Pearl Thusi had an interview on the MacG YouTube Channel on 18 December 2020.
Below are the key points from the interview
1. After MacG congratulated her on buying her new mansion, Pearl explained that she bought her first house in Morningside, but there was not space for her 3 dogs. This is why she moved to her new house.
2. Pearl said she applied for a home loan at the bank for her new house before the coronavirus. She also put in a lot of her own money into the house.
3. When she moved to Johannesburg she lived at a cottage in Fouways.
4. She then moved to the main house when the owner moved to the cottage.
5. At the time she said she did not have a lot of money and she was broke. She had to ask her grandmother for money who was on her pension.
6. Her first job was I-crew, translating English and Afrikaans into Zulu.
7. The first acting job was with Desmond Dube Lady’s number 1 Detective agency.
8. Then she did Zone 14 and RGB.
9. At Rhema she was not being paid. There was a guy called Gift and Josh and she did links.
10. At that time she had no car and she had to use Josh and Gift’s car for auditions.
11. Pearl said she found out she was pregnant when she was at Wits during orientation.
12. She was in a Rocky relationship at the time. She went to the clinic at Wits and they were testing people for HIV. After the HIV test she asked for a pregnancy test.
13. They told her to come back the next day and she tested and the pregnancy test was positive.
14. She was with another girl who was there to support her.
15. Pearl said she waited for 2 weeks before she told the father of the child.
17. After she told him they got back together.
18. She met the father of her child after he called her on the phone. He got the phone from his ex girlfriend.
19. After dating for a year she got pregnant (at 19).
20. Pearl says her family was disappointed but not angry.
21.Pearl says she went to school with famous people.
22. Pearl says she dropped out of Pearl University because she could not find parking and she was pregnant. By July, when she was 6 months pregnant, she decided to drop out because they said she could not work when she was studying.
23. She says she went back to school again in 2019 and then dropped out again because of Queen Sono and lockdown.
24. Pearl says 6 weeks after she gave birth she shot a commercial where she had to run.
25. She says she audition for Zone 14 five times. I initially she did not have an agent, her modeling agency then found her an agent.
25. In Zone 14, she got to be called Samke (The name of her mother).
26. She says she became the face of Lovers Plus (At that time she was a virgin). The contract was for 5 years.
27. After the 5 years, she asked them to remove her face from the packs, or they should pay her.
28. Pearl said she gets taken advantage of during contact negotiations.
29. She said she had been asked to do couch interviews before.
30. Pearl says South African girls are afraid of talking about the abuse because the giys involved are powerful.
31. Queen Sono for her will not stop her from being accessible to people.
32. She says for Queen Sono, she went to Kagiso and said explained her idea. This was just after catching feelings.
33. Kagiso started building the idea and fleshing out and they went and sold the idea to investors.
34. Netflix happened to be in town and they put their own money into the film.
35. She said when you do a job like Queen Sono you can not do other jobs. The money was good.
36. Pearl said Queen Sono was number one in over 50 countries without marketing.
37. She says Queen Sono was renewed but was postponed twice.
38. After the two postponements Queen Sono was then cancelled.
39. Pearl said Initially she was disappointed and confused, but she is still getting her money.
40. She says America is great, but she foresaw the trend of things moving to Africa a few year ago.
41. Pearl says her view is that one should not be enslaved by the American Dream, but should negotiate with it. Americans can help her to achieve her dream, but her dream is to leave a her legacy. Where Africans will have power to negotiate on their own terms.
Please watch the video above this post more details.
