Award-winning actress Connie
Chiume, who has been cast in the highly anticipated Black Panther, did not
even know she was auditioning for Marvel’s new superhero movie.
Chiume, recently announced that she was a part of the
star-studded cast, which includes Oscar winners Lupita Nyong’o and Forest
Whitaker, as well as Angela Basset, Michael B Jordan and Chadwick Boseman.
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| The Black panther will be released on 16 February. Save the date! Credit: Electric Bento |
Speaking on how she landed her role, Chiume says that she
did not know what she was auditioning for. “Auditions were held in Africa, the
Caribbean and other parts of the world, but it was all very secretive.
"It was so secretive that I was not even told what role
I was auditioning for, it was not even gender specific, I was just given lines
to read and that was it,” she recalls.
A few weeks after auditioning, she received a call saying
she had been cast in Black Panther.
However, the call was not met with excitement.
It was while on the set of her 2017 drama, Thula’s Vine that
Chiume found out exactly what Black Panther the movie was and just how big
landing a role on it was.
“It was just a normal day on set and somehow I started
telling a colleague about a role I landed and as soon as I said what movie it
was for, everyone started screaming and dancing and I couldn’t understand why
until my colleague went onto the internet and showed me. I tell you I went
absolutely numb. I could not believe it. When I got home I had to have some tea,
but I was still in shock,” she says.
The gravity only set in after she signed her contract and
received her visa to travel to the US where the movie was shot.
“I was cast in 2016 and in January I went to Atlanta where
the movie was being shot for a week to shoot my scenes before returning home. I
then went back in March for four weeks to shoot the rest of my scenes in a
different part of the city,” she says.
Her role
On the character she plays, Chiume said she plays a mining
elder: “My character has no name, she is known as the mining elder. Wakanda
(the country in which Black Panther is set) is a self-sufficient country that
is also very technologically advanced. “The elders are very much like
government ministers and play important roles. My character interacted with
most of the main cast members,” says Chiume.
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| Legendary actress, Connie Chiume stars in international blockbuster. Credit: OkayAfrica |
Although Chiume has worked on the set of international
movies before, namely I Dreamed
of Africa and In My Country,
she says that nothing compared to working on the set of Black Panther. “The international
movies I have worked on were all co-productions between South Africa and
America and I shot my scenes in SA. They were all great to be a part of, but
not like this. I have never walked on set where there were more than 400 people
working.
“It was huge, the absolute next level of production.
Everyone was so warm and welcoming, I spent time with people like Angela and
Lupita and conversed with Chadwick. We all worked very hard. It was an amazing
experience, we even had a party when we were done filming.”
She also stars alongside two other South African performers,
John Kani and his son Atandwa “Oh it’s such an honour, really it is, being with
two other South Africans on such a production and on a movie that the world is
waiting for is an honour.”
The star is excited about the movie’s upcoming release “I am
very excited. After 40 years in the industry you feel like you have reached a
ceiling and can’t go any further, but this role and movie has taken me through
that ceiling and I am so happy.
“Yes, I have been here for a while, but there is still more
for me, more for our country even, we have so much talent,” she concludes.
* Black Panther hits cinemas on February 16.
Source: IOL
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