its challenges.
The star-studded cast includes the likes of Prev Reddy, Lunga Shabalala, Luyanda Zwane, Sechaba Ramphele, Ebenhaezer Dibakwane, Mpho Sebeng and Buntu Petse among other names.
“I am a little picky with things that I am open to and that is a self aware part of me. I can’t always say I’ve always made the right decisions but it is definitely something I think long and hard about to distinguishing if that role aligns with my beliefs and my politics. And that sort of confirms that when I do something and I do go forward with a production, that it is something I am 100% behind and 100% believe in,” she shares.
What informed that transition was purely based on building a truthful legacy during her early 20s when she almost was scammed due to desperation, she said.
“I was like, if somebody 20 years from now googles my name – the first thing that pops up is probably what they’ll automatically think about who I am and my career. So I have to make sure that the things that pop up are things that are of the quality that I need them to be.
“It wasn’t always like this. I came up straight from school then went into Class Act and after that, I took anything and everything. And I suppose I am fortunate that some of those things haven’t come back to haunt me. Well some of them have,” she said laughing.
“But the main thing now is having my name associated with things that I believe in. I should also want to align myself with someone of a certain reputation because at the end of the day, that’s my face that can create opinions,” she said.
That selectiveness has not always borne fruits, with dry spells making their appearance from time to time.
“I’ll admit that I haven’t always been able to afford to be selective but I think I stuck to my guns despite it all. And I think I am blessed to still be able to act and have my music that has kept me afloat, and just other aspects of the entertainment industry because I also host/present and I am now a content creator. I have all those things to fall back on when I say no to jobs that I believe will kill my art and my craft.
“I don’t want to walk away from a production and be less of an actor or have it kill the love and passion, because I work so hard to be better every time. What I associate myself with is an important part of it all,” she said.
She is playing the long game, steadily building on the legacy that will ultimately take shape into all that Mandisa values.
About MisEducation she said: “Any opportunity to portray a queer character gets me excited because I am a big fan of representation and I really do feel like we need more of it still. So before I even knew it was a Netflix show, before I knew who else was involved, I was sold on it being a fun, real show,” she said.
Describing her character, Mandisa says Thato is a queer student at Makhanda University, who is looking for a genuine connection, aka love, in a world where it feels like there is a lot of pretense.
“I think what Netflix and Burnt Onion Productions are doing is so important, portraying these characters in the most authentic way, where it’s sort of like a subtle education that queerness is not the main story/plot. It’s like these are normal human beings who just love who they love.
“That subtly and the representation speaks to the fact that these kinds of people exist in real life and portray them on our screens. The show explores the activists, the middle class/the lower LSM students who are just trying to pay their fees. It’s a melting pot of real issues and is told in such a beautiful way,” she said.
