A New Man: Interviewing Yesterday Star Kenneth Khambula
By: Andrew Daub
Men are complicated creatures. Confronting the many roles of son, brother, lover, and friend, men often struggle to find a sense of masculinity that anchors their existence. It is when this masculinity is threatened and forced to change that angry floodgates of insecurity open. What exactly is released in those floodgates? Just ask Kenneth Khambula, star of Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday, a 2004 South African film that hit the big screen and Oscar-nominated stage thanks in part to HBO Films. By taking on the role of Yesterday’s husband, Khambula unearths a sharp reflection of the changing tides in masculinity that have stunningly swept across South Africa as coattails of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. New York Times wannabe correspondent Andrew Daub reports in an interview tracing a performance that probes at the shifting culture of masculinity and the raw core of the once beaten down, then newly defined South African man:
AD: Yesterday exposes many ugly and beautiful heads of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially how it manifests across South Africa. With Bono, Angelina Jolie, Desmond Tutu, and the folks at UNICEF branding HIV/AIDS as the trendy global issue du jour, what made you jump on board with this particular project?
KK: Well, Darrell Roodt is a genius, so when the script fell into my lap, I just – well, you saw the film – I just couldn’t resist getting in on the action. It is true that HIV/AIDS is a buzz issue and Africa is the topic of conversation. But that’s the funny thing, you see. We’re talking about those Africans dying of HIV/AIDS. We’re hosting conferences and writing papers and reading books and sending our checks in support. But that’s where the conversation ends. People don’t really know HIV/AIDS. And Africa certainly is not the place to be, if you ask many of the people I hope got around to seeing this film. I suppose this frustrating dichotomy of talking about these issues and actually doing something about them is why I found Darrell’s vision so empowering and, quite honestly, necessary. Darrell just has this way of covering so much ground in the hour-and-a-half film. I mean, audiences basically leave the film with the social nuts and bolts of this epidemic. This movie has a lot to say about a lot of things that need to be said. Take my character, for instance. Everyone who is talking about HIV/AIDS is out there hating on men, rounding up the troops to bring in the sugar daddies and wife beaters. But that’s only the surface of what really is going on in these men’s lives. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
AD: You are exactly right in that Yesterday’s husband brings many complexities to the table. Considering that your first scene has you abusing Yesterday, how did you manage to still create a sense of sympathy for your character?
KK: Yes, it’s quite an introduction for a character. The audience hears these good things about Yesterday’s husband, and you definitely see how her face lights up when she arrives in Jo’burg. Unfortunately, the physical abuse Yesterday suffers is all too common. As an actor, I saw the need to do my character justice. To show the ugliness of his abusive tendencies and slowly work in, you know, hone down on his more redeeming qualities. As a man and simply as a human, I wanted to convey the darkness and light we all carry as individuals. Much of why Yesterday’s husband is so violent lives in that darkness. There is ignorance, fear, intimidation, even guilt before the guilty act. There is his burden of infidelity, which I think the movie washes over, but yes – that burden is present, lurking inside of him in those first moments in the abuse scene. But Yesterday’s husband is hardly static. No one really is one-dimensional. Showing the good old days as Yesterday leaves Jo’burg for home allows the audience to see my character as more than just an abuser. And of course, the rest of my time in the movie speaks to the tremendous complexities built up inside of him. When my character comes home toward the middle of the movie – I think it’s then that I am able to stir up sympathy in the audience. He’s a victim, too. His confession of stinking like an animal, shitting everywhere, getting beaten and fired – and doing it all in tears in front of the woman he abused and loved at the same time is really explosive. There is so much pressure involved in disclosure. And I’m not talking just about disclosure of HIV status. There is a broader disclosure of guilt and recognition of fear that are just as if not more important. It takes guts, because that kind of disclosure forces you to recognize both the loss of so much good and the inheritance of some really debilitating pain.
AD: You bring up a very insightful point about the links between what is lost and gained in the mix of this epidemic. The movie largely pits the joys of the past against the misfortunes of the present. As a whole, the film taps into the idea of cherishing good memories in hopes of offsetting the losses of today. Do you think men like Yesterday’s husband are similarly trying to hold onto whatever good is left?
