What's it like to be each of the Twinz? I caught up with
Hlelo and
Ntando Masina for us to zoom in on each of them as individuals.
I chatted to them seperately so that they didn't know what the other had to say and asked them the exact same questions. As you'll see, I snooped out answers to things we've been wondering about
Blame It on Fame and what it's like for guys to be part of their tight twosome:
Tashi: Do you and Ntando have twintuition?
Hlelo: Yes! I think we do - I think we connect on that level. I'll give you an example ... if we're not get together, it happens rarely but if she's not feeling fine about something - I don't know what radar I have in me but I pick up the phone and call her to see if she's okay.
I think she thinks she can get away with hiding things from me, or not telling me, but I know it. I don't have to be with her to know it either.
Tashi: What's the best way to tell you apart?
Hlelo: What we've done with the show is we've tried to make ourselves look as different as possible. We do different make-up, we have different hair - Ntando has shorter hair, I have longer hair and we did that consciously so that people would get it from the word "go".
We are very, very different. I'm the bigger twin - I'm a minute older so everything of mine is bigger, except for my lips *
laughs*. I weigh like a kilogram and half more than my sister - we have the same body shape but I look bigger, I have bigger thighs, bigger head. *
laughs*.
Tashi: What list would you say you guys are on? A, B,C or D?
Hlelo: I'm an A-lister! *
laughs* This is the thing though, we don't flaunt what we have - you know other celeberities like bragging. We go to parties with other celebrities who are A-listers.
Tashi: Who else do you think are A-listers?
Hlelo: Oh wow ... Ryk Neethling, I think he's an A-lister - I'm giving you names of people who were at the party we were at last night. So Ryk, Kuli Roberts, someone like Shashi Naidoo - people like that. People are who are very recognised and good at what they do.
Tashi: What are you blaming on fame?
Hlelo: *
laughs* It works for a lot things, for example my sister and I get invited to lots of events, we do lots of MC'ing work, we have the campaign for girls that we do - we have busy, hectic lives with our radio show as well so sometimes I can't be with our family as much as we want to, like at family gatherings in Mpumalanga because of that so I blame that on fame, that I can't do the things I used to do - I blame that on fame.
You go somewhere, you go to a mall for a five minute trip and it takes an hour because people want to talk to us, they want to take pictures with us - I blame that on fame. I blame the tattoo we got in the first episode on fame. Ja, that's what I told my mom *
laughs*.
Tashi: How do guys handle being in a relationship with you? Will they always be an outsider when it comes to the relationship between you?
Hlelo: We always say that a guy that dates one of us is technically dating the other one of us because we're that close. Generally if I don't like a guy that my sister's dating, it never really lasts because I have that sixth sense.
I can sense stuff is gonna go down before it even goes down so the guy that's with one of us needs to understand that we are that close. If you're gonna impress my sister, you sure as hell are gonna have to frikking impress my ass as well.
You better go the extra mile - if you're gonna buy her a bouquet of flowers you better believe I want one as well. He has to wow us both. If I don't like you,
whoa, it's gonna be a tough one.
Tashi: What's the closest you've ever come to being married?
Hlelo: Oh my word *
laughs*.
Very. There was a guy I was with for almost five years and I really thought I wanted to marry him and I didn't.
Tashi: Do we know him? Is he famous?
Hlelo: Yes!
Hlelo was engaged to Bozza from Skwatta Kamp.
Tashi: Why didn't it work?
Hlelo: Well this is the thing though, I was very young when I met him, I was like 18, I was 19 actually. I was still in 'varsity and I was young and he was already famous so to speak, in inverted commas - I hate using these words like "famous" and "celebrity".
He knew I was interested in getting into the business and when I did and he saw I was making a big success of myself, it just didn't sit comfortably with him.
That's the best way to put it because looking back, he was happy for me when I wasn't famous but when I was it wasn't the same because now people are stopping me for autographs and photos and not him, they'd literally ignore him. It was like "Whoa!". This is why I don't want to date a famous person - I just want to date someone not famous.
Tashi: Is there anyone that you know who hasn't wanted to be filmed for the show?
