Actress and presenter Pearl Thusi says she feels the entertainment industry has been unfair to her and her peers by imposing the pressure of the “IT Girl” era on them and pitting them against each other.
By the “IT Girl era” she was referring to a period in the entertainment industry when a lot of women had to toe the line and fit a certain criteria. But now that things have changed to #Justbeyourself Pearl says she feels like they had been played.
In her recently aired episode of the Black Rose Kitchen she hosted Nomuzi Mabena aka Moozlie, and at the beginning of their chat she opened up about it.
“I actually hate that IT Girl era. You were so cool to me and you were not subscribing to that thing. There was a new age of stars that came along and they didn’t subscribe to it.
“I feel like myself, Minnie, Bonang, maybe even Zinhle — a lot of people — were just forced into this thing and we just wanted to be famous and be recognised for what we do.”
Pearl said falling into that category dumbed them down.
“It hid a lot of parts of me that I wanted to show that I would have my management say you can’t show that, you will lose this client, and now it’s completely switched to, be yourself and I’m like, you guys played us, I feel so played.”
Pearl started off in the industry as a presenter then went into acting and now has ventured into the hair and luxury alcohol businesses.
She played the lead role in Netflix's South African spy thriller, Queen Sono, and American series Quantico, among others.
She said her role had demonstrated the power of strong black African women.
“I have always been the face of the strong black African woman. It is not new to me. This series is reflecting all the women in Africa, strong black African women.”
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