He's a busy man who wears many hats in the industry - from producing and presenting to launching his own beard care range called Bakoena Brands, he's got a finger on the pulse of almost every income stream in entertainment.
With a career that has had many twists and turns as he navigates life in the public eye, the 40-year-old seasoned actor is a hard worker.
We sit across from Thapelo Mokoena at a luxurious hotel in Sandton, where he shares with us just how much he’s looking forward to his two sons - whom he shares with his wife Lesego-Tshepang Mokoena - being able to read about his journey to becoming the man he is today.
Whether he’s putting the drama on in the Netflix series Fatal Seduction alongside stars like Kgomotso Christopher or venturing into the wine and male grooming industries, Thapelo multilayered persona holds true to the inspiration he is.
Raised in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal by his mother alongside his five brothers, Thapelo shares with TRUELOVE how his love for acting and performing began.
“So, every Saturday she’d go out to town and hire us a DVD. If we’re lucky and we’re good, two DVDs, and it was always comedy. If not comedy, karate; if not karate, cowboy movies. If not cowboy movies, some – who knows – some action or any form of story that was not African, of course, but it was grand, and the love to perform for each other began. So, I always refer to my house as a little studio because it was like our little Netflix. Our little Hollywood studio because we watched a film and immediately after watching a film, we’d go outside and reenact the entire thing.”
However, his journey hadn’t always been so straightforward.
Thapelo reveals how he initially went to university to study accounting but his true passion had always been for the performing arts, of which he pursued at The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance – more commonly known as AFDA.
“So, the love for storytelling and performing, we all had growing up. I’m just the one who – after finishing matric, coming to Johannesburg to study accounting – I discovered a film school and I’m the one who decided to go back home and say, ‘I can’t do this accounting thing, this is not my lane. I’ve found what’s mine’.
“And thank you to my parents, they agreed to finally give me a chance to pursue it and that’s how this whole thing began. So, it worked. I didn’t have a third chance because after accounting they were like, ‘this better go down well’, and we’ve never stopped since. It’s been 22 years,” he recalls.
What's your go-to fragrance? Currently, Tom Ford Tobacco Oud
What would you say is you biggest achievement so far? My biggest achievement so far has to be my two sons. You know, my wife is an angel, a goddess, for bringing those two boys to life. That is my cloak.
How do you balance it all? To be honest, I don’t. But the pursuit of balance is better than not. So, I pursue finding that evenness. I feel like I'm a high-performing individual, I've put certain measures in place. I have a high-performance coach, I train a lot. I literally brutalise my body so that it can do what I want it to do and it can respect me and take my command, and 80 percent of how you look, appear, or feel is in the kitchen. So I respect what I eat.
Your favourite male grooming products? Bakoena beard care range, Bakoena brands – the only male grooming man-crown product that is creating magic right now and I’m so grateful for it. It took three years to build and we’re sitting at a very great position now about to be global. And if you saw my co-star Prince’s beard - you saw that glow? You know what time it is.
Thapelo’s love for the performing arts transcended into exploring the ins and outs of behind-the-scenes work, which encouraged him to pursue a qualification in producing.
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Since graduating from AFDA in 2003, he used his skills, talents and initiative to build his own production company called Easy Sundays Productions.
“So, Easy Sundays Productions was formed in my graduation year of film school at AFDA, 2003, because I realised I was about to step out into the world. Even though I was doing a lot of acting at school, I actually graduated as a producer, because I’ve always felt that acting is a God-given talent. If anything, through experience you learn how to manipulate your performance, so it gets better and better.
“So, I felt, instead of me coming to class – and I also just take this as my approach, I’m not saying either is wrong – but I couldn’t understand the idea of coming to school every day to stretch, to read – yes there’s value to breathe and this and that – when I could be learning the business of the arts. And that’s when I restructured my entire degree to [not only] study motion picture and live performance but production.”
The production company has been growing and churning out projects for almost two decades, ranging from corporate productions to facilitating advertising campaigns for his own brands.
“Currently we do a lot of corporates, we do a lot of commercials. And we’re still presenting a lot of stories ... but that’s my baby that’s always going to be responsible for creative. You know, some of the stories that we work on, we consult on international stories and international cultural themes as a company. So, we’re multilayered and ultimately this is the same company that presents and produces all of the products for my other businesses.
“So, if I need to create an ad campaign for one of my brands, I’m doing it internally. If I need to present a commercial, you know like for my wine I shot a commercial that got us a nomination as a best newcomer in the UK as a wine brand, it’s because we produced a shot a particular commercial that created that story. The same goes for my grooming brand, it’s that story. The same would go for my restaurant-ing businesses. So, for me, everything boils down to storytelling,” Thapelo shares.
Through his film qualification and diving into all the work that happens behind the camera, Thapelo has found the perfect balance to using these skills in front of the camera.
“The blessing for me with the production side of things is that I got to fully understand the 360-value chain of film and TV. You find a lot of actors that are just on the 180 side of that, just in front of the camera. But then a richer actor – and I say richer not in terms of economy or money but richer in terms of expertise and offering and skill – is an actor who understands what everybody behind that camera is doing.”
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His knowledge and understanding of the work that goes into every avenue of TV and film production allows him to use his face and body in just the right way to get those money shots.
“Ultimately, I call it a dance,” he tells us. “So, when I walk on set, I’m not there to say my lines I’m not there to present my performance. I’m there to take everything that they’ve built around me and then adjusting what I've read to present my performance and that is part of practice making permanent, that is part of involving yourself in – immersing yourself in what you’re about. Not every actor will do this, but the more you care about the set and not yourself, is the more you become a better actor. And like I always say: practice makes permanent.”
