His acting flair keeps on getting better and better.
From the first time we saw him on eHostela and then Uzalo, Wiseman Ncube has grown in his acting career.
This year alone, we have seen him in more than four new big productions including Shaka iLembe and Mandoza’s biopic.
He has given his craft his all but what many don’t know is that to get to where he is wasn’t an easy ride.
Initially, he was inspired by his brother Ntando ‘Zing Man’ Ncube who pursued acting at DUT before him.
“I watched him perform for the first time in a theatre show called Sophiatown. That time it’s my first time in a theatre and I’m asking myself what’s going on – people are singing, dancing, vibing, it’s just so nice. I could feel that this is where I belong. When I told him, he said that I’m too shy and would get frightened by the stage but that didn’t stop me,” he recalls.
Remembering how hectic the acting training is at DUT, he says this is the reason why the alumni are big names such as Sdumo Mtshali, Nthati Moshesh, Thembinkosi Mthembu and Kwenzokuhle Ngcobo.
“It’s 95% practical of acting and 5% theory so in class we only get to see the book 5% of the time. It’s hectic.”
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After studying at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) for three years, breaking through was harder than he thought it would be.
Before he could get onto the big screens though, he did a lot of theatre shows in Durban for about five years.
“I told myself that I’m too good for Durban and so I decided to go to Joburg but when I got here in the dog-eat-dog world, I was in the for the shock of my life,” he whistles in disbelief.
"I had to fight through rejections, did auditions and people would love me and tell me that I’m brilliant, but I wouldn’t get call backs. I ended up wondering if I was really in the right career. The one thing that kept me going all the time when I wanted to give up here in Joburg was all the awards that I received back at home and the big shows I did then. I knew that it wasn’t by luck.”
At some point, the 33-year-old thespian had run out of plans and money.
He was on the run with his suitcases from his landlord whom he had been owing money for rent, but he says, “It was building me to become the person that I am today”.
“I don’t forget where I come from, I have endured too much to be where I am to for me to even dare ruin it all by forgetting where I come from.”
Eventually, he was called back to Durban to do a musical show at Playhouse theatre. For him, this was his chance to regather his strength and recollect his cents to come back bigger and more resilient to Joburg.
“While I was backstage about to get on stage, I got a call to be a part of e.tv’s Gold diggers. I was meant to get a lead role, but things changed when I got back to Joburg. The bright side to it was that the smaller role was going to last longer on the show.”
Although this was his first TV role, his breakthrough was on eHostela, what he calls a “Boom role”, which came after his cameo on Generations.
The funny thing about his audition for eHostela was that he paired himself up with Thobani Nzuza who had already failed his audition for the same show. When he returned with Wiseman though and was eventually given another chance to give it a shot, they both got roles on eHostela.
As he speaks to Drum on the set of the new telenovela called
My Brother’s Keeper, the award-winning actor realises how much he has been blessed and says he is
overwhelmed.
“I’m really grateful, [this is what happens] when you dream so much about something which you are passionate about. I feel like I was born for acting, it’s what I live for. One might think that I just woke up one day and boom, I’m now Wiseman doing so many shows but that’s not the case. I’ve had so many rejections along the way.”
“I’ve had so many challenges that I have faced but those challenges for me, I would always tell my younger brother that I believe my day would also come one day. And when it comes, people must be ready because I’m never going to look back and now that’s happening, it’s exactly what I was talking about,” he adds.
Now that his better days have arrived, he’s seizing every opportunity that comes his way. For as long as he’s been on the TV screens, he’s played trigger-happy roles and the kind of men you wouldn’t want to mess with.
However, in reality, Wiseman is just a soft-hearted, humble being.
In a room full of people he doesn’t even know, he will be the first to greet.
With his roots being in KwaZulu-Natal, his recent award as the champion of eThekwini was enough acknowledgement to affirm him of his excellent work although doing what he loves on a daily basis is already his biggest reward.
“Being honoured like that at this age says, ‘keep going’, it doesn’t say that you have arrived where you are going or you’re now a star or you’re bigger than anyone. It just says that you’re on the right lane, going at the right pace, just keep going.”
For him, he says the secret to succeeding in his industry is to know how to work well with people, be respectful and humble while learning from everybody as you go, especially the icons.
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What he doesn’t want to stop doing though is praying as hard as he has been to reach even greater heights in his career.
On his journey, he takes up each role as a challenge and makes sure he plays it better than his previous one.
“Playing Mandoza was a big one for me because it was heavy in terms of pressure, it’s not like any other character that I’ve played. It’s someone that people knew, people who loved it. I did my research and went around Zola asking about him and people would ask if I’m sure about playing him.”
In as much as the pressure to play someone who lived and walked the streets that he was walking on was too much, he took it upon himself to stretch himself.
Much to his surprise, people love him as Mandoza.
By the end of this year, he tells Drum that there’s still more coming from including a Netflix production.
