After graduating from AFDA Johannesburg with a degree in Live Performance in 2020, Chris Langa has taken very little time to shine on the silver screen, landing a feature role alongside famous Hollywood actors Idris Elba, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Sharlto Copley in the American blockbuster survival thriller film “Beast” which has already amassed 22 million dollars at the box office in its first ten days of screening worldwide.
The film is directed by Baltasar Kormákur from a screenplay by Ryan Engle, based on a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan. The story revolves around recently widowed Dr.Nate Daniels (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters who travel to a South African game reserve managed by Martin Battles, an old family friend and wildlife biologist. What begins as a journey of healing turns into a fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of bloodthirsty poachers, begins stalking them. Beast was released in the United States on August 19, 2022, by Universal Pictures.
“When I got the brief for Beast I was so excited. Firstly, it was my first international brief that I had ever got and secondly, I was terribly nervous, because the role required me to speak Swahili, which I learned for the audition and the role which I originally auditioned for who was Kees the leader of the poachers was a bit older than i was. I walked into the audition room and walked out with the role of Specs, a poacher, and the rest is history. The language for my role changed to Tshivenda but that was after I had booked the role.” says Chris.
“Idris Elba is an amazing actor and such a nice human being. I am a fan of his work. He is such a versatile and terrific actor. I’m not gonna lie. I was star struck most of the time with the plethora and calibre of actors who I worked with and had looked up to such as Thabo Rametsi, Sharlto Copley, Thapelo Sebogodi, Liyabuya Gongo, Martin Munro and Naledi Mogadime. Being able to work out scenes with them was a dream come true, such a surreal moment.” continues Chris.
“Working on a 36 million dollar budget film movie like Beast has to be one of my fondest moments in my career as an actor. Some of the scenes of the film were shot in my hometown Musina in Limpopo, which was a special way to make my introduction in the film industry, my first international movie on home soil starring industry giants.”
“The biggest take away from being on the Beast set for me was that if you are good enough and prepared enough, you will always rise to the greatest of stages, I have been fortunate enough to have landed other roles on international productions after Beast and I am excited for everyone to see and experience my acting on different productions playing different characters. I have range, I promise haha.” concludes Chris.
