Latest news with #acting
News24
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News24
Multi-lingual and relatable: 10 memorable roles played by late Meme Ditshego
The death of veteran actor Meme Ditshego left the country in a sombre mood on Thursday as many, in tribute, spoke of her kind heart and her ability to bring relatable characters to life. The actor died on the evening of 25 June 2025, aged 60. Like many of the stars of her generation in the acting industry, Ditshego started her career in township theatre. Born in 1965, the actor paid her dues on theatre stages in plays such as Antigone in the 80's and participated in school theatre outreach programmes. Her TV debut arrived in 1997 through SABC 2's Afrikaans drama series Sterk Skemer, where she played the role of Elsie. The actor would go on to deliver performances that transcended language, race or culture. Though many may know Ditshego for her role as overbearing mother Josephine Ratau on SABC 2's Ga Re Dumele, the actor has also appeared in multiple popular productions that aired on SABC, Netflix, Showmax, DsTV, Etv, and many other platforms. Ditshego played Josephine for six years, earning her a Best Actress Golden Horn trophy at the South African Film and TV Awards (Saftas) in 2012 and a nomination for a Safta in the same category in 2014. The multilingual thespian is among the actors who were well-rounded in their skills because though Ditshego excelled in comedic roles, thanks to her great comedic timing and natural delivery of punchlines, she delivered in an equally believable manner when bringing more serious characters to life. The actor lived a relatively private life but never failed to bring her A-game regarding her craft. Even if Josephine, her super popular character, failed to grab your attention, you've probably seen Ditshego in her element as one or two of the roles below: Here are her top 10 roles played by Ditshego - in no particular order: Josephine in Ga Re Dumele Joyce Mlambo in The Coconuts Ma Thandi in Soul Buddyz Elsie in Sterk Skemer Gladys in Jozi-H Ausi Ntsoaki in Muvhango Patricia on Skeem Saam Evelina in 7de Laan Dr Machaka in Broken Vows Mam' Daphne in Love, Sex and 30 Candles.
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘There is a stamina factor': Ralph Fiennes on his most daunting role yet
If I listen to the few existing recordings of Henry Irving speaking in 1898, it's hard to connect. One of the most renowned actors of the Victorian era, he has a delivery that seems of another age, a style that feels alien to my ears. The slightly sung quality of his reading is not helped by the scratchy nature of the wax-cylinder recording, which gives the impression of words spoken in a rainstorm. But it seems unfair to decide on the basis of these 'souvenirs' of Irving speaking; what kind of actor he was. So, in preparing to portray Irving in Grace Pervades – a new play by David Hare about him, Ellen Terry and Terry's two illegitimate children – I sought another means of getting to the heart of him. Reading contemporary descriptions of Irving in performance, by those who saw him on stage, is more satisfying, and makes it possible to build a sense of him. He was a slender man, precise and detailed in indicating the physical qualities of a role. His pictorial feeling for the characters he played was emphasised by great attention to his make-up. He was said to have had an odd gait and a mannered pronunciation, but was clearly able to grip an audience with what they read in his face and body. If his voice lacked commanding thunder, he made up for it by intensity of thought, changing the atmosphere by a shift of emotional emphasis and holding the theatre riveted. In We Saw Him Act – a wonderful anthology from the Thirties of Irving's memoirs – a member of the audience recalls feeling a bit disengaged while watching a passable performance until, suddenly, he is moved to exclaim in awe at something Irving does – 'Oh, my God!' – and the young man next to him mutters, 'Yes, that's Mr Irving. He bores you for 20 minutes, then paralyses you for five.' The essential impression I get from Irving's life is his determination to finesse his craft, to mould and redefine himself. Born John Henry Brodribb, in 1838, into an impoverished rural West Country family, he was afflicted with a speech impediment close to a stutter. In his early years, he attended a performance which gave him that vital spark of inspiration that I think many actors have felt in their childhood. You see an arresting theatre production, and suddenly a desire to be on the stage – or, at least, to be part of a world in which the enactment of stories is your job – feels like your destiny. This is the theatre as a calling: the urge to connect to audiences, provoking them, moving them, shifting their awareness and, for a moment, taking them out of their lives. As an actor today, trying to discover Irving, you're looking back over a century and a half of huge changes in theatre – an evolution in both its writing and performance – and left asking what his audiences wanted and how he gave it to them. I believe they wanted to escape into other worlds; a heightened realism, a theatre of grand