Windhoek
A lifetime experience in the world of the M-Net was a grantee that dreams are valid, says Namibian actor Jacqueline Angula.
Angula was in September selected by M-Net as one of the top 17 actors in ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Made’. “I started believing that this was actually happening when people kept texting and calling me to tell me I am on DSTV. All in all God gets the glory. Being selected to be part of the top 17 actors was what I’ve heard some people describe as a ‘God wink’,” she says. Jacqueline adds that working with the M-Net family was a good experience and a loving environment that she learned a lot from. “I got to work with Spitfire Films, I mean it doesn’t really get better than that! The first night we had dinner with the directors, actors and everybody from M-Net. I felt like we were one big family. Everybody was so great, helpful and we all just wanted the best for each other.”
She says the audition process was fun and intense but great at the same time. During the audition they had a couple of hours to study/prep for their scripts, watch the films for which they were auditioning and the camera crew was filming everything from the start. “This whole experience has been the best and everything I did was representing Namibia.” She learned so much that made her feel like a winner, though she didn’t make it to the top six. “The experience was everything, I really felt like a winner, because I won in my own right, we all did,” she adds.
Jacqueline was exposed to TV and Film at a very young age, and that developed her involvement with it. “My mom enrolled me in the Sunshine Club when I was only five or six there, so after kindergarten it was straight to NBC studio for me to shoot the episodes,” she enlightens.
She believes art has a power to transform lives and that all people should have access to that power and the only thing they can do and must do is committing. “That’s half the battle. A huge part of becoming a working actor is working on something else to survive until we can make money doing what we love. Instead, I pay the bills by working at Namibia Trade Directory as the social media and online editor,” she adds.
She further states that she keeps her dreams alive by always committing to them. “I was in school dances, theatre plays, presenting school gigs. [The year] 2015 was what I like to call my breakout year. I really gave my dreams a fair shot last year. I enrolled myself in some acting workshops with the LA acting here in Namibia, it was the best thing I could have done for myself,” says Jacqueline.
She was casted to be in a short feature film Alina aired on NBC a couple of times. “I was really honoured to be part of this project because it touched on a topic that I’m very passionate about, Gender Based Violence. I was also in New York earlier this year, and I got the opportunity to be casted to be in a feature film called Incarcerated. I always say it myself – how the roles really choose you! Few moments compare to the ones that completely blow your mind away and this was one of them,” concludes Angula.