KK: Oh, absolutely. Look, men are a big part of this epidemic. They are, I think, the missing link in our fight. There is a need to educate men, to inform them about healthy communication and relationships. To eliminate the violence and shift our focus on developing strong partnerships and more open-minded, tolerant, and especially honest lifestyles. And that’s just not where the money is going. And that’s not really what we’re talking about either. When we are bringing men into the discussion, we only focus on how men are the bad boys of HIV/AIDS – which is hardly helping out matters at all. Men like Yesterday’s husband are everywhere – confused, scared, struggling to live. We need to help these men get over their guilt and pain. How else are we going to move beyond such violence and anger? I just don’t see how we’re going to win the fight against HIV/AIDS, poverty, really anything without men on the world’s side. I’m not saying that all men are suddenly off the hook. We just need to realize that guys have feelings, too. And right now, many of them are just as beaten down and intimidated and unsure as women. At the root of all of this is the fact that we are – at our very core as human beings – unhappy, plain and simple.
AD: So if happiness is only a part of our personal and global yesterday, then what keeps us going on? Why put up the fight at all?
KK: Because that is what we do. We live. We fight for the people we love, we fight for our passions, we fight for ourselves. Above all, that is what the film is addressing. Life has no alternative. Yesterday sums up that idea perfectly when she asks the doctor if she is to just stop living. No. Unequivocally, absolutely no. Yesterday comes to understand that life is more than the fight. More than accepting what is gone. That Yesterday finds forgiveness for her husband and survives to see Beauty’s first day of school show that not all is lost. That happiness is still possible keeps us going. When you cut away all of the filth of this epidemic – and really, the grime of all of our world’s problems – you find not just joy. You discover the joy of joy. The joy that gets us through each day, overcoming the bad and ugly of our world in order to deliver us some much needed good.
AD: So if this movie really does put out the good, the bad, and the ugly, what can we take away from your character? With all of his demons, is there a new man flourishing inside? Who is he and how is he fitting into the big pictures of HIV/AIDS, South Africa, and the world?
KK: There is a new man out there. A man of strength and humility. Today’s men aren’t just breadwinners or abusers. Not all of them are off having affairs or ignoring their children. Perhaps, these men of a new breed are hard to find. But I wholeheartedly believe that they are out there. In fact, I would go so far as to say that all men are capable of broadening our concepts of masculinity. The change in my character speaks to how even the most guilty can grow. Yesterday drives home complexity above all else. And if we’re dealing with issues and countries as multifaceted as HIV/AIDS and South Africa, then we need to understand that the people living those experiences embody just as many complexities. And if the new man really is out there – and I think he is – then the big picture is brightening up. Hey, this new man is no cure. But he is a role model, a step in the right direction. And how can you say no to that?
AD: I don’t think you can. For a low-budget film, Yesterday bites off a considerable amount of serious issues and certainly does offer some much needed momentum. For all of its overwhelming weight, the film seems to have found a distinct place on the DVD shelf. People all around the world know this film. Is Yesterday the little movie that could and did attract unexpected audiences, or does HBO Films’ support imply that a film about HIV/AIDS set in Africa needed some extra help to reach so many people?
KK: Well, I would certainly hope that our movie stands on its own merits. HBO Films definitely deserves major kudos for helping us financially and getting our film out to multiple time zones. I think the low budget and family-like production gave Yesterday an intimacy that catered to audiences. So in a sense, I do think we are the little movie that could. Independent and smaller scale productions usually are holes in the walls of our film world. Of course, it’s unfortunate that some of the bigger kids on the Hollywood block aren’t getting their hands wet with all of the real life issues found here in South Africa and elsewhere. But we all know money makes the world go round, and we little guys have to make do with what we have at our disposal. Even if we aren’t creating box office hits, we make films because they count. Because they speak for the silenced and marginalized. Because they poke at the things many people want to ignore. So yes, it would be so empowering to see more films like Yesterday get made and shipped out beyond the film festivals, artsy theaters, and cable television packages. I do hope that the real Africa – and not the Bono-driven continent seen on headlines – gets more and more time on the big screen.
AD: So what about the prospects for a Tomorrow hitting that big screen?
KK: There is such rich material here in South Africa that I do think something like a Tomorrow will be made. A sequel would be great, although I’d obviously be out of the picture. If nothing else, I hope that we keep making movies and people keep watching them. After all, there is no business like show business.
Kenneth Khambula also starred in I Dreamed of Africa. He is presently unattached to any film project. Andrew Daub is currently juggling a 20-25 page research paper, a personal blog, and the beginnings of his take on the next great American novel.
