Popular Actor, Anton Jeftha, who has recently been linked to socialite and TV presenter, Boity Thulo, says he flies between Cape Town and Los Angeles, where he is taking acting classes.
Jeftha said when he moved to Los Angeles, he struggled a lot financially and had to work in a warehouse lifting boxes.
He also sold jewelry, worked at a Chinese restaurant and was an executive assistant for a popular celebrity.
Jeftha said getting to auditions is very difficult in Los Angeles, compared to Cape Town.
Please Read The Full Interview Below:
Popular Actor, Anton Jeftha, who has recently been linked to socialite and TV presenter, Boity Thulo, says he flies between Cape Town and Los Angeles, where he is taking acting classes.
Jeftha said when he moved to Los Angeles, he struggled a lot financially and had to work in a warehouse lifting boxes.
He also sold jewelry, worked at a Chinese restaurant and was an executive assistant for a popular celebrity.
Jeftha said getting to auditions is very difficult in Los Angeles, compared to Cape Town.
Please Read The Full Interview Below:
Melissa De Vries
I know that you’re visiting South Africa, even though you’re born and raised here in Cape Town, for the people that don’t know give us a bit of an introduction of your life growing up, who you are. What kind of kid were you?
Antony Jeftha
I was raised with three sisters by my loving parents. I think growing up in an environment like that is always fun. Especially being the only boy and getting a lot of attention from the ladies.
Melissa De Vries
Was there a person who you can say was your inspiration when you were young?
Antony Jeftha
I would say my dad in many ways because my father would enter a lot of Karaoke competitions when we were kids and he won a lot of them too is very good. He was also a black belt champion.
Melissa De Vries
What was your first job?
Antony Jeftha
My story actually goes back to way before that, because I think what a lot of people don’t know is that after high school
I went to the University of the Western Cape after high school and I studied finance and got my first degree, then during my honors year, I dropped out
Melissa De Vries
It’s great that you know how to do your own finances because you are your own brand. Did you go directly into acting after your degree?
Antony Jeftha
No, not initially. After dropping out, I held down jobs like a financial advisor. I worked as an operations manager. In 2012 I lost my job and I think when you are forced to make something work, your hustle becomes so much more.
I was waking up at 5am to be at the gym, I was looking after myself a lot more and started learning to live with rejection and disappointment and developing patience. Yeah, you develop a lot of patience.
Melissa De Vries
How did you start on Outsurance Commercials?
Antony Jeftha
It was amazing. I was in everybody’s faces morning and night. Initially, I booked a commercial. And then I just thought okay, cool. It was a ones off. Yes. And then they had me back in to audition for one where they needed me to present and I booked that and then after that it was direct bookings.
They would say, Anton, we need you in Johannesburg for this weekly face to face. It was like that for three or four years and then even in my first year in LA they would still fly me back to South Africa.
Melissa De Vries
Why did you make the decision of moving relocating?
Antony Jeftha
Yeah, the truth is nothing can prepare you for Hollywood, you know, for LA, it’s like, it’s, it’s insane. So it’s a beast of a place. But I’m gonna take it back to why I went. I think initially, when I started out in acting, all I wanted was to be on local television, I would have been totally happy with that. I just wanted to perform an act. And then things evolved. There were not a lot of roles, I remember being a little bit frustrated. So maybe I didn’t look like gangster enough. But I wasn’t really getting local bookings. But what I did find was, I was booking international shows.
Antony Jeftha
I said to myself, there must be something there. You know, because I was booking commercials at the time for Sweden, Canada, and the Netherlands, America, those type of global campaigns, you know, and then I finally booked, I booked dominion. two seasons on dominion, which was a sci fi show as one of the supporting leads. And then I was on homeland. And all these, like, international shows. So I was like, Okay, cool. Maybe I should, you know, go over there and see if, if I could take this a little bit further, or, at least up my game as an actor to be surrounded by the best God, you know. So I wanted to I wanted to learn from the best. I think that that was the best thing I could have done for myself, like the Olympics of that.
Antony Jeftha
When I when I left, I think I had a fairly comfortable life in Cape Town. I was, as I mentioned, the face of Outsurance. It was a steady gig, I was booking international things. And when I went to the USA, one of my first jobs was packing boxes in a warehouse downtown LA, you know, to survive. And then my next job after that was was serving tables, at some Chinese restaurant. And then shortly after that, I was selling jewelry at Costos. And then after that, I went back into serving working for I don’t know if you know a show called vanderpump rules. That’s one of the housewives. She has a restaurant in LA. So I was working there for a year and a half. And then lastly, my final day job was working as an executive personal assistant to an A list celebrity.
And what I had to keep in mind, like while all of this was going on, I had to you know, take care of my body, I had to be an acting class. Mentally I had to stay sane. To keep auditioning putting myself on tape showing up and, and it’s not like this where auditions are like just a stone’s throw away. It’s like spread around town and you don’t know where anything is.
Melissa De Vries
Do you have any new films coming up.
Antony Jeftha
Well, for 2020 Yeah, I just did a film in Sacramento, Chico Sacramento, which is in Northern California, called the contrast. I was a supporting lead and it’s in post production now.
Antony Jeftha
The one that I’m going to shoot now is called comic relief that we were hoping should be ready for the Sundance festival. And then I am also doing local projects.
Melissa De Vries
How do you make it work, travelling between Cape Town and LA?
Antony Jeftha
How important is it an artist for me, it’s exceptionally important, but because I feel like I have such a important role to play at home. I think that there’s so much work to be done over here. And if I was just to like, cut off my roots and where it all started, I think I’d be doing myself an injustice. Yeah. And I wouldn’t you know, because I feel like I think I think, yeah, there’s a lot of work to be done. Yeah, yeah, I got you. And it’s a good industry and it’s a growing industry. So, uh, my, my goal is to stay between the two, like,
Antony Jeftha
must bid culture. Culture for sure. It’s like there’s a warm fear. And like, there’s something in the area just like spiritually, I don’t know how to even place it because that is just different. You know, it’s like in America. It’s just it’s somehow feels like a different planet. Yes. Something something’s missing. I get you know, and it’s It is my family for sure. Because I’m very family orientated. And I’ve got you know, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve got my mom, my dad, my sisters, nieces, nephews, all of that. So I miss them a lot, obviously, and I miss the food.
Melissa De Vries
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Antony Jeftha
This is an interesting question because I think sometimes when I look back it’s like younger me. You know, like I love children you know, as I look at my nieces and my nephews and I give them a lot of validation. Anything to build up their confidence, because that’s something that I struggled with. I wish that somebody had done that for me back then.
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