BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
Lusanda Mbane is a South African actress, radio personality, speaker and entrepreneur. She is best known for the roles in the television serials Scandal!, Muvhango ,Imbewu and Generations. Lusanda is loved by many for her talent and hard work – especially by young, upcoming entertainers. In light of this fact, the legendary actress took to her social media to share a few tips with budding actors.
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“In this age of social media, things and people are becoming more accessible to us. There is room for creativity in finding ways to stand out, be noticed and to reach your goals. In Acting, specifically, the barriers to entry are relatively low, but because acting is a talent, it can be a tough career to crack if you don’t have the talent, don’t invest time and effort in your craft or you are not willing to stretch yourself even beyond your own imagination to tell a story. Acting is ruthlessly competitive,” she wrote.
“Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but the general rule in this industry is that you must get yourself an agent (casting / talent agency) that will represent you and inform you about opportunities in the industry. These agencies are the people who get contacted when there are auditions taking place and they then send the talent that they have in their books, based on suitability. In order to know about auditions, you must therefore be in their books / pool of talent.
They usually get a detailed brief from the casting directors eg. The role, age group, the preferred look, languages, performance ability, etc. They will also have the script that you need to prepare for your audition. So, you need to have a CREDIBLE agent. The trick is to find the one that seems to specialize in your area of interest (eg. Acting / Presenting / Modeling etc). You need to do your own research on each agency to find out who specializes in what. Find an agency that already boasts a lot of “stars”. Beware of “fly-by-nights”. If there are no familiar faces in their books, alarm bells should ring (if they haven’t made any stars before, chances are they’re not going to start with you).
These people (agencies) usually don’t charge anything UPFRONT. Sometimes they do have a joining fee, but if they are as good as they say, they should be able to deduct it off your first job. Again, beware of fly-by-night agencies which go around collecting money from people who they have no intention of finding work for. If they say, for example: “You must pay R750 / R800 and you will go for an audition at Generations”. THIS IS A SCAM!!! When you join an agency, it’s not to audition for a specific production, it’s for the agency to represent you on all opportunities that come up in the future. As a rule nje, if the money is a pre-requisite and they won’t even send you until you have paid and they keep following up… IT’S A SCAM!
Without an agent, you will only get to know about open auditions (open to all) which may be advertised on social media. Of course you could get your break this way, but the odds against you when competing with hundreds of unsolicited hopefuls, will be much higher.
Producers are also on social media, but they usually are inundated with messages from people who want to get into the industry. As a result, they don’t read them. Contacting the Producer usually works for already established Actors who have already made a name for themselves and whose work is known and speaks for itself.
So, if you know you have a talent and you want to pursue TV, I would definitely advise you to get an agent. Find one that you can relate to. There are lots of agencies, but unfortunately most are in Jo’burg. There are a number of them in Cape Town, a few have entered the scene in Durban over the past few years. Gqeberha is also making its way onto the industry map.
Oh, and before I list them, let me remind you that rejection comes standard in this industry. You will hear a lot of “NO”. Don’t dwell on it. When I taught you that life is a numbers game, it was from first-hand experience in this industry. Every “NO” brings you a step closer to your “YES”. Keep it moving. Next one!!!” she concluded before sharing a few credible agencies.
