IT IS noteworthy that US President Barack Obama was quoted by a foreign news agency after a visit to the DreamWorks Animation studio in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale in November last year as saying: “I’ve come here today because this is one of America’s economic engines, not just DreamWorks, but this whole cluster of companies that generations have grown up knowing, Disney and Warner and Universal and others.
“The entertainment industry had also served as an important diplomatic tool. It’s part of what makes us exceptional, part of what makes us such a world power,” he said.
“You can go anywhere on the planet and you’ll see a kid wearing a Madagascar T-shirt,” he said.
“You can say, ‘May the Force be with you’, they know what you’re talking about,” he said in reference to a famous line from Star Wars.
“This came after a guided tour of the studios responsible for producing runaway box office hits such as Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda.
Last week we featured part one of Danai Gurira’s (DG) interview with Southern Eye (SE). This week we settle our account with the second and final instalment of the interview.
If follows below:
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
SE: What’s Hollywood like?
DG: What do you mean?
SE: The big letters on Hollywood hill and the palm trees, that place we see in the movies! Do they have exclusive places where the Hollywooders eat and play for example?
DG: You mean Los Angeles. It’s just a normal place. There are a lot of places with offices for the big film studios and film sets. So maybe that is Hollywood and yes, they do have these fancy places.
SE: Talking about your role in Walking Dead, do you get conflicted about that movie playing a Zombie slayer?
DG: This story, when I first read it, is something very metaphorical. Like who are we? Are you walking around as a zombie not engaged spiritually or emotionally? It’s about a post-apocalyptic world and who we become in a war zone.
SE: Let’s talk about your other motion picture role
DG: I did Mother of George where I play this Nigerian woman. Nigerians were not too amused with my accent. But it was so embraced at Sundance Film Festival. I experienced Western audiences getting absorbed in a clearly African story.
SE: Why did you think that happened?
DG: That’s what I always say, that if you tell a story with truth and excellence, it will transfer into the hearts of men. Story transcends culture. So I am just starting. I have so many ideas about how to bring these ideas to the screen.
SE: Are there teaching moments in the play you brought to Zimbabwe?
DG: You can’t be didactic as an artist. You have to have faith that you are presenting something that people will respond to. You can’t control the responses. Otherwise you are trying to control too much.
SE: Is there anything you have learnt in your acting journey you want to share?
DG: One of your best assets in life is the specifics of who you are as a person and just speaking from that place.That hard work is very key. If your work comes from a place of truth and authenticity then you will succeed. The Americans work hard in this industry. They work hard to make it look simple.
SE: What book has made an impact on you?
DG: I still want to play Hamlet. I like the ending in Things Fall Apart. I think that book is a ground-breaking book.
SE: What are you reading at the moment?
DG: Half of The Yellow Sun by Chimamanda.
SE: You talked about cultural ambassadorship, what’s your idea of Zimbabweaness?
DG: I think we are very resilient people, full of wit and innovativeness. I think there is something very invigorating about being Zimbabwean.
SE: Finally, we lost one of our famous daughters who was also in your age group Chiwoniso Maraire and also a cultural ambassador. How did you feel about her death?
DG: Her parents and mine were friends in the US. She was incidentally named after my elder sister. I am very connected to Chiwoniso as we did Chipawo together in our childhood. So her death wasn’t an easy thing to handle.
Danai Gurira’s list of other achievements:
The Convert is the winner of the 2012 Stavis Award, the 2012 Whiting Award, the 2013 Los Angeles Drama Circle Award, The Edgerton Award for New American plays and Six Los Angeles Ovation Awards. Her current play The Convert was commissioned by Center Theater Group in Los Angeles and premiered at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey. After five highly successful productions across the United States, it has now, finally been staged in the country that inspired it.
