iThonga actress: I'm not evil Zama!

TOP actress Nelisiwe Sibiya asks viewers to stop hating her for her character on iThonga.

The 32-year-old actress from Eshowe, KZN, who plays spoilt brat Zama Ntanzi, said she has noticed that her character on iThonga has earned her a lot of haters.

She said people must stop thinking that she's like her character in real life.

iThonga is a new telenovela on Mzansi Magic that started a few weeks ago, but Nelisiwe's character is hated by almost everyone.

Nelisiwe told Daily Sun that playing Zama's character is so hard because the character is hated by all Mzansi people.

"It's so bad. I have never played any role where I would just post a random picture of mine, maybe where I'm at a wedding and everyone will actually express how Zama makes them feel, on the picture that has nothing to do with the character.

"I guess it's just the beauty of art and playing the character so well because I try so hard to play it the way the production wants it and how I was briefed," she said.

She said people should know that Zama and Nelisiwe are two different people because Zama is a spoiled brat who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, while Nelisiwe needs to work properly 100 times harder to reach Zama's level.

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"The character is amazing but very challenging, especially the part where everyone hates me. They don't know how to differentiate between Nelisiwe and Zama. Now they think I'm Zama in real life and I'm not. I had a conversation with my directors, bosses and colleagues, they actually gave me a heads up saying, if people are hating you in real life, that means you are nailing the character the way it's supposed to be because it means people are relating to the character so much that they think it's happening in real life," she said.

Nelisiwe said she loves something that challenges her and makes her grow, and she knows that Mzansi is going to hate her more because there's a lot coming.

She said on the other hand, getting the role of Zama makes her feel like she's living one of her dreams.

"The timing was perfect, and it was amazing for me to be one of the cast members because I was not in a good space in my life. I genuinely believe that I need something that will keep me out of my comfort zone, even moving from KZN because I was fulltime in KZN.

"I had to relocate to Joburg. You know when you have dreamt of something, plan it and manifest it and then it happens, when it happens it is like God has answered your prayers," she said.