He’s busy living

For actor and producer thomas Gumede, on-screen revolution means oFF-screen hustlinG

Personality thrive

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By the time the eleven-year-old Thomas Gumede and his family reached Johannesburg, they had moved often enough to make all cities blur into sameness for him.

His first inkling that Jozi was a bit different came after he’d been there for two weeks.

A homeless boy stole the hat he, Thomas, was wearing, only for Thomas to give chase for nearly an hour until he had retrieved it. Strangely enough, the episode ended with him and the boy becoming friends.

That’s Thomas, though. His drive carries him forward to achieving his goals and his open mind nudges him sideways to explore offbeat opportunities. Both of these traits have served him well on his journey towards joining the list of South Africa’s brightest

WordS Warren Glam

‘We are a loving nation that’s full of drama, but We don’t translate that into films’acting and presenting talents. To date, his CV includes roles in A Place Called Home, Soul City, Top Shayela, V-Entertainment and Home Affairs.

Now one of the founders of production company Parental Advisory Productions, he chats to Man about his role in shaking up the country’s television industry.

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Personality thrive

What sparked your interest in the performing arts?

i just wanted to be martin lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys. i didn’t know how to achieve it, but i thought it was just the coolest thing i’d ever seen. They didn’t die, they got nice girls, they drove nice cars, they were good people saving lives... That’s the dream.

you’re having a great run in the business. What do you feel Was your big break?A Place Called Home was my first leading role. it gave me the opportunity to showcase my skills and carry a production. That’s a big thing people often miss. it’s not just about trying to look good for the camera. you have to captain the set and make people feel good about putting you up there. After all, everyone’s working hard to make you look good, so make them feel good about doing that.

parental advisory productions: hoW did you and your business partners hook up?it was all on the basis of our reality show Forever Young. We were all acquaintances in the industry who would run into each other at gigs and have fun. it was our one business partner lungsta who brought us together and said, ‘Guys, we’ve got an opportunity to combine our powers. We already spend a lot of time in the same vicinity, so let’s learn about each other and see if we can’t make a reality show about our lives.’

it took about a week to set things up. We just spoke about our lives, dreams and ambitions, and the show started to evolve from there.

Why take the Words ‘get busy living’ as your tag line?We needed to get a tag line and it had to communicate the truth about us. We were ‘getting busy living’ at that time, so it fit.

‘it’s a revolutionary energy. We can’t fully diagnose it While We’re in the revolution, but We knoW it’s different and entertaining’

Parental advisory Productionsfounded in 2011

four directors Lungile ‘Lungsta’ Radu Thomas Gumede Siyabonga ‘Scoop’ Ngwekazi Simphiwe Mhlongo

produced tWo hit reality shoWs for vuzu and mzansi magic

Forever Young MoLove

No channel had commissioned Forever Young. We shot it in Brazil using our own money, without a channel or a sponsor. We

actually had no idea who was going to pick it up, but we knew it would get

picked up. We just shot it, came home and edited it, and then

shopped the pilot around.

hoW Would you describe Forever

Young’s energy? We all wanted to change the face of television when we did Forever Young. We wanted to do something people could be excited

about; something made by us, for us.

it was a revolutionary energy, and the company

has that too. We can’t fully diagnose it while we’re in the revolution, but we know it’s different and entertaining.

hoW do you feel about local content right noW, especially compared to the rest of the World?if you consider the Cassper Nyovests and k.o (Cashtime) guys of this world, pretty much everyone can see that local music is looking good. We need to translate that into film. Then we will see a real translation of financial exchange between black stories, black film-makers and black cinema-goers. They’re in three different rooms right now.

if we can get them in the same one, you’ll see a new film industry. you’ll see better sponsors, more product placement and everything else that happened in the uS during their big boom. Because with the infrastructure and platforms we already have, we’re like a mini-America.

What do black middle-class audiences Want to Watch? are these tastes being catered to?South Africans love stories and the black middle class wants to watch stuff that’s aspirational, because many of them come from nothing. And maybe for some more fortunate audiences, poverty can be sexy because they haven’t been through it. it just needs to be a good story.

i believe we have a shortage of people writing from the heart. i mean more gritty, true, funny, loving material. We are a loving nation that’s full of drama, but we don’t translate that into films. i’d like to shoot a film so i can criticise all other film-makers. i want to see what the big hold-up in telling real stories is. Then i’ll be able to say, ‘This is what we need to fix’.

so, What’s next for the guys at parental advisory productions?We’ve done a new show about the guy who won Big Brother Mzansi 2014, called Mandla and Lexi. it came out in march.

We also shot the Big Nuz reality show in december and it’s in pilot phase now. it’s a behind-the-music look at the lives of Big Nuz and dJ Tira. Beyond that, we’re busy with a show called Travel in Africa.

But now, we’d really like to get into shooting some feature films. if we could develop one and get it into production by the end of this year, i’ll say we’ll have done super well. All of my dreams are wrapped up in that.