While some actors get to flex their muscles in an array of diverse roles, Ronnie Nyakale often finds himself cast to play sinister characters.
And it has been the case since he made his foray into TV with SABC1’s acclaimed drama, Yizo Yizo, where he played Papa Action.
“It isn’t a conscious decision I took with my career – there are people who decided, at the end of the day, I was good for it,” he shrugs, by way of explanation.
Aside from A Place Called Home, where he played Sylvester, and eKasi: Our Stories, as Inno, he was offered the part of Zakes Mbolelo in the successful local movie, Jerusalema. That doesn’t take into account his international credits for Portrait of a Young Man Dying, Silent Witness and Blood Diamond.
“At some stage, the industry sees me as the person who plays that kind of role. It falls under the umbrella of typecasting.
“But I do wonder when it will be my time to be a good guy, where I play a responsible father figure, a principal, teacher or priest,” he says.
Nyakale says he wants to motivate the nation with the characters he plays and, to accomplish that, he cannot always be the “bad yet good role model”.
He confesses, “It is very disturbing always playing the bad characters. But the challenge is playing the characters in your own way. As they come from different walks of life, I treat the characters with energies that does them justice. Sylvester is unlike Zakes, who is different from Ding Dong.”
Looking back at his career, Nyakale says bagging Yizo Yizo was a big deal.
“It was approval of me as an actor, for one. And I looked at the show as a way to help revolutionise TV dramas,” the actor adds.
Interestingly enough, his career hit a slump for several years before he was approached for Jerusalema.
“It was my first local movie – I’ve done several international ones. For me, it was a tool in my re-awakening as an actor.
“I was silent for about seven years and it was a wake-up that doors were opening up. It was a very spiritual time and it wasn’t as much about Sylvester as it was about Ronnie returning to the industry.”
Reflecting on his comeback in Rhythm City, Nyakale says, “I am confused about Ding Dong right now.
“This time around, he comes back as a person who is part of the community… but he plays a bigger card than he did before when he made a lot of noise. Instead of being wild, he is more tame and a ‘businessman’.”
To put viewers in the frame, Ding Dong’s latest business venture involves Stone (pictured right) being his reluctant and unwitting lackey.
Unable to get any work and pay off his family’s debt to the local loan shark, Stone is left with no option but to become his debt collector.
Keeping mum on the story, Nyakale hints the plot thickens as the tension between Stone and Ding Dong threatens to boil over… and Suffocate, who owns Kilowatt, isn’t spared during the fallout.
lRhythm City is on e.tv at 6.30pm on weekdays.