Brenda Mhlongo knows what it takes to deliver a long-term daily performance on stage and screen because she's done both at different times of her career.
She's travelled internationally with The Lion King stage show and she's brought Nandi to life on Generations so she has diverse experience and perspective when it comes to acting.
I asked her to share her no. 1 acting tip with us and she shared three.
These are them... my fave is 3:
Tip 1
Brenda: Read. Keep on reading because it's going to train your brain.
Read books about acting, for theatre and for television so that you see the difference between the two, especially if you wanna do both.
Tip 2
Brenda: Also, stay focused and be disciplined.
Professionalism is the name of the game. You have to be professional - you have to come prepared.
Since you haven't got a job or anything else that you're doing, prepare yourself by reading a lot of books and watch a lot of shows, go to cinemas. See how they approach things.
Stay focused and disciplined. Respect everyone. Respect your craft.
Tip 3
Brenda: If you're in theatre, you tend to get used to the show that you're doing - you're like, "Ah man, I've been doing this one every night," but trust me, the audience is not the same.
The person sitting there is completely new - it's a completely new audience so you have to give them the energy that you gave on your opening night - that you gave when you had all this eneregy.
Remember - everyone who's sitting there is going through something. Maybe by doing your work the way you're doing it, you are healing that person.
I remember my first job on The Lion King... there are Disneyland versions of The Lion King and also, there's another version of The Lion King - a two-and-a-half hour version of The Lion King.
When I was in Hong Kong, I was still doing the Disneyland version, which was 30-minutes, and I didn't know that one of the casting directors - one of the worldwide directors - was in the audience.
He saw my performance and he went to the office and said, " I want her to do the big, full version of The Lion King."
It's how I got my job in Germany. It's the only way I did my audition. I did my best not knowing that someone important is sitting in the audience and that someone important gave me the ticket to Germany.