“What you see is what you get; I cannot be pretentious,” says Shaleen Surtie-Richards
After being in the entertainment industry for three decades already, there is no stopping Shaleen Surtie-Richards. We chatted about her guilty pleasures, career highlights and plans for the future in our exclusive interview.
“If we really want to have a full interview, we can talk for five days. My life is so interesting because of all the shows I’ve done, places I have visited” jokes Shaleen Surtie-Richards.
Having started out in the industry 30 years ago, she is now a household name in the South African entertainment industry. Full time actor Roysten Stoffels encouraged her to give up her job as a kindergarten teacher to further her acting career in 1984. It proved to be a challenge because Surtie-Richards enjoyed working with children. “It was difficult” she admits.
Growing up, Surtie-Richards joined a drama group and also participated in educational theatre productions.
Born on 7 May 1955 in Upington, it was her parents love for education that inspired her, as her mom was a teacher and dad a principal.
“Education is one thing they can’t take away from you,” she says.
Her movie appearances include Fiela se Kind (Fiela’s Child), Nag van die 19de, and Leon Schuster’s Mama Jack. She has performed in Egoli: Place Of Gold, Generations, 7de Laan, and Villa Rosa. She has also performed on stage in Just Like Home, Scrooge, Shirley Valentyn and Rondomskrik.
It was her first professional acting role in Athol Fugard’s Hallo en Koebaai that lead to her receiving a Fleur Du Cap Award. Earlier this year she bagged a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Royalty Soapie Awards in Durban.
It was after watching Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine (the London production with Pauline Collins) that lead to her falling in love with the feisty, straight-talking role of Shirley.
Surtie-Richards remain skeptical about the entertainment industry at the moment. According to her, the industry is too small to accommodate everyone.
In the interview, she highlighted the fact that many young people get into the entertainment industry just for the fame:
“We came from a background where we cleaned the theatre, we swept the stage. We came into the industry gradually. That’s what where drug abuse comes in sometimes, because often many young people can’t handle the pressure” she says.
“That’s why giving up teaching was a problem; you used to income monthly and suddenly you freelance and you don’t know where money is going to come from.” she says.
It’s hard for Surtie-Richards to single out one career highlight, as everything she has done is a career highlight.
She recalls her most embarrassing moment on stage being when she wore two different coloured shoes by mistake in Shirley Valentine.
Some of her fondest memories abroad were when an elderly couple saw her portrayal of Shirley Valentine in London, and even though they couldn’t understand much, they understood her body language.
“I have never seen such a good actress in my life.” said the elderly man after watching the show.
“If I add some Afrikaans words to my script abroad and get a reaction I know there’s South African’s present,” she says. She admits that the stage has her heart. “I prefer theatre to TV; I love this job” she says.
Check out our interview with Surtie-Richards:
