She is a true testament that when you break away from your comfort zone you attract everything that brings you closer to who you are supposed to be.
Actress, director and creative Bahumi Mhlongo is now okay with taking up space and not being apologetic about it. She is at a phase in her life where being brave is the only option she has and wonders why she didn’t do it sooner. As she breaks away from her shell, she is comfortable with who she is, she is honest with herself about her path, and she trusts that God brought her to this world so she can find her purpose.
And that’s the reason she embraces the character she plays on the Netflix crime series, Soon Comes Night. It is a crime series based on real events and inspired by Alex Shabane who is popularly known as the heist legend.
She plays Kefilwe the journalist who is out to expose the bad guys. This is a role that inspires her to be honest with who she is and always seek the truth. Kefilwe is a young thriving South African who is fearless, determined, and driven by an instinct to speak truth to power, even if it comes at a cost.
Read more | What does it take to be a wardrobe stylist in SA's biggest productions? Phindile Mlambo gives us the scoop
Speaking to Drum, Bahumi says she auditioned for the role in early 2022 and got the news that she got the role while she was on the set of another Netflix film, Love, Sex and 30 Candles. She says she thought this was one of the auditions where she got the callback but not the role.
“It took me a while to know which role I got, and when I eventually found out I went ballistic. I genuinely wanted to work with the people working on the production behind the scenes. I was happy to have the opportunity to work with such people in the industry and that was the biggest thrill.
“You are happy when you get a gig, but I was also happy that I will get to work with people whose work I admire and people who are well respected in the industry. That is important to me because it validates the fact that I am making serious moves, and you understand that people will now take you seriously in the industry.”
She says for someone like her, who even people assume that she gets things easy, it is thrilling to know that people who have been working for a while, see her and want to work with her. And she is working on a role she has never played before, so this was an exciting challenge for her. Bahumi says at best, when preparing for a new role, she finds out more information about the character.
“Instead of searching what a journalist does and behaves, I looked at her character traits. A lot of her dialogue, the era that she grew up in, and the kind of personality and character that she is. And that is what I focused on when researching about her. I research powerful women in well-performing industries and emulate that Kefilwe is not just a journalist who is trying to get information and write the next big story. The first thing that pulled me towards her was her determination for the truth, she seeks and fights for the truth against all odds and that told me that she is a dominant, feisty character, and from that I was able to portray her.”
Even though it was an easy character to portray, she says she saw herself in her and she remembers when she was Kefilwe’s age and having the same drive for truth and just wanting to be.
“I remember struggling a lot, the older I grew and the more the world got to me it became a lot difficult for me to be myself, speak my truth, and be more outspoken. She gave me that chance to be who I truly am, I find myself inspired by her. We are not far apart in character, she is who I wish I was when I was her age. A lot of people would say I am outspoken but there is a lot more that I would love to say, I wish I was a lot bolder to just be and exist. This show taught me that freedom is not a physical thing. I wish that when I was younger, I never allowed the world to stop me from being myself.”
Read more | ‘I’m hungry for success’ – Kwenzo Ngcobo on securing more bags and reaching higher acting heights
The older she gets, the more intentional she is about herself. And playing Kefilwe highlighted some issues on how she lived her life and now learned how to live moving forward and that is to live in truth and not just have it trapped in the mind. She had to confront her own truth by being truthful to her leg condition which is a Lymphoedema Praecox.
“I am better at being outspoken and living now. It is something that started a while ago, it is a consistent thing and internal thing. The moment you think you are now living in the fullness of your truth is when more lies get exposed and then you start realising that you haven’t been truthful in some areas of your life. Even the leg thing was something I have been hiding for years, and then bit by bit I would expose it first to my friends, who didn’t know I had a leg condition, and to the public and then social media. I then realised it was not the leg, it is insecurity that was making me hide this, then I started to unpack.”
She believes that boldness is a journey and going forward she is honest with who she is and grateful for her career which encourages her to always be authentic.