emotions framed by beautiful stage sets and evocative lighting effects. I think Irving delivered that and, even though the kind of drama he worked in is not at all our drama, what I can recognise is the determination to evolve and challenge oneself in the depiction of characters and in the realisation of any given play. Irving (whose stage name was inspired, apparently, by the American writer Washington Irving and the Scottish preacher Edward Irving) wasn't just an actor: he was producer and director, too. Theatre managers of his era tended to be concerned less with aesthetics than with maximising financial returns through pragmatic choice of repertoire and performers. Yet Irving was a form of king, overseeing all aspects of management and stagecraft, caring profoundly about the total effect of each production. Artistic directorship of a theatre seems to have been defined by him. It could be argued that Irving, with his heightened sense of visual drama, helped nurture and guide public taste towards a more uplifting, exciting form of theatre. History records how he enhanced a scene in The Bells (1871) – in which a murderer (played by Irving, in one of his most celebrated performances) reveals his guilt under hypnosis – with detailed use of music and sound effects; realistically portrayed the psychosis of Macbeth on a vast Scottish heath; and snapped into focus the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey in a magnificent pageant-like production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, served as Irving's loyal manager for more than 20 years, and his memoirs are full of detailed descriptions of extraordinary stage effects created by Irving: salt on stage for snow, glistening under the lights, as the setting for a fatal moonlit duel; an army played by professional soldiers, trudging wearily into the distant upstage then running back through the wings only to re-emerge downstage, creating the illusion of a vast unending column on the march; a small, single light to suggest a lonely fire burning at night. Irving paid attention, too, to the front-of-house atmosphere, illuminating the theatre lobby with candlelight and printing beautifully designed programmes. Eventually, of course, towards the end of Irving's two successful decades, performing alongside the luminous Ellen Terry, at the Lyceum Theatre in London's West End (from 1878 to 1902), the dramas of Ibsen, Strindberg and George Bernard Shaw began edging their way into the public's awareness. Shaw in particular championed a new kind of theatre of ideas with embedded political provocation – something Irving loathed. It's impossible to write about Irving without writing about Terry. Her intuitive alertness and generosity balanced his conscious striving. Born into a theatrical family, she had acted since childhood and seemingly had an unforced gift for performance. Actors can't act alone; or, at least, doing so will only get them so far. Irving was smart enough to identify Terry's talent and know that a partnership between them would have the power of complementary spirits. They may also have been lovers. What is certain is that Terry's two illegitimate children by the architect Edward Godwin were affected by Irving's theatre. Born in 1872, Edward Gordon Craig – Terry's son, and Irving's godson – started to formulate his own ideas, involving simple sets, shafts of light, no actors and no text. It was almost a theatre of dance or puppetry; the antithesis of Irving's taste. Yet he always worshipped Irving as an actor and the spirit of his leadership. Terry's daughter, Edith (known as Edy), is the unsung heroine of this quartet. She had organisational gifts that helped her as a costume-maker – first for Irving at the Lyceum, then independently – but she eventually found her theatrical calling was answered more fully producing and mounting shows from the converted barn her mother had bought at Smallhythe Place, in Kent (now a National Trust museum). With a small group of like-minded women, she developed plays with a political or feminist intent, producing many more than her iconoclastic brother, whose reputation as a director hangs largely on a single 1911 production of Hamlet for the great Russian actor/director Konstantin Stanislavsky. By the time you read this, Grace Pervades will have begun its run as part of a three-play season I've been invited to oversee at Theatre Royal Bath. I had fallen in love with the place after performing T S Eliot's Four Quartets there in 2021, and was both daunted and excited when Danny Moar, the theatre's director, first made me this offer. I quickly knew that I wanted both to present new plays (Grace Pervades will be followed, in October, by Small Hotel by Rebecca Lenkiewicz) and also to direct my first Shakespeare on stage, As You like It. During the Covid lockdown, I had read about Irving and Terry in A Strange Eventful History, Michael Holroyd's account of their partnership, which had in turn inspired me to pull out my battered copy of Gordon Craig's On the Art of the Theatre (1911). Reading it, I was really struck by the sense of a past era of momentous change in the theatre, of what this art form can do and who it can reach – and I approached Hare with the suggestion that this subject would be rich material for a play. As a result, I now find myself in a very small version of the situation Irving must have inhabited for years, which is to be rehearsing and then performing a role at the same time as preparing two other productions as both director and actor – while also dealing with aspects of publicity, programme design, casting and the scheduling of rehearsals. It is, shall we say, an adrenalising process. As an actor, I look to be reassured by the nurturing hand of the director. Sometimes that assurance is not on offer, so instead you look for signals – often from fellow actors – that you are swimming in the right current. In this case, in our rehearsals for Grace Pervades, the brilliantly perceptive Jeremy Herrin has been offering precise notes with gentle consideration. I value his guidance as he helps me and Miranda Raison (playing Terry) through the fine detail and nuance of Hare's dialogue. I'm also paying attention to how he encourages and crucially allows the energy of scenes to evolve without imposing or insisting. I absorb this, and also remember how other directors I have worked with brought together the elements of a production. Next week, I will have to turn and become – I hope – that enabling person for the cast and creative team of As You like It. Immersed in Henry Irving: The Actor and His World, Laurence Irving's forensically detailed 1951 biography of his grandfather, I can't help reflecting on the totality of Irving's vision, shaped by years of uncertainty and penury – the idealism and perfectionism that drove him to capture his audience. It's hard not to be inspired by him. But there is a stamina factor. If you are directing and performing – at the same time – tiredness must be accepted or ignored, as sheer adrenaline helps you through. If you don't fall ill, there can be a sweet spot between activity and exhaustion. How will I feel, having played Irving on Monday night, getting up to lead rehearsals for As You Like It on Tuesday morning? How will I feel, having opened As You Like It, to turn around and start working with director Holly Race Roughan and be secure in my lines for Small Hotel? Ultimately, it's the company spirit that will carry us – the energy of a team. The collective energy of any ensemble has always been moving to me, whether I'm part of it or not. I'm idealistic about what a theatre company represents at its best; that whatever the scale or size of role held by each individual within it, on or off-stage, it is a community working in harmony. There can be discord or tension, of course, but the aspiration is to offer an experience that touches the mind or heart and especially the soul of that other essential theatre community: the audience. That is the destination that will define us. Irving and his productions had varying critical responses, yet, ultimately, the fact of the audience's continuing attendance suggests that they decided overwhelmingly in his favour. As he says in Grace Pervades, 'Ellen, theatre is a group activity.' Grace Pervades by David Hare, the opening production in the Ralph Fiennes Season, is playing at Theatre Royal Bath ( until July 19
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Katherine LaNasa was always cast in 'sexual' roles. She's happy to ditch makeup on 'The Pitt.'
As a teen ballet dancer turned actress with a list of credits (including Two and a Half Men and Big Love) as long as her arm, Katherine LaNasa has spent most of her life in the spotlight. But starring as emergency-room nurse Dana on the hit HBO Max medical drama The Pitt has launched the 58-year-old into a new level of fame. It's coming just at the right time, she says. 'I saw an [article] yesterday on GQ about these men that are finding success in their 50s — like Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo and Walt Goggins — and how they already have a well-established self-identity,' LaNasa tells me during our conversation for Yahoo Life's Unapologetically series. 'It's really nice to feel really settled in myself and to have done what I do with very relatively little praise. So getting praise now, it's a nice ride. You see kids get that, and they start thinking they need to adopt some other jaded or cool persona. I already am my grown-up cool/uncool self. This is just career stability and nicer accommodations and clothing.' LaNasa has a lot of self-acceptance when it comes to the subject of aging, and her confidence is infectious. 'I was walking on the street in Atlanta, and [this guy said], 'Your dog almost walked into my dog,'' she recalls. 