Men are complicated creatures. Confronting the many roles of son, brother, lover, and friend, men often struggle to find a sense of masculinity that anchors their existence. It is when this masculinity is threatened and forced to change that angry floodgates of insecurity open. What exactly is released in those floodgates? Just ask Kenneth Khambula, star of Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday, a 2004 South African film that hit the big screen and Oscar-nominated stage thanks in part to HBO Films. By taking on the role of Yesterday’s husband, Khambula unearths a sharp reflection of the changing tides in masculinity that have stunningly swept across South Africa as coattails of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. New York Times wannabe correspondent Andrew Daub reports in an interview tracing a performance that probes at the shifting culture of masculinity and the raw core of the once beaten down, then newly defined South African man:
AD: Yesterday exposes many ugly and beautiful heads of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially how it manifests across South Africa. With Bono, Angelina Jolie, Desmond Tutu, and the folks at UNICEF branding HIV/AIDS as the trendy global issue du jour, what made you jump on board with this particular project?
KK: Well, Darrell Roodt is a genius, so when the script fell into my lap, I just – well, you saw the film – I just couldn’t resist getting in on the action. It is true that HIV/AIDS is a buzz issue and Africa is the topic of conversation. But that’s the funny thing, you see. We’re talking about those Africans dying of HIV/AIDS. We’re hosting conferences and writing papers and reading books and sending our checks in support. But that’s where the conversation ends. People don’t really know HIV/AIDS. And Africa certainly is not the place to be, if you ask many of the people I hope got around to seeing this film. I suppose this frustrating dichotomy of talking about these issues and actually doing something about them is why I found Darrell’s vision so empowering and, quite honestly, necessary. Darrell just has this way of covering so much ground in the hour-and-a-half film. I mean, audiences basically leave the film with the social nuts and bolts of this epidemic. This movie has a lot to say about a lot of things that need to be said. Take my character, for instance. Everyone who is talking about HIV/AIDS is out there hating on men, rounding up the troops to bring in the sugar daddies and wife beaters. But that’s only the surface of what really is going on in these men’s lives. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
AD: You are exactly right in that Yesterday’s husband brings many complexities to the table. Considering that your first scene has you abusing Yesterday, how did you manage to still create a sense of sympathy for your character?
KK: Yes, it’s quite an introduction for a character. The audience hears these good things about Yesterday’s husband, and you definitely see how her face lights up when she arrives in Jo’burg. Unfortunately, the physical abuse Yesterday suffers is all too common. As an actor, I saw the need to do my character justice. To show the ugliness of his abusive tendencies and slowly work in, you know, hone down on his more redeeming qualities. As a man and simply as a human, I wanted to convey the darkness and light we all carry as individuals. Much of why Yesterday’s husband is so violent lives in that darkness. There is ignorance, fear, intimidation, even guilt before the guilty act. There is his burden of infidelity, which I think the movie washes over, but yes – that burden is present, lurking inside of him in those first moments in the abuse scene. But Yesterday’s husband is hardly static. No one really is one-dimensional. Showing the good old days as Yesterday leaves Jo’burg for home allows the audience to see my character as more than just an abuser. And of course, the rest of my time in the movie speaks to the tremendous complexities built up inside of him. When my character comes home toward the middle of the movie – I think it’s then that I am able to stir up sympathy in the audience. He’s a victim, too. His confession of stinking like an animal, shitting everywhere, getting beaten and fired – and doing it all in tears in front of the woman he abused and loved at the same time is really explosive. There is so much pressure involved in disclosure. And I’m not talking just about disclosure of HIV status. There is a broader disclosure of guilt and recognition of fear that are just as if not more important. It takes guts, because that kind of disclosure forces you to recognize both the loss of so much good and the inheritance of some really debilitating pain.
AD: You bring up a very insightful point about the links between what is lost and gained in the mix of this epidemic. The movie largely pits the joys of the past against the misfortunes of the present. As a whole, the film taps into the idea of cherishing good memories in hopes of offsetting the losses of today. Do you think men like Yesterday’s husband are similarly trying to hold onto whatever good is left?
