Ahead of the highly anticipated release of the third season of South African Netflix original Blood & Water, The Daily Vox chatted with two of the cast members. The third season is set to release on November 25 and with the cliffhanger of season two, viewers are likely to be in for a treat with the new season. The Daily Vox team chatted with Khosi Ngema (Fikile) and Mekaila Mathys (Tahira) about what fans can expect.
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Blood & Water season 3 and more coming to Netflix this November
A season three – a new challenge
Mathys started off by saying that this season is entirely different from the first two seasons. She said the audience are in for a shocker with the third season. Ngema echoed this sentiment saying that season three has a different energy to it.
“I feel like we were challenged differently as well performance-wise, just because there were things that we hadn’t done that we hadn’t done with our characters before,” Ngema said. Season three definitely promises to take viewers on a rollercoaster of a ride and that’s largely due to the performances delivered by the actors as their characters go through the most.
Another challenge for the pair was that they didn’t film the series chronologically. Ngema said this meant they filmed some big events at the beginning of filming and it took a little bit of getting into the right mind space for that. However, they both gave props to the directors for guiding them and allowing the actors to make the directors’ visions come to life.
They also had to navigate personal and life issues. However, acting means they leave that aside and get into the character to deliver the best performance that they can.
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In conversation with the Blood & Water cast and crew
Favourite part of playing their characters
Fikile and Tahir are both characters who don’t really have many scenes together or get along in the series at first. But what draws their characters together is the immense growth that both characters have undergone as the seasons progress. Ngema said her favourite part of playing Fikile has been how much she has grown in season three. She’s enjoyed how much more aggressive Fikile has gotten and she’s gotten to channel that while playing the character.
For Mathys, she had enjoyed how Tahira had started to develop a voice which the character didn’t really have in the previous seasons. “She’s even beginning to learn a lot more about herself and be able to stand up for herself and to be able to stand up for other major issues that society faces in general,” said Mathys. However, with that character change, there comes a lot of emotional work which Mathys said was a challenge at times.
One character who does not have as big of role to play in season three is Wendy played by Natasha Thahane. Wendy and Tahira are best friends on the show so that changed things up slightly for Mathys. “In season one and season two we developed a really good relationship and friendship and so when she wasn’t with me for the large majority of the whole shoot, it was very difficult for me.,” said Mathys. However, because Tahira could not be so reliant on Wendy, it opened up the pathway for Tahira’s development.
Both actors said if they could play any other character’s role on the show, they would want to play Lisbeth Molapo played by the acclaimed Sonia Mbele.
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Blood & Water Season 2 leaves you wanting more
Important issues the season tackles
While retaining what made the show popular globally, season three does go in a slightly different direction. They are still all in school, there is still the teen and family drama and some lightheartedness. But this season tackles the underlying issues in a more meaningful way. One of those is the issue of human trafficking and violence.
Ngema said when they portray these serious issues, “you want to treat it with respect and care and not trivialise it or romanticise it in any way”. She said it was important to do the research on how real people have been affected by the issues and treating it with sensitivity was the main thing.
“I feel like we have a huge responsibility in telling people’s very real stories,” Mathys said. She said she feels the audience are going to be woken up by the reality of what’s going on today when they watch the show.
Three words to describe the show – Mathys: action, danger, drama and Ngema: heartbreaking, intense and different.
Most shocking thing of season three:
Well for that, audiences will have to wait for the release of the season on November 25 especially if they don’t want any spoilers. But for both actors, it was the death of [REDACTED]. Mathys said from the table read, the death was the shocking part for her. Ngema agreed that it was very heartbreaking. “But I would also say just the level of violence. It’s just like are we really doing this? You really wouldn’t expect certain things to happen,” said Ngema.
Current binge-watches: Ngema: Love is Blind and Mathys: Good Girls and Warrior Nun
Blood & Water season three releases on November 25. The first two seasons are available to stream on Netflix.
