Model, presenter and an actor, Christopher (Chris) Jaftha is a household name in South Africa.
What fans are not aware of, though, is that Jaftha, despite his fear of horror genre, agreed to star in “Her Mask”, which aired on DStv recently.
In a recent chat, he admitted: “Horror is not my friend. When you are young, you are naughty and you do stupid things.
“And you have your older siblings/cousins leading you down the wrong path and sometimes, even though you are under age, you end up watching ‘Chucky’ or ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ when you are not supposed to.
“That was traumatic, PTSD for the rest of my life. The only time I delved into it was when I went to LA to pursue film and studied it.”
So what convinced him to do this movie?
Jaftha shared: “My good friend, Reine Swart, directed the movie. It was her directorial debut.
“We have done a film together a couple of years back. It was quite a poignant film for kykNET and we sort of stayed in touch.
“She had written a script that she wanted to get off the ground and as soon as she was ready, she contacted me and asked if I would like to be a part of it.
“She told me it was a horror film and I would have fun.”
And the rest is history.
“Her Mask” is about grieving British young woman, who arrives in South Africa looking for answers after her mother is murdered.
While trying to unravel the past, several sinister encounters leave her with even more questions.
Jaftha plays Tertius, a doctor in the small town that the young woman visits.
Aside from Swart, he has never worked with the other cast members, which include Molefe van Heerden, Coco Lloyd, Hungani Ndlovu, Stephanie Sandows, Mary-Anne Barlow, Juanita de Villiers, Andre Velts and Christel van den Bergh.
Although they worked together as co-stars, Jaftha commented on what it was like to have Swart as his director.
He said: “I really admire Reine, her professionalism, the way she handled the team, her work ethic, her directing ability as well as her scriptwriting ability. S
“he was very kind and knew exactly what she wanted.
“It was her directorial debut but she didn’t show any signs of fear; she just wanted to put on a good production and I think she achieved that.
“When a standard has been set by the production head, it filters right down. Besides everyone being professional of their own accord, I think Reine and her team created a great environment for everyone to be creative. A director who is an actor is always amazing. We had a bit of fun.”
When he first watched the movie, it was on the back of shooting it.
Jaftha recalled: “I think I was a little too close to the film. I think it was too soon for me to be shocked and scared.
“Then once I had forgotten about it a little bit and saw the trailer recently, I got a shock. So I was happy.”
Of late, many South African filmmakers are gravitating towards the horror genre, which is an unprecedented move.
Reflecting on the trend, Jaftha commented: “Two things, I think it is very cool, firstly. In my humble opinion, the reason for it happening is funding has become available for these kinds of films now and various parts of the world buy these films relentlessly because there is a market for it, like America, Canada and Japan, for example.
“They have this horror cult following as it were.
“So everything horror, especially if it’s good, is going to get some kind of traction.
“Secondly, its the fact that South Africans have a plethora of stories to tell. I mean, we have tons and tons of stories.”
Despite the industry slowly healing from the financial setback brought on by the arrival of Covid-19, Jaftha hinted: “I think it was necessary for us to make the necessary pivots that we needed to.”
Although he wasn’t at liberty to chat about his upcoming projects, he is being kept busy in the corporate sector and has a few releases coming up in the next couple of months.
In the meantime, fans can watch him conquer his fear in his first horror flick.
“Her Mask” is available on DStv Catch Up.