I was acting in a ‘Telemovie’ entitled ‘Monalisa’. I was the featured actress. We filmed on campus for a couple of days. Film production and acting, I realised, is actually not all ice-cream and cupcakes. It requires a whole lot of energy, and acting demands the physical and emotional kind of toil. We shot from daybreak to dusk, it was hefty stuff. I never really got enough sleep; sometimes I felt so irritated and sleep deprived I thought that I would experience a melt down on set because of the sleep deprivation. My essence felt so forged and bulky due to the excessive makeup poured onto my face to cover up my ‘flaws’. I experienced an awkwardness the first day of shooting in makeup. The mirrors revealed an alien reflection of a girl who stared back looking so plastic and manufactured. I did not like her. Days trekked along and soon I began bonding with the black doll in the mirror, she wasn’t so bad. She started smiling and didn’t look so foreign anymore.
The filming schedule tired my character and I became irritable. However students saw me in action, and I felt that it put me on the radar again. I felt like it made me shine and stand apart from the withered persona I had truly befallen (a downtrodden has-been party animal, not excelling in class, not doing anything really, just a simple “has-been” whose image had worn out). I felt that the film shooting created an opportunity for me to be more than the public’s expectations. People did start to look at me differently; a friend even stated he respected me more because he didn’t know I had “ it” in me. I didn’t know I had “it” in me, either…
I think I was just blessed and I’m thankful it was me who was chosen. The whole experience gave me insight into the ‘Oh so glamorous world of film’.
I will be getting the chance to work on the big screen and the silver screen soon, however this production, brought to light what it really takes….
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