Television actress and University of Pretoria (UP) graduate Pearl Monama couldn’t be happier with her choice of career.
“I love telling stories – I love being able to take an audience on a journey that I myself am discovering sometimes,” she says.
The actress is widely known for her role as Sphesihle “Sphe” Cele on soap opera ‘Generations: The Legacy’, which airs every weekday on SABC1 at 20:00. While her character Sphe is rich and outspoken, Monama says she is far different, being more of an introvert herself. However, she says she enjoys it when viewers criticise her on-air character because she feels validated that she is doing a good job playing the role.
While finding fame on one of South Africa’s longest-running TV shows came much later, Monama certainly hit the ground running, landing her first acting gig just after she’d completed her undergraduate degree at UP.
“I was part of a film called Suurlemoen, which was in movie theatres as I was starting my honours degree,” recalls Monama, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Drama and Film Studies in 2015.
She admits that it wasn’t easy breaking the news to her parents that she wanted to study drama.
“At first, my mother was against the idea of me pursuing drama at university, and wasn’t sold on the idea of me being a performer at all,” the actress says. “Fortunately, she made peace with it and supported me all the way.”
Interestingly, drama wasn’t Monama’s first choice.
“I wanted to become an interior designer after high school, but that didn’t work out. I had initially enrolled for a Bachelor of Education for my first year at UP but switched to drama the following year.”
Studying at UP was not what she had necessarily planned on while she was at school.
“At the end of matric, I hadn’t found a university to study at; I went from school to school trying to find space to study,” she says with a laugh. “My best friend was accepted at UP to study psychology, so I came with her to help her move in and that is how I ended up at UP.”
Monama says she’s walked away from the University with more than a degree. She sometimes comes back to her alma mater to assist with the audition process for prospective first-years, and for the third-year’s final acting exams.
“It’s easy to become complacent when you’re on a long-running show like ‘Generations’,” she says. “Working on the audition process sort of shakes me into remembering why I do this.”
Though she admits that being an artist in South Africa is not always easy.
“I just wish the arts could get more support from our government. The sector has to be regulated because there are too many artists who have died poor, yet they have served their purpose in the industry diligently. We also work under extreme conditions at times and it’s ridiculous that we are not compensated accordingly.”
As for advice for budding actors, Monama says it’s important to get an education, even though actors may not be asked for their qualification certificate at an audition.
“No one has time to teach you everything when you get on the floor,” she adds. “The industry is big, and being in front of the camera or being on stage are not the only jobs out there – there’s so much to explore.”