'I was like, 'Were you inconvenienced?' And he goes, 'You look old.' I said, 'I am old!' [But] I feel like I'm in really good shape; I feel really strong.' Having an 11-year-old daughter, with her husband, '90s heartthrob Grant Show of Melrose Place fame, also keeps her young. But motherhood is hardly a new experience; LaNasa was in her early 20s when she and then-husband Dennis Hopper (30 years her senior) welcomed their son Henry, who is now in his 30s. What has LaNasa learned from her relationships, and why is she happy to let go of playing sexual characters? Here's what she told me during our candid conversation on aging, catcalling and not wearing makeup on TV. I'd always wanted to work for [The Pitt executive producer] John Wells, and I thought, If I could get in front of [casting], if they ever see my tape, I have a feeling I know what they want. And it just worked out. [As for] the success — it's kind of like if you loved making coffee, and you made coffee for someone every day, and you put a beautiful heart on it or different designs every day, and you did that for 30 years or so, and that was your job, and you got paid well, and you liked [it], and then, one day someone looked at you and said, "This is such great coffee. I really love your coffee." That's kind of what it feels like. Getting approval and praise I didn't think was ever coming my way — that I wasn't looking for and I didn't really need — is all just a bonus, and it feels like a nice warm bath. It's very enjoyable. I always played such sexual characters, and I think I always identified myself so much with my sexuality. I thought that if I became less sexually desirable as I got older or if I felt less interested in sex, I would lose a big part of my identity, and it would be terrible. And I find that I just really don't care. You know, this thing about older women being invisible? I'll take a step back. I used to get catcalled all the time, and it's a relief, and it's nice [to not have to deal with that anymore]. I also think [now is] a time in life — if you can let go of this feminine ideal of our physical beauty — it's really a time in life for deeper things, to think about the meaning of your life, to think about your own mortality, to think about what kind of legacy you want to leave and who you are. I really appreciate this season of life. I also appreciate feeling really seasoned in my craft. So often that's the thing I like the most about a day. It's like, 'I really knew how to make that scene work. I knew how to get the guest star to speed up with me. And then I stopped for the camera just so, and I can handle a lot of camera moves, choreography, notes at once, and it feels really easy.' There's a lot of technical aspects about acting that people don't think about, and it's nice to feel at a certain point that you have some mastery over them. I think we are flipping the script on that. I have to say, I think there've been some really incredible, brave women out there that have always portrayed real women — you know, the Allison Janneys and the Patricia Arquettes. And then you get these sex symbols like Pamela Anderson going [on the red carpet] with like almost no makeup. John Wells is a maverick at putting real, complex, imperfect-looking women on television and celebrating them, way before it was cool. So to work for him, it just really feels like I'm getting to step into that. I have to tell you: To play a part like Dana and to wear no makeup, it was really very freeing. It's also really freeing working for a mostly female writing crew. Feeling like I don't have to live up to that ridiculous, feminine, sexual ideal has freed up my acting. And I think it's why the acting's good on the show. Women can feel like they can just relax into being themselves. Yeah, I love clothes and style in general. I used to have an interior design business, and I'm sort of an amateur interior designer now. I'm very visual. I also love ceramics. I feel like I'm in really good shape. Like, I feel really strong. I do yoga every day. I like mixing the hot yoga with the regular yoga. I play a little tiny bit of pickleball. I hike. I really appreciate that my body is still really strong — [something] you take for granted when you're young. I'm glad I can still do all this. The one thing that was really hard was [the doctors] wanting to give me a C-section right away. They wanted to plan a C-section. Because of my age, they were worried. I grew up in a family of doctors, so I'm used to just listening to the doctor. But I wanted to push back a lot. I didn't want to incise my body if I didn't have to. If I had needed one, I definitely would have, but I didn't want to plan for it months early just because I was 47. I had some kind of pre-preeclampsia signs. I went in for some testing, and they kept me in the hospital, and they induced labor with Pitocin. But then I didn't want to have an epidural, because I didn't want to slow [labor] down. I was worried about too many drugs. So I had a natural childbirth on Pitocin, and I don't recommend it. It was super hard. I feel really powerful because I got through that, but it was really, really intense. [And] I fortunately got a doctor who helped me advocate for what I wanted. Don't get married at 22! I think if you marry someone that is so far apart in age, at least for me, there wasn't a lot of intimacy in that. It's nice to have someone that you can grow with — more of a friend as opposed to them being the successful teacher one, and you being the student, less successful, more dependent one. I would opt now for a relationship with more equality. The thing we have between us really is our craft. He wants to audition for a musical, so I'm gonna help him with the choreography. I've helped