KK: Oh, absolutely. Look, men are a big part of this epidemic. They are, I think, the missing link in our fight. There is a need to educate men, to inform them about healthy communication and relationships. To eliminate the violence and shift our focus on developing strong partnerships and more open-minded, tolerant, and especially honest lifestyles. And that’s just not where the money is going. And that’s not really what we’re talking about either. When we are bringing men into the discussion, we only focus on how men are the bad boys of HIV/AIDS – which is hardly helping out matters at all. Men like Yesterday’s husband are everywhere – confused, scared, struggling to live. We need to help these men get over their guilt and pain. How else are we going to move beyond such violence and anger? I just don’t see how we’re going to win the fight against HIV/AIDS, poverty, really anything without men on the world’s side. I’m not saying that all men are suddenly off the hook. We just need to realize that guys have feelings, too. And right now, many of them are just as beaten down and intimidated and unsure as women. At the root of all of this is the fact that we are – at our very core as human beings – unhappy, plain and simple.
AD: So if happiness is only a part of our personal and global yesterday, then what keeps us going on? Why put up the fight at all?
KK: Because that is what we do. We live. We fight for the people we love, we fight for our passions, we fight for ourselves. Above all, that is what the film is addressing. Life has no alternative. Yesterday sums up that idea perfectly when she asks the doctor if she is to just stop living. No. Unequivocally, absolutely no. Yesterday comes to understand that life is more than the fight. More than accepting what is gone. That Yesterday finds forgiveness for her husband and survives to see Beauty’s first day of school show that not all is lost. That happiness is still possible keeps us going. When you cut away all of the filth of this epidemic – and really, the grime of all of our world’s problems – you find not just joy. You discover the joy of joy. The joy that gets us through each day, overcoming the bad and ugly of our world in order to deliver us some much needed good.
AD: So if this movie really does put out the good, the bad, and the ugly, what can we take away from your character? With all of his demons, is there a new man flourishing inside? Who is he and how is he fitting into the big pictures of HIV/AIDS, South Africa, and the world?
KK: There is a new man out there. A man of strength and humility. Today’s men aren’t just breadwinners or abusers. Not all of them are off having affairs or ignoring their children. Perhaps, these men of a new breed are hard to find. But I wholeheartedly believe that they are out there. In fact, I would go so far as to say that all men are capable of broadening our concepts of masculinity. The change in my character speaks to how even the most guilty can grow. Yesterday drives home complexity above all else. And if we’re dealing with issues and countries as multifaceted as HIV/AIDS and South Africa, then we need to understand that the people living those experiences embody just as many complexities. And if the new man really is out there – and I think he is – then the big picture is brightening up. Hey, this new man is no cure. But he is a role model, a step in the right direction. And how can you say no to that?
AD: I don’t think you can. For a low-budget film, Yesterday bites off a considerable amount of serious issues and certainly does offer some much needed momentum. For all of its overwhelming weight, the film seems to have found a distinct place on the DVD shelf. People all around the world know this film. Is Yesterday the little movie that could and did attract unexpected audiences, or does HBO Films’ support imply that a film about HIV/AIDS set in Africa needed some extra help to reach so many people?
KK: Well, I would certainly hope that our movie stands on its own merits. HBO Films definitely deserves major kudos for helping us financially and getting our film out to multiple time zones. I think the low budget and family-like production gave Yesterday an intimacy that catered to audiences. So in a sense, I do think we are the little movie that could. Independent and smaller scale productions usually are holes in the walls of our film world. Of course, it’s unfortunate that some of the bigger kids on the Hollywood block aren’t getting their hands wet with all of the real life issues found here in South Africa and elsewhere. But we all know money makes the world go round, and we little guys have to make do with what we have at our disposal. Even if we aren’t creating box office hits, we make films because they count. Because they speak for the silenced and marginalized. Because they poke at the things many people want to ignore. So yes, it would be so empowering to see more films like Yesterday get made and shipped out beyond the film festivals, artsy theaters, and cable television packages. I do hope that the real Africa – and not the Bono-driven continent seen on headlines – gets more and more time on the big screen.
AD: So what about the prospects for a Tomorrow hitting that big screen?
KK: There is such rich material here in South Africa that I do think something like a Tomorrow will be made. A sequel would be great, although I’d obviously be out of the picture. If nothing else, I hope that we keep making movies and people keep watching them. After all, there is no business like show business.
Kenneth Khambula also starred in I Dreamed of Africa. He is presently unattached to any film project. Andrew Daub is currently juggling a 20-25 page research paper, a personal blog, and the beginnings of his take on the next great American novel.
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