ACTRESS Zikhona Sodlaka has realised how much people love her.
And it dawned on her how many supporters she has when she won the award for Best Actress in a TV Series at the National Film and Television Awards on Saturday, 21 October.
Speaking to Daily Sun, the 38-year-old actress said she's blessed to have people who love her and her work.
"Being in that room really amazed me. I was shocked at people's reactions when they announced my name. It's something I haven't paid attention to before much. But this time around I think it's because my sister was there. When my name was called, she asked me if I heard that. It was a wonderful sense of joy to be in a room with my peers when I got the award because there was quite a big excitement in the room.
"Of course, silly old me was waiting for someone to win and waiting to applaud and the next thing I know, everyone gets up next to me and I realise I won," she said.
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Zikhona was awarded for her character as Mandisa on Showmax's The Wife.
"The reason I had a beautiful field time playing Mandisa was because she was different from characters that are written for South African TV. It's supported by the fact that she was from a book written by Dudu Busani-Dube.
"Because it was so thoroughly elaborated and a book can be descriptive, you get to play from something that is already layered. I had no choice but to play Mandisa as she was, and it was easy. If she believes in something, she will go all in. There were no boundaries with her, and I loved that," she said.
Zikhona said she's been blessed to play characters she enjoys. She currently plays Bulelwa, also known as Bullet, on Gqeberha: The Empire.
"I have this beautiful privilege and honour of playing real South African women. Writers are doing something they haven't in a while, which is to write characters about a broader woman. For so long, TV depicted women in one dimension. Now, writers are doing us a service by creating these women who we are getting to play, and I've been enjoying it," she said.
