Behind the lens with Henk Pretorius

He gave South African fans Bakgat!, Bakgat! II and Fanie Fourie's Lobola. Now writer, director and producer, Henk Pretorius returns to tickle the funny bone while meandering into cultural clash territory la Our Family Wedding and Something New. By Debashine Thangevelo

Leading Lady is centred on Jodi Rutherford, a British teacher-cum-actress, who comes to South Africa to prep for a film role as an Afrikaans war heroine. And, in the process of meeting the Willemse family, also falls in love with a cynical boer named Kobus.

Pretorius says the idea was inspired by a relationship.

I wrote the script with Tina Kruger. The whole story is about a British actress who really wants to be in a film about the Boer War. She wants the whole method experience. It was inspired by me dating a British girl (laughs). I went over to Britain and we had this amazing time there. It was so weird, all the culture crashes. It was a journey that we went through. I decided to look at a film that brought international talent here and for people to indulge in that. So that was the initial spark of the culture clash.

It is a journey of self-actualisation and finding herself (for Jodi) as well as what makes her happy.

On finalising his cast, he reveals: The final cast (selection) was due to a combination of a lot of brilliant people. Moonyeenn Lee did the SA casting and, through Los Angeles, it was Shannon Makhanian who handled those. As we were talking about the film, we started making calls.

And Fanie Fourie's Lobola bagging the Audience Award at the Seattle International Film Festival helped Pretorius to bag veteran heavyweight Gil Bellows.

I told him I had this script lying around and he said he would read it. He loved all the characters and felt that the film has a lot of heart. But he didn't like his character (Daniel Taylor). He said I looked at the American as a boring, cynical character. He wanted a more passionate, self-indulgent character, he notes.

And so Pretorius tapered the character with an OTT flair.

As for bagging Br milda van Rensburg as Kobus' mother Magdaleen, he smiles: I thought she was a serious actress. She had to be the most fun. She is even taking Gil to the Voortrekker Monument - in a Ferrari. She was the ultimate surprise for me.

And Pretorius has a couple of other films in the pipeline: We are doing a sci-fi on an exotic island. Then a horror followed by an epic film. I'm staying in America for the next six months. I'm also going to be there for the American release of Leading Lady. Who knows, there might be some more cultural mishaps (chuckles).

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