The role that pushed Leandie du Randt’s boundaries as an actress

In a star-studded cast that includes acclaimed veterans Sandra Prinsloo and Frank Opperman, with strong, magnetic performances by co-stars like Cindy Swanepoel and Jacques Bessenger, Leandie du Randt still manages to steal the spotlight in the second season of Koek, currently streaming on DStv Stream.

At first glance, Veronika might look like just a pretty Barbie doll on the arm of Bellville’s dangerous Tjoppie Terreblanche (Opperman) – money-hungry and out for her own gain. But as the story unfolds, there turns out to be much more to Veronika. It’s a meaty role, and Leandie has truly sunk her teeth into it.

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Leandie du Randt tells us more:

The second season of Koek is already past the halfway mark. Are you someone who watches your own work? And what goes through your mind when you see yourself on screen?

I usually wait until all the episodes are out, but it’s also such a love-hate relationship between watching yourself or not. I really want to watch this one because it’s the first time I’ve worked with Christiaan Olwagen, and that has been one of my biggest dreams for a long time.

I watch my work 100% to learn from it. I’m an incredibly honest person, and I’m not sensitive, so I love it when a director tells me: “That was c*ap, you can do better.” Tell me how I can do it better so that I can be proud afterwards, rather than trying to spare my feelings on the day. Ultimately, it’s my job to listen to you, the director. That’s why I’m an actor and not a director. I want your vision to be realised because it’s not about me. It’s about that character and the story, and us telling it together as best we can.

What was challenging about Veronika?

Christiaan tried to explain to me one day that I, Leandie, am a labrador, but my character is a cat. So, I first have to completely change animal personality before I step into Veronika, because Leandie kept coming out. And that’s actually something I do a lot with my roles. Yes, it’s inevitable that you plough a part of yourself into your roles – you simply have to do it. But the parts of you that match the character, you have to turn up, and the parts that aren’t the same, you have to turn down.

Coincidentally, I’ve always played roles that are more or less very similar to me, but this one is quite different, and Veronika also expresses herself completely differently. We match in that we are both strong women who believe in standing up for yourself, but we live and express it in completely different ways.

Actors are rather insecure creatures. We always and constantly want to hear: “Well done! Lovely! Here’s a round of applause for you, you did it right.” But that’s not how TV works. So, TV is actually a very thankless job, and that’s why you have to work very hard on your self-confidence and your motivation, because you don’t necessarily get that direct feedback or approval from the director on set or even from the public. That’s actually also why I’m only going to watch the series once all the episodes are out – so that I can get feedback from people I look up to and trust. I will look at what viewers have said, but ultimately I have to decide for myself how I feel about it, rather than letting their reaction influence me.

But what if you aren’t feeling so confident on set that day and the bully in your head doesn’t want to stop badgering you?

Then you have to go for a walk, or smoke a cigarette, or take a Rescue Remedy pill. The show must go on, right? There have been days when I couldn’t cry in scenes. Then I ask for the tear stick, because I just need something to help my body remember what it feels like to cry, because I might just be at a stage where I can’t cry. Then again, there are stages where you are going through a tough time, but you are busy with a comedy and you actually want to start crying. Then you have to hold it back.

But there’s one thing I learned that changed my life – one of the first directors I worked with, Cobus Rossouw Jr., told me, because I was so nervous and couldn’t get rid of that anxiety: “Be nervous. The character can be anxious too. Any human being is anxious, but see how you can use it in the scene. Maybe she likes the guy, and that’s why she’s anxious.”

So, don’t try to hide it. Use it, because you are playing a human being with feelings, and I think that’s what you often forget when you are an actor. No matter what you are feeling, you are playing a character who also has feelings. And you want people to be able to relate to a genuine feeling.

 

You’ve said before that you really wanted to work with Christiaan Olwagen, but how did the role come your way?

The Lord is always incredible in my life. He uses other things to get me to a completely different thing. That’s why I always tell people, in every moment where you are in your life, even if you are at a job you don’t like right now – show up as your 100% best self. Because maybe someone walks in who sees something in you, who can then give you a next position or the job you wanted. But if you aren’t your best self, or can’t already be grateful for where you are, how can the Lord entrust you with more? And that’s what happened. I was busy with Gesels [Leandie’s talk show on VIA], and Christiaan was one of my guests in an episode. And I freaked out! But I was just myself and told him how nervous I was to do an interview with him, because I had always wanted to work with him, and he couldn’t believe it. And he wouldn’t have known it if I hadn’t told him.

And he said that day, while I was conducting the interview with him, he saw something in me that he saw in the character Veronika: a strength, a depth that the character has. And then he decided he was going to give me the role, but that he was also going to challenge me.

But if I hadn’t been myself that day and told him how much I wanted to work with him ...

What is it about Christiaan’s stories that sparked the wish to work with him in you?

It had always been on my vision board to be directed by him, so it really was a dream come true. That’s why I want to watch to see if I can see whether I act differently, or how I resonated with his guidance, because he really challenged me. I was in tears a few times on set – not because he was mean, but because he really got something out of me. To me, he is brilliant.