him with the choreography before when he had to dance on Dynasty. He helps me with all my self-tapes. We have a very artistic home. We're always singing, or he plays the piano, and it's a very creative space. That's the thing I like most. We have the same aesthetic; we like the same things. We move a lot, and he really trusts how I'm going to put together a home. [Despite] my longevity in the business and what I've done and the people that I've worked with already, like Billy Bob Thornton and Will Ferrell and Jay Roach, I never really got that kind of name recognition. I'm hoping that The Pitt will sort of catapult me into getting to work with some more artists that I really want to work with. Slow down, trust your instincts, and say what you mean — [but] don't say it mean. I [also] wish I appreciated that my skin wasn't wrinkly. To all the 30-year-olds out there, wear all the crop tops, wear all the short shorts. Love yourself. Love your body. Enjoy your body. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Fox News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Travis Kelce's 'Happy Gilmore 2' co-star, Christopher McDonald, lauds Super Bowl champ's acting skills
Travis Kelce has excelled in football, but this summer he is putting his acting skills on full display. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end will star in the upcoming "Happy Gilmore 2" movie. Hollywood star Christopher McDonald will reprise his role as Shooter McGavin in the sequel. Earlier this week, McDonald spoke to People about how Kelce fared during the filming process. "Travis Kelce has been out there, and I just really liked him as a person. He is really funny. Way too handsome, by the way, but really a good actor actually," the Emmy nominee told the outlet. McDonald continued to praise the three-time Super Bowl winner, saying he is "surprisingly good." McDonald was also complimentary of Kelce's skill on the golf course. "I think he's got game," the actor noted, admitting he "did not" get to play with the NFL star while filming. Earlier this year, Kelce described the opportunity to be a part of the movie as "a dream come true." "I thought SNL was going to be the peak of my acting and showman or entertainment career," Kelce said during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" in January. "Working with Happy Gilmore himself, the Sandman and Happy Productions, it was off the chain." The sequel to the 1996 sports comedy film is scheduled to be released July 25. It will be available on Netflix. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hollywood veteran gives his verdict on co-star Travis Kelce's acting skills
Travis Kelce 's acting abilities have been rated as 'surprisingly good' by his 'Happy Gilmore 2' co-star and iconic Hollywood actor Christopher McDonald. Kelce has gotten attention from Hollywood for acting roles since his romance with Taylor Swift began in September 2023. The 35-year-old has appeared on ' Saturday Night Live ', FX horror series 'Grotesquerie', and as the host of Prime Video game show 'Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?'. Kelce's exact role in the cult sports movie sequel is unknown beyond a cameo, yet, the Chiefs star is expected to have some screen time when the movie is released on July 25. It's a big deal when Shooter McGavin takes the time to give you respect for something you did around a golf course. 'Travis Kelce has been out there and I just really liked him as a person. He is really funny. Way too handsome, by the way, but really a good actor actually,' McDonald said to PEOPLE. 'Surprisingly good.' McDonald is set to reprise is his iconic role as Shooter McGavin in the sports movie sequel 'Happy Gilmore 2' was filmed from last September to December, meaning Kelce was on set during the last NFL season, where he has been criticized for not being at his best as Kansas City pursued a three-peat. Swift and Kelce packed on the PDA earlier this week as they reached a major milestone in their high-profile romance. The couple sent fans wild when they made their first joint appearance at an event during the NFL star's Tight End University in Nashville. While Kelce was technically working at the three-day NFL event, which he has co-hosted alongside fellow tight ends George Kittle and Greg Olsen since 2021, he couldn't keep his eyes - or his hands - off his pop sensation girlfriend. Photos have begun to trickle out from the 'Fortnight' hitmaker's shock appearance at the event in Music City with one particularly steamy moment between an unsuspecting Kelce and Swift being caught on camera. In a snap that has emerged from Monday night's launch party at cocktail bar LA Jackson, the loved-up couple could be seen sharing an intimate moment in the background. The 14-time Grammy Award winner had her arms wrapped around the NFL star's neck as she leaned in to the beaming Kelce. Plenty of other sports stars are set to make cameos or have larger roles in 'Happy Gilmore 2' including tons golfers such as Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, fellow gridiron star Reggie Bush, as well as professional wrestlers Becky Lynch and Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
