Local actress shines on the big screen in lesbian-themed film

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Pictures from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5335244/ and Mad Moth Communications

Wits University dramatic arts graduate Altovise Lawrence, winner of the first season of reality show ‘Top Actor’, stars in a new lesbian-themed American film that opened in South Africa on 3 May.

The Other Side is a story that has three sides to it. This pre-wedding, modern-day love triangle stars Erica Hubbard, Brad James and Lawrence, a South African actress.

When Gem (Erica Hubbard) decided to invite her long-lost friend to be the Maid of Honor in her wedding, Allen (Brad James), her fiancé, had no clue he’d be meeting Kiya (Lawrence), a wildly outspoken lesbian novelist.

With a focus on family issues and LGBT acceptance, the film highlights the struggle that many people go through in learning to love and accept themselves for who they are instead of caving to familial pressures.

Lawrence has appeared in the feature films Blood Drive (2017) and Love by Chance (2017), the latter a co-production between South African filmmakers Dumi Gumbi (Mrs Right Guy, Dora’s Peace) and Cati Weinek (Mrs Right Guy, Soul City), and US-based director and producer Samad Davis, creator of Top Actor.

Her professional acting debut was in the James Ngcobo-directed play The Colored Museum (2014) which ran at the Market Theatre. Her first television appearance was a minor role as an interviewee on the SABC3 soap opera Isidingo, in late 2014. In 2016, Altovise was cast in the e.tv soapie Scandal! as Chantal, love interest to Stokkies.

Co-star Brad James, a former US Marine known for his role as Todd in the sitcom Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse, is a well-known comedic actor who has also appeared in dozens of television series and films, playing a vast range of characters from action hero, and misunderstood boy-toy, to the diabolical villain.

It’s always great to see local talent doing well abroad, especially on the rare occasions that we get to see them doing so on South African cinema screens. Don’t miss it!

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