Ian Roberts on his role as Christiaan du Preez.
What made you decide to act in Land Of Thirst? This series came up just when I wanted to do TV again. I went to Cape Town to meet Meg Rickards, the director, and I liked the scripts I read! I thought they were unusual, non-formulaic, and the fact that they had a novel backing them is always a good sign for me.
I liked the way the character of Christiaan du Preez was written. I must admit I was very, very pleasantly surprised. Because my first thought was that it would be another case of an hysterical Anglo view of the Afrikaner. I thought it would be the stock standard, that the old fascist was going to rear its head again.
So I was surprised to see that I was dealing with a man here who actually thinks for himself. I was amazed that he was not locked into any dogma, not a rightwing facist dogma which is such an untruth about the Afrikaner and is so stupid.
How did you understand your character's relationship with the main character Khanyiso Phalo? Christiaan at first would like to not deal with Khanyiso, but when he comes and says "I just want something to eat", the way it happens (their "toenadering") is nice. I think in a way it's the most innovative scene that's been written in a drama in a long time, because it shows things in such a unique way - and I think it's more real.
If the circumstances of their meeting had been different, if had been in bar, with the racist talk. But there's always something about Afrikaners and hospitality - which again goes to the soul, when a person is in need, give them what they need, irrespective of colour.
So Christiaan is more real for me than a lot of the Afrikaners I've played. The worst for me are some of those roles where Afrikaners are not seen in a real, truthful light and I've had to play those roles, those stereotypes. I don't like that.
Why are you so supportive, even defensive, about Afrikaners, when you are not Afrikaans yourself? I am an Englishman. I came from 1820 settler stock. The first Roberts came from Wales. My mom is Irish and my father is English. But I feel not English English. Emotionally, I see Boer leaders as my heroes, from the war in 1899, because basically they were the underdogs, and I love underdogs. I love the way they find their ways to react, like with the British imperialist takeover of South Africa, how did they react?
For years I've been studying the Boer War - the Vryheids Oorlog. Not the "Boer War" - that's the English view. I identify more with the Afrikaner volk and their freedom war. Yet my great-grandfather identified completely with the English cause.
On the other hand, my mother used to say, "Ian, those Afrikaners are amazing, if someone dies then they come and hug you. Others would say we're so sorry - but there's more in that hug than in a thousand words."
How did you trace your own understanding of South Africa? We are products of our upbringing to a large degree and I grew up during apartheid. On the other hand, I went to a private school that didn't subscribe to what the government put across. And we had
anders kleurigeres in our ranks at school, at St Andrews College in Grahamstown. I was a student there for ten years.
Your schooling in the Eastern Cape is part of the reason why you chose to act in Land Of Thirst, isn't it? Yes. When I was at prep school, the director, Meg Rickards's grandfather was my headmaster. Griffin Mullens was his name and he was an extraordinary man. There was absolute freedom because of this man and his legacy was that anything was okay. If you played rugby that was okay, but if you didn't that was okay too.
Every Saturday of any week the school hall was open to anybody who wanted to get on the stage. And that did influence me in terms of acting. I wrote my first play at the age of 10 and had it performed and my cousin Dan Roberts and I produced together!
Then the situations of the day also had their influence, through my adolescence, and then when I went to the army that knocked some of that out of me. Because I saw lots of young men crying in the army, bawling. This was back in 1971.
Luckily for me, I didn't get sent into any combat situation. Guys around me were sent, but some angel was watching over me. But maybe to be a good Renaissance Man, a person should develop himself in all aspects. So those negative things that happened in the army, maybe they made a better actor out of me.
One of the reasons you were cast for this role was that the Afrikaner you play speaks Xhosa. How is it that you can speak that language so well? At home I grew up speaking English, but I also grew up fluent in Xhosa which I learnt from some of my coloured friends. Their people had fought in the wars with the British, and then been settled up the valley in the Blinkwater, and they became "Xhosafied".
They were coloureds from the mission stations who went to fight with the British and then, like the Mfengu, they got big tracts of land. These are the guys I gravitated to. So my Xhosa came from coloureds who spoke Xhosa and Afrikaans and English. I just spoke Xhosa, I don't remember learning it.
So when did you learn to speak Afrikaans? I'm fluent in Afrikaans now, I learned in the army. After six months in the army I was fluent in Afrikaans. Before that I used to think Afrikaans was an awful language, but I really enjoy speaking it now.
This is a drama about the land, about the Karoo. Was that important to you in playing your role? Yes, of course there's the whole land issue. When my character's son, Paul, doesn't want to take that land (from the Xhosa), and instead wants to be an artist, Christiaan allows that. My secret belief is that the land, the open spaces of the Karoo, teaches people that wisdom.