Hlelo: When I told my family about the show, it's not like they said: "No," they were like: "How much of our lives do they want to see?" We were like: "It's just the way you interact with us." They were like: "Gosh, don't show too much of the children type stuff," 'cos you don't want the kids in the business.
It's hard, you need to develop a thick skin 'cos not everyone's gonna like you. If someone disses me now I can handle it but if someone disses my 10-year-old niece how is she gonna handle that? You know stuff like that - even we were worried about that kind of thing so my family was very open to it, it was just the level of: "How deep are you going to go?"
We have like a seven man crew following us around so it is very intimidating - some people do get shy when the camera's there but I always say: "It's not an interview, it's just who you really are. Act like there's no-one here - I know it's hard to do it but really act like there's no-one here."
I thought my mother was going to be the hardest person to deal with the camera because she's very, very shy but she was fine. She was like - she shouted at us on camera - there was even more stuff but we could only slot in a little bit for TV. She was genuinely mad at us and she wasn't gonna change that because the cameras were there.
Tashi: What you say about your niece - I imagine that's why the younger Kardashian sisters only came into the series later, once they'd grown up a bit.
Hlelo: Ja, we'd see them but not very much, now we see them more, obviously because they're more adult. I honestly don't think it's something you should be exposed to at a young age.
Tashi: Do you and Hlelo have twintuition?
Ntando: Of course. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Like maybe if she's not feeling well I'll call - I won't know that she's not feeling well but I'll call to ask if everything's okay, then she'll be like: "No, how did you know?" I always seem to call her at the right time or she seems to call me at the right time.
Tashi: Is it like that with anyone else or is it just the two of you?
Ntando: Just the two of us.
Tashi: What's the most different thing about you?
Ntando: Our personality. Very different. I can tell you that my friends know who's who from the get-go. Just personality-wise - it's not to say that either one of us is boring or adventurous at any given time but there are days when Hlelo's really bubbly and I'm feeling a bit down or I'm the bubbly one and she's feeling a bit down but we definitely have different personalities.
I'm probably a bit more fashion forward than Hlelo, in terms of fashion and stuff like that. I'm a little bit more adventurous than Hlelo at times but she does have that side.
Tashi: What list would you say you're on? A,B,C or D?
Ntando: A. That's like such an obvious one. Definitely A.
Tashi: What are you blaming on fame?
Ntando: I'm blaming the fact that dating is difficult - I blame that on fame. Keeping a stable relationship's difficult - I blame that on fame.
Not being able to do normal things like shopping or going to the park - simple things like - they're not so simple for me anymore. Going to the carwash - things that I used to do so easily before have now become weird to do because everybody recognises me - they want to talk, they want an autograph, they want pictures so it's pretty difficult.
Tashi: Are guys always an outsider when it comes to the relationship between you?
Ntando: No, not really - he'll be an outsider yes, if he doesn't get along with one of us. If I'm in a relationship with someone and he doesn't get along with Hlelo, then he'll have a hard time.
It's pretty difficult sifting out who's being real and who's not so we kind of guide each other along the lines of who to date and who not to date - it's intuition really.
Tashi: What's the closest you've come to being married?
Ntando: That's just "
wow,". It's a difficult one to answer.
Tashi: What's the most serious relationship you've been in?
Ntando: The one that I'm currently in now. It's a long distance relationship so you can just imagine.
Tashi: We don't see him on the show?
Ntando: No because I'm not at the stage where I'm ready for that - I wanna see where it goes. I want a serious relationship, I don't want one time things.
Tashi: Where is he?
Ntando: He's in his hometown doing what he does - I don't want to talk much about him though.
Tashi: Is he in South Africa or do you mean long distance as in overseas?
Ntando: He's in South Africa.
Tashi: So depending on where that goes will decide whether or not we see him?
Ntando: Ja.
Tashi: No pressure for him then.
Ntando: Ja no pressure, he's not a famous person so it's tricky.
Tashi: Is there anyone that you know who hasn't wanted to be filmed for the show?
Ntando: Ja, there are - not that they don't want to be seen with us but rather they're uncomfortable with the camera around. Just like an aqcuantance - someone we work with. People we work with - especially when they're working in the office side of things - don't really want to be seen in front of the camera. They want to be behind-the-scenes where they usually are everyday.