Elzet Nel, who plays Mindy, the captain of the drum majorettes in Trompoppie has opened up about her role.
After being nominated for a Silwerskerm Best Supporting Actress Award for her film debut as Killer in Vaselinetjie, Nel has gone on to act in the likes of Magda Louw, Blood & Water and Die Klas van Juffrou Nellie Welgemoed.
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NEL EXPLAINS WHAT ‘TROMPOPPIE’ IS ABOUT
“Trompoppie follows the different drummies in a drum majorette team that is trying to win the national competition, as well as everything that comes with it… the pressure, the training, school, popularity contests, and rivalry between girls.
“That’s how it goes when girls compete with each other, especially between the ages of 16 and 18. It’s horrible. So the series also shows how each girl deals with the pressure of all this, and how far they are willing to go to come out on top. So you can look forward to incredible dance routines – and unexpected twists.
The actress describes her character, Mindy, as a boss-babe.
“Mindy is a queen bee; she never loses, and she gets everything she wants. She is the captain of the drum majorettes, the most senior member of the team, and she is basically in charge of the school. When a new girl joins the team, Mindy obviously doesn’t like it, because she poses a threat to her. She then tries to keep her off the team – regardless of what she has to do to make it happen.”
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Speaking about the similarities between her and her character, Nel said that they are there but they are not superficial.
“Maybe not on the surface – except that we look alike, of course. But because I’ve looked for character references in the deepest parts of myself, she’s like the part of me that I’ve repressed. I’m not really very competitive. I want everyone to win and I applaud everyone, where she is not like that at all. I think if I were a b**ch, I’d be like Mindy!”
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HIGHLIGHTS ON SET
For Nel, her biggest highlight whilst shooting on the set of Trompoppie, was when there was a storm in Cape Town.
“There are so many highlights. I have a whole list!
“One thing that I will never forget in my entire life was how it stormed in Cape Town. It was the middle of winter when we were shooting and the moments it wasn’t raining we tried to shoot. We were right under Table Mountain, so it was freezing, freezing, freezing cold.
“The crew did their best to help us keep warm, even carrying buckets of boiling water down to the field for some relief from the cold, but some of the drummies were barefoot in the mud and in the cold, and there was a moment when we all stood in one place and started jogging on the spot and singing. Like, ‘Yeah, we can get through this!’ And that’s basically how we got through the whole series: together.”