Actress, producer and writer
Portia Gumede's currently got two shows on the go on SABC1 with her production company Paw Paw Films.
There's the Shakepearean
Izigane ZoBaba on Tuesday nights - which she also stars in - and the legal eagle drama
Sokhulu & Partners that premiered on Thursday, two weeks ago.
I caught up with her for us on Friday morning to snoop out what makes her tick. Here's what she had to say:
Tashi: First Paw Paw Films released Izingane zoBaba and now Sokhulu & Partners - how did your production company happen?
Portia: I'd been working with Roberta Durrant, who's a producer for Penguin Films - we'd been working together for five years, me as a freelance writer writing for her.
She understood my ideas and I understood her vision so we said: "Why don't we open a sister company to Penguin?" - where I would get to create my own concepts and have her as a backup in terms of infrastructure and also to learn from her as a producer.
Tashi: What advice do you have for someone wanting to start their own production company?
Portia: I'd say it's a great idea to do it - as with everything in life, one needs to work hard and really be disciplined to do it. If you can get someone to mentor you throughout the process you're lucky because it's difficult and the rules of the game always change.
Tashi: What have you found the most challenging?
Portia: Coming up with an idea that the broadcasters will love but that fits in with the budget they give. It's a budget thing that's been going on for years, from before I was even born, it's not something that can be sorted overnight. Working within the budget and coming up with a high-end product's very challenging.
Tashi: With Izigane, what made you choose to tell the story of King Lear?
Portia: It was more or less inspired by my late father. There were three daughters at my home and when I looked at King Lear I was fascinated to look into it because I had such a great relationship with my father.
I also wanted to ask: what would a woman - who's been given the power of wealth in a corporate world - do? Will she self-destruct in the end?
Tashi: Is King Lear your fave Shakepeare?
Portia: Yes, it is because it's ridiculous for a father to ask any of his daughters: "How much do you love me?" I was very fascinated to see what it's all about - also because culturally, in the black community, we don't do that.
Tashi: Before I saw the show my attitude was that the Kholekile character in the story is the only essentially good one but watching I've had moments of feeling for Buhle and Thembeka.
There's no ways they're justified in their evil doings but for the first time it's dawned on me that they really got a raw deal when it comes to their ability to deal with what's right from wrong - which they got from their father.
Portia: Yes I mean he's raised them to be kickass business woman. He's never connected with them as women, he's raised them as boys and then suddenly he changed the rules on them. He's never shown them emotion - he's only ever shown it to Khokekile - and suddenly he wants Buhle and Thembeka to respond emotionally to him.
Tashi: Yes, Kholekile got a much better chance to be what he's suddenly demanding of them. I don't have any siblings so I'm not familiar with sibling rivalry but as far as I can tell parents - either one or both - are always responsible for it.
Portia: Yes, I come from a family where it's more about business - since I was 10-years old I was a cashier behind a till - but luckily for me, the love was always there. That's what also fascinated me - if it had gone another way, what would have happened? Would we have ended up killing each other for the power of it all?
Tashi: How many siblings do you have?
Portia: Eight of them.
Tashi: Ha - *laughs*
Portia: *laughs*
Tashi: - that could have been interesting!
Bongi Ndaba, who plays Thembeka - she's doing such an excellent job.
Portia: She
is - and this is like her first leading role. We started together at Natal Tech - she was just a year ahead of me. We started writing together for other things - what we're shooting now, I bought the rights for her play - and she's just been known as a writer so I said: "Come give it a shot," and I'm glad I did.
Tashi: Her eyes and how they tell her story, it finishes me up every episode.
Portia: I know, she's got this comic element without even knowing it.
Tashi: She does and yet it's still tragic.
Portia: I know, yes - she was a beauty working with and I realised, "Oh my goodness, I've met somebody who's really doing it, I must pull up my socks."
Tashi: You say you've bought her play - what's happening with it?
Portia: We're already filming and it's going well so far. It's called Shreds and Dreams - I acted in it as a play and I just fell in love with it and wanted to make a series. SABC 1, when we pitched it, took it.
Bongi and Portia out and about in Cape Town
Tashi: When's it going to be on?
Portia: Oooooh, I don't know - they always change their TX date. Right now we're going to be on in 2010, can you believe it? So I'm like "Oh well, maybe it'll be on next year, who knows?"
Tashi: Are you acting in it?
Portia: No, I had to decide, in terms of the journey I'm on of producing - I have to be really hands on to walk away and say "I'm a producer". Even now when I say it I feel like I'm back in school so I need to put aside my acting and focus on my producing - once I feel I'm equipped enough I can focus on both again.
Tashi: Who's in it?
Portia: We've got
Linda Sikhulu (in Sokhulu & Partners too),
Lerato Moloisane and a newcomer Gugu Masondo. They all came to audition and Gugu - she's going to play the role I played in the play, Nonto - and after I saw her I said: "I'm definitely not playing this role - she's too brilliant, I cannot compete with her. She's brilliant - I have to be the bigger person and accept it."
Tashi: Besides Shreds, what other stories are you gonna be telling next?
Portia: I'm buzzing with ideas but I have to wait to see what other briefs come out from SABC so I can tweak around with ideas to fit the brief. Right now there hasn't really been anything that's tickled my fancy so after Shreds and Dreams I'm jobless. *laughs*.
Tashi: *laughs* If you weren't an actress and producer - what would you be?
Portia: Full time writer. Without a question. Right now I'm writing a children's book - I've set myself six months to finish it.
Tashi: When I first saw the news about Sokhulu & Partners my first thought was that it was going to be grey and "educational" in the same way that terrible
90 Plein Street was but it's turned out the opposite.
Portia: *laughs* I'm glad. You know, I believe you can really only write more or less what you know and I wanted to follow the journey of the two brothers.
They're so contrasting to each other - the one's sensitive and the one's all about money and I wanted to see how that would turn out. Again being inspired by my family - I've got these two brothers in my house - the one's more about the community and the other's more about money.
Tashi: Are the characters your family members or are they springboards for them?
Portia: It's a mix of people I meet and my family and my history. It's cathartic for me because through the characters I get to understand my siblings much better and I can go: "Okay, now I get it."
Tashi: Do they know this is happening?
Portia: No - they go: "Oh my God, you've mellowed over the years." So I'm like, "Ya ..."
Tashi: "... watch TV and you'll see why!"
Ends.