She was the ideal girlfriend for a hustler in a township on Uzalo. Although many may have not liked how gullible she was, they couldn’t bring themselves to hate her for sticking with her man when the going got tough.
As Fikile, she didn’t mind the poor life but as Bazothini, she stops at nothing to live in the suburbs and drive the Mercedes Benz Brabus G Wagon. If it means killing her younger sister to get the rich life and break out from her dusty home village in Umzumbe, leaving her son and husband behind, that’s exactly what she’ll do.
Her relationship with her mother is the least of her worries.
Nelisa Mchunu plays the role of Bazothini on Isfiso so well that you’d find your blood boiling over how vile she is.
As she was enjoying a week-long break between shooting other productions, Drum grabbed the chance to chat to her about the character.
When playing the lead role, Nelisa got “to know my character and what pushes her to be who she becomes eventually.”
She confirms that “a lot of it stems from her relationship with the mom”.
Reflecting on it, she says what helped her pour her best into it is the personal relationship she has with Duduzile Ngcobo, who plays her mother – MaNgobese.
“uMaNgobese being who she is kind of helped me plan or foresee how Bazothini is going to react or why she does certain things in terms of reacting from trauma or things that have happened to them that they were repressing.”
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To Bazothini, MaNgobese loved her younger sister more because she was more educated and was married to wealthy man, played by Melusi Yeni.
One wouldn’t wish to have her as a daughter, but she assures us that Nelisa is almost the polar opposite of Bazothini.
“Obviously, we’ve had our issues, growing up, trying to figure myself out as a young adult, not seeing eye-to-eye, me thinking I know everything, and I don’t need to be told. But besides that, I have a really beautiful relationship with my mom. My mom is one of the sweetest people I know. I was raised in church, so I was raised on kindness, good manners and treating people how I want to be treated. So, I’m very different from Bazo and my relationship with my mom is different from Bazo and her mom's.”
Because of the respect she has for her mother in real life, she avoids being in the public eye for the wrong reasons. Anything that might disappoint her mother, she prevents from happening.
Even with the character bringing out the grimness that doesn’t exist in her real life, she appreciates the character a lot. In fact, in the first week of shooting Isfiso, she pinched herself in disbelief.
Not only was it an affirmation that she is not in the wrong career path, but it also cemented her as an actress, outside of being a comical character.
“I had only done things that are like comic relief, so it was a really nice change, it got me out of my comfort zone which I really appreciated because I had been wanting to do something completely different, so it was really great.”
While Bazothini was acting from a trauma-responsive place in the first season, the second season brings out another side to her.
Nelisa learns that “actually, she is her mother’s daughter, the apple does not fall far from the tree. She was busy blaming her mom for a lot of things and playing the victim but in actual fact, she is her mother’s child. They have more in common than anything and the reason why she is what she is, is because she’s exactly like her mom.”
Even though she is more of a daddy’s girl in the drama series, Nelisa never really got be one in real life as her father passed on when she was quite young.
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As a result, her and her brothers were raised by their single mother who she describes as her “guide”.
“Everything that I’ve learned, I’ve learned from her. She has guided me in basically all the journeys of my life, she’s been the pillar. Who my mother is at her core is like her integrity, her integrity has shaped me into who I am,” she says.
How she independently raised them and worked hard became the blueprint for Nelisa.
With the faith instilled in her from a young age, “even when I left Uzalo, I knew that it was all going to work out.”
Before Uzalo, the actress had gotten an extra role in Isdingo between 2013 and 2014 while she was studying towards her Bachelor of Arts degree at Wits. From being an extra to having a cameo, saying a few lines here and there, Nelisa learned a lot about acting and the experience solidified her craft.
Although she didn’t complete her qualification due to financial reasons, all was not lost. When she returned home to Durban where she was born and raised, she attended acting classes until she bagged the role of Fikile on KwaMashu-based soapie in 2015.
This was the same year that she lost one of her brothers and was going through a lot in her life.
Through it all, she carried the faith that was instilled in her from childhood.
Her mother’s words are: “No matter what you do in your life, people are going to talk and they’re always going to have something to say. Most of the time, it’s going to be negative things even when you believe in your heart that you’re doing a good so never ever ever, live your life to please people. If you believe that whatever it is that you’re doing is good, go for it!”
She's got a lot on the pipeline, as Nelisa just finished shooting a movie and is about to shoot another production which she can’t yet talk about.
