Sometimes when our soapies, dramas and comedies come back for a new season we see that a certain actor has been replaced with another actor to play the character that the previous actor was playing
(sounds tricky huh? LoL hope I’m making sense).
Most of the time the reason for this replacing of actors is usually the death of the original actor, that the actor is pursuing his/her other dreams or he/she is busy shooting another drama or movie.
Producers of the shows are always left with the decision of whether to kill the character or replace the original actor with another actor.
When they decide to replace the actor people start thinking the show is not going to be the same when the character is not played by its original actor.
Often people don’t like this and it can make them not to watch that particular show again if this happened. I am one of those people who don’t really like the replacing of actors because I feel that it takes away that originality of the show when the character is played by another actor.
This is one of the things that makes some shows a flop. The youth soapie, Backstage is one of those. On Backstage they replaced a lot of actors when it moved from Cape Town to Joburg. Characters like Tendai (Dini Nomdumo), and Shaun (Clint Brink) were no longer played by their original actors.
Let’s take a look at some replacing of actors that happened in our television dramas, soapie and comedies.
On Home Affairs
Nthati Moshesh played Thandeka. She played the character for the first three seasons of Home Affairs. She was one of the leading actors in the drama.
She didn’t come back for the fourth season.
Baby Cele took over from her to play the character of Thandeka. I think the producers of the show chose a good actress that fits the Thandeka character to replace Nthati Moshesh.
Nthati Moshesh even said she recommended Baby Cele to the producers when they asked her which actor she wants to play Thandeka.
Vatiswa Dara was playing Gladys on Nomzamo and was replaced with
Thembsie Matu who palys Sis Bee on Rhythm City. Vatiswa played Gladys very well.
When they replaced her with Thembsie Matu I thought she was a good replacement. I had no complaints that character also suits her as Thembsie Matu has played a lot of characters like Gladys.
Sarah Ngubeni played Parsons’ girlfriend Thandi. She was compatible with Parsons. I liked the couple. Now Sarah Ngubeni got replaced with
Vuyelwa Booi.
That is the worst replacement ever by Isidingo. The new Thandi looks like MaAgnes’ sister. She is so big next to Parsons. Parsons looks so young. Now Thandi and Parsons are the worst couple. Isidingo should have gotten an actor who looks younger.
On Stokvel they replaced
James Ngcobo with
Hamilton Dlamini. I didn’t like that replacement at all because I liked the old Mojo. I even think that it is one of the things that killed Stokvel.
I only watched the season were they had Hamilton Dlamini as Mojo a few times but couldn’t continue watching. Since then I have never watched Stokvel even now that James Ngcobo is back as Mojo.
They really made a bad move. I liked Stokvel before and never missed it every Sundays. It was one of those shows that I looked forward to on Sundays.
Muvhango is a master of replacing. I’m not saying this in a good way. I mean Muvhango has done a lot of replacing more than any other soapie or drama that I can think of. I can count how many times one chacacter has been played by different actors.
This is how many times some characters have been played by different actors on Muvhango. Agnes has been played by 3 actors, Meme by 2 actors, Doobsie by 3 actors (the late Lindiwe Chibi,
Khanyi Mbau and
Khabonina Qhubeka), Masindi by 2 actors, Edward by 3 actors and Tumi by 2 actors (Lebo Mathosa and Shoki).
This shows that Duma Ndlovu doesn’t see any problem with replacing actors. I guess maybe some of the actors get unhappy with the soapie, then when they are already there they decide to leave. Which makes Duma Ndlovu to replace them since he has already developed a storyline around that character or it could be the other way round.
On City Sesla’s first season Pumzile was played by
Busi Loraye who even won Best Actress in a Comedy at the SAFAs. The following season they replaced her with
Thulu Thabethe who also played the character very well.
I loved Busi Luraye as Pumzile and when they replaced her I wasn’t happy but I continued watching the comedy when Pumzile was played by Thuli Thabethe and I loved too. She was also as funny.
I didn’t even miss the old Pumzile (Busi Luraye). Thuli Thabethe also won Best Actress in Comedy for playing that character. Then again Busi Luraye came back as Pumzile on City Sesla’s recent season. I think during that time Thuli Thabethe was busy with Zone 14.
Busi Luraye played the character good again. I guess the two ladies really understand the Pumzile character which makes its easy for them to play and nail it. So which Pumzile do you like?
Tiger Sibiya on Zone 14 is no longer being played by
Owen Sejake, he is played by
Patrick Shai. I think Patrick Shai is playing Tiger Sibiya very good as well. He is an established actor so I think it wasn’t difficult for him to understand Tiger. He even know how to talk that Afrikaans tsotsi-taal that the previous Tiger used to talk.
Still on Zone 14, Pinkie was played by
Terry Pheto for the first seasons of the drama, in its previous season Pinkie was played by
Thuli Thabethe. I must say shem even though I didn’t care much about the Pinkie character, Thuli Thabethe didn’t do it for me.
Pinkie was very boring. I think it is because I’m used to Thuli Thabethe playing the crazy character of Pumzile. At some point it was like she can’t really act. I didn’t like this replacement at all.
Zinzi Zungu was the lead actress on the SABC1 sitcom
Nomzamo. She played Nomzamo for the first season then Ayanda Ngubane replaced her.
There are many replacements we have seen happening on TV. So what’s your take on this? Which replacements did you like and didn’t like?
pics: various sites on google