I think he is much cooler than I am. I’m a minister’s child. I was raised conservatively. I only became more liberal during my university years, and that’s how I can relate to people. I connect better with people precisely when I show I am fallible; when I show that I sometimes swear, I sometimes drink, I sometimes wonder if the Lord loves me – when I am that imperfect human being. So, I am also always attracted to people who, like him, are just themselves.

And to work with someone who writes stories precisely for that person who feels so imperfect, whose life isn’t perfect – I am captivated by those people, because they think differently, they don’t think like the mainstream. They take chances, they ask questions. Actually, many stories are hypocritical – they just try to show the beauty of life. They don’t show that we swear; that you cheat on your wife; that you get divorced. But that is precisely the reality, and it happens. And you can reach and inspire many more people by telling those stories, rather than trying to portray a perfect version of a human being.

Tell me about the evolution of your relationship with Veronika – how did it change between the time you met her on paper, and the day you filmed your last scene as Veronika, and even now?

I always wish one could shoot a series a second time. After the character and the story have sat with you a bit. Because really, as you get to know her – it’s like the friend at school who you first thought was rough, but then you get to know her, and you realise how much compassion you have for her and how sweet she is and that she also just wants love and is just a normal person. But you judged her so much at first ... That’s exactly how it was for me with Veronika. And it takes me a while when I play a character who is so different from me, to just go: “It’s okay, it’s okay. You can’t judge her.”

I asked Christiaan a lot: “Why the f*ck is she sleeping with this guy if she can just run away? It doesn’t make sense to me. Is she stupid? Why doesn’t she just get into her car and f*****f?” And then he says: “It’s good that you ask such questions, because you aren’t going to be able to play her if you keep judging her. You are going to have to decide why, if she is so strong, she acts like this. You are going to have to find a reason. You are going to have to convince the person watching it of what that reason is.”

I remember Brümilda van Rensburg told me years ago: “If you ever play an antagonist, you must play her in a way that people can like her. They must be able to understand why she is there. Even if she is such a sh*tty person as she is – there is still someone who loves her. Or there is still a reason. So that viewers start to feel sorry for her and understand her rather than hating her.” And that’s a fine line when you play someone like that, because I think it’s one of the biggest challenges in acting. And what I found in my work is to then first go: “Okay, I’m not going to judge her. I’m going to try to love her and have empathy with her and see how I can sell her to the viewers.”

 

How does that tie in with your growth as a person? Because you are quite dependent on your own humanity and ability to be empathetic to be able to make that mindset shift, right?

Amen. Exactly. For a long time in my life, I told myself I was never going to be as good an actor as the actors who studied it, but Jacques Bessenger told me: “Leandi, stop it now. You are annoying me by saying that. Just because you didn’t study acting doesn’t mean you aren’t a good actor or you aren’t worthy. If you are a person who learns and grows and you understand people’s psyches and personalities, then you are going to be able to portray a character.”

You either have it in you or you don’t. You can’t actually learn to be an actor. You can learn skills, of course. You can learn how to cry faster, for example. But to understand the essence of an emotion ... And that is once again how the Lord supported me – by first having me study industrial psychology; by making my father a minister who taught me to love everyone, no matter what type of person they are. To understand why this girl is pregnant at 16 and why that one isn’t. Why that auntie does drugs and that one doesn’t. Not to judge them, but to understand why and to understand what circumstances and choices can bring you there.

And because my father raised me with such an open-minded attitude, it made me so interested in people that it’s precisely also why I enjoy hosting a talk show and speaking to people so much, because I believe we can learn something from every single person. Not one person is better than another. Someone might have been raised more privileged and may be able to cover up his mistakes better or to hide more easily behind money or the church than you, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t just as fallible as you.

I think if you talk to someone and can give them a safe space to be able to say to them: “Just as we sit here, you and I are the same and we are equally worthy,” and you understand that as an actor, you can play any role.

Tell me where you think your work as a presenter, actress and writer, motivational speaker, all the things you do that you have a passion for, overlap the most and how and where one passion perhaps helps you or elevates you to a next level in the other?

It’s like a body. Your heart needs your blood, needs oxygen, needs this or that. And sometimes we break our ankle and then we learn to walk without it ... When one part is unavailable, you use the other. Like with the motivational talks, I learn how important it is to be grateful for the people who show up at my talks and that I realise they are the people who watch my show and ensure that I can stay on TV.

When I’m on set again and I’m doing TV work, then I realise again how grateful I am to just be able to be myself – you're living someone else’s life all day and when you’re at home and you wash the make-up off, you realise the nicest thing is to be yourself.

When I talk to guests on Gesels, I learn a lot about other people. Sometimes, I see something in someone that I can remember to use for a character.

My social media helps me to market all these things. And I wouldn’t have my social media platform without my TV work.

It’s like the body of Christ – that’s how my works all connect. I think the Lord knew I was going to get too bored with one thing. With my life I am very blessed, because one hand truly washes the other.

What are you currently working on?

I am in the process of writing a book with my father. He has already taught me so much, and I have been asking him for a long time now when he is going to write a book.

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