Rajesh Gopie: nurturing South Africa's next generation of actors
Durban-born actor and acting coach Rajesh Gopie is determined to use his years experience in the entertainment industry to assist aspiring talents.
With a career that dates to the 1990s, Gopie has made his mark locally and internationally.
He has lent his expertise as a coach to some of the finest talents in Hollywood such as Oscar-winner Brandon Fraser, Laurence Fishburne, David Hare and Indian cinema stalwarts like Anil Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Seema Biswas and Satish Kaushik, among others.
Gopie is now set to ignite the local performing arts scene with a new five-week acting course which is aimed at assisting aspiring actors with honing their craft.
Drawing on decades of experience in theatre, television, radio and film, Gopie is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of storytellers in his home city.
“I’ve been in the world of theatre, film, television and radio, professionally since 1998. Before that from 1990 and 1997, I was involved in theatre, firstly as a student and then as an amateur.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work abroad. Not many people get that opportunity. Those kinds of things happen as a consequence of excellence,” said Gopie.
South Africa's apartheid era, with its limited scope for diverse representation in film, formed the backdrop of Gopie's early career.
Instead, theatre became an unflinching canvas for powerful narratives looking to challenge the status quo.
“When we started out it was a different time. The world right now is very different to the one I started in ... At that time we were only doing theatre. We never dreamed of doing film.
“There wasn’t a person of colour, like me, who ever thought that we were going to do film, so we were trying to make our name in theatre and that was our guard. We were living in apartheid, so film was not our realm, we didn’t even think of such a thing as film.”
“My first mentoring figure was Pat Pillay who was an actor at the time and then there were people like Kessie Govender, Ronnie Govender, Tina Johnson to name a few, who come into your life and they change your life.
“I was fortunate to have had a lovely bunch of people in my life.”
Gopie recalled his first major production, “Stable Expense”, by acclaimed playwright Kessie Govender, as both terrifying and exhilarating.
“It was terrifying for me but people loved it. In those days theatre was a big thing. We were living in apartheid, so theatre was very political, it was theatre of consciousness and it was unashamedly political in its context.”
Gopie transition into television with a notable debut role in the South African telenovela “Generations” in 1999, paving the way for his continued success in the industry.
The award-winning actor also starred in films like “Keeping Up With The Kandasamys” and “The World Unseen”, among various others.
Despite the size of South Africa’s entertainment scene, Gopie identifies a burgeoning potential within it.
“While the South African entertainment scene is small in size, the culture is very strong and our work, in a general South African sense, are on a very high standard.
“South Africans are very hard working and talented but we don’t have the size of the market, however, for a small industry, we can hold our own.”
In an effort to uplift the talent pool, Gopie is launching Actorwize, a training company designed to elevate acting skills in Durban.
“While we have a lot of talent, the skill level is low. In order to be on par, we have to up that skill level, so that’s what I want to do. We can make better films when we have better skilled actors.
“Actors do make the film. No matter how good the photography or the script, if you don’t have good actors, you just cannot make it a great film.
The accessible nature of Gopie’s course is designed to attract a wide demographic: “You don’t have to have a degree. You can be 60 or 70, it’s open for everyone who wants to study acting.”
Gopie’s commitment to returning home reflects a deep desire to give back to the community that shaped him.
“While I’ve worked here and there, home is still home for me ... I am excited to bring my world-class training back home for people and to add to the colour, richness and quality of the industry. You know, if we all leave, whose left?”
His aim is not just to teach acting, but to enrich the cultural tapestry of the South African arts scene.
∎ The Actorwize Acting for Film Beginners course will run from February 24 to March 29. For more information, WhatsApp 065 858 0742.
The five aspects of being an actor, according to Gopie, are as follows:
Be resilient: You have to accept rejection as part of the job, it must not be personal.
Be authentic: Be yourself, you must not reject people, or where you grew up. You don’t want to sterilise yourself to sound like the next person ... Authenticity matters, because if you’re just like everyone else, it’s not very interesting.
Keep learning: Your learning and training have to be life-long, not just when you have a job. You don’t become an actor be thinking you’re an actor, to act is to do.
When you are not working as an actor, you have to be training as an actor and that means staying fit, reading screenplays, whatever you do make sure if brings you closer to your goal of being an actor.
Be curious: Be curious about humanity, people, quirky people, all types of people and try to pond what causes them to behave in a particular way. Being an actor means that you have to be able to show the schemer of human nature, not just who you are.
You going to have to play a character or create a character, so you need to be curious. The more curious you are, the bigger the internal library get.
Grow your network: You need to meet people so attend events, go to plays, talks, call up people and engage. People will not know that you are around, until you are around, so grow your networks.
It’s also important to support others, so that others may support you. Do not judge anyone, judgement kills careers. So grow a positive attitude.