Scandal’s Shoki Mmola on why she ‘can’t act’ after 28 years on tv

Scandal actress Shoki Mmola has spoken about her acting career as she recently left SABC1 soapie Skeem Saam where she was a leading actress.

Mmola has since joined eTV’s production and says she never ever imagined herself as a television personality because she is shy.

The veteran actress said she was lucky because she met Lillian Dube who encouraged her to try acting and she was impressive.

Having spent 28 years in the industry, Mmola found her journey by default as it was not part of her ambitions.

“You know, I found this journey by default,” she said the former Skeem Saam actress who spent 10 years with the production per News24.

“It’s as if someone has dropped me on the map of the world and said nothing.

“I was never, ever going to be an actor. First of all, I’m very shy. I was going to be a totally different human being, but here I am, and here I am, putting myself out there. Every time you switch on your television, I’m literally naked in front of you for you to speculate whatever you want to speculate.”

Explaining how acting was not part of the plan when she matriculated at 15, Mmola revealed she had plans to become an academic.

“Mme Lillian Dube found me coming from campus at the Carlton Centre, which was the cool kid hangout place, and I was there because I wanted to be one of the cool kids,”  she added.

‘Kgatelopele (a new drama back then) is coming – that was my first role, Sarah.”

“I said I can try this acting, and I went. ‘Oh gosh, did I not love my time there?’ I was surrounded by adults that were willing to share what they already knew, and years later, here I am. I can safely say I am loved by an industry that I love. I do not remember being out of work in the 28 years of my career, and that is God, opportunity and favour.”

Despite a nearly three-decades-long career, Mmola is adamant “I cannot act” and

“I don’t know how to act,” she insisted. “I go in there, I feel something, they say cut, and I walk away. It’s what I do best; my job is to feel and be present at the moment.

“I have been able to be present for all those women that I’ve played for 28 years. It’s been marvellous beyond belief.”

Main Image: Shoki Mmola/Kaya959

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