Black Coffee, Nomzamo Mbatha, Zozibini Tunzi and More South African Guests | The Daily Show

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations thank you miss universe has it sunk in yet i don't think so i think this is like my almost a week now and yeah and i think i'm getting used to it because the first people would be like miss universe and i'll just continue going that's not me you dropped something is that me jupiter please miss universe but it is it is a surreal experience i mean like because you won miss south africa and then you go on this journey to you know to compete for miss universe and i mean you know it's amazing women from all around the world the competition has evolved over the years to become more about like what the women are thinking as well as how you look and what you want to do in the world so it is a challenging experience to be on like what was this journey what has it been like for you oh it's been interesting since i won with south africa and finding out that i would be doing miss universe as well it was incredible the support that i got from back home but it was challenging as well because i had a new look um that people were not used to and so um i got crowned and i got a lot of different responses but i was i was quite excited about it regardless of what was happening in what way tell me tell me about the responses because that's interesting because a lot of people might think that would be something that happens like in a western country or another but this was in south africa yeah you had one a predominantly black country and yet there were people who said to you hey we love you but but yeah so i first won and i got a lot of comments where you know a lot of people said oh is this the one this year she's so underwhelming um i got comments like um she's a downgrade from the others that we've had and this was only from people in in in my country as well um and then it got more international as people find found out that i was going to do miss universe and then international people as well started you know commenting on in and i think my most interesting was one was when i came to new york for the first time i think about four months ago um i came back to south africa it was quite it was late in the evening and i took a photo from my apartment and i was like oh such a beautiful night and a comment came in and i chuckled now but at first i was like what this guy says oh this photo is so black it's as black as you are miss black ugly south africa and i think yeah it's quite and i think it was in that moment where i was like i'm not even mad i'm not mad because i think it's just how society has labelled beauty to be it's just how we've been programmed to look at beauty that way you know the furthest you are from being fair um is the uglier you are and i just saw it as an educational moment because i remember putting out a post you know just speaking about it speaking about colorism speaking about racism speaking about how people need to see things in order to start believing in them right and that was that was a big thing especially for you and i think so many people who saw you being crowned miss universe was it was a moment where many people and this is what really interested me i was proud as a south african i was proud as somebody who's grown up on the continent but what really got me is how universally i mean for our for our planet many people said to see a dark-skinned woman win an accolade like this but then to see a woman with natural hair when this with her natural and that's and that's what a lot of people that's what a lot of people initially wanted you to change people were like why don't you get a weave why don't you straighten you're beautiful but why don't you just straighten your hair that must have been a challenge why didn't you straighten your hair why didn't you wear a wheel yeah because this is my hair this was the first question i gave people like you know because i don't think anyone tells other people to put on the weave so why why should i you know for at first people like was this a strategy i'm like to what to wake up and be myself and i was like no it's not a strategy i've had you know shot here for three years and i wasn't going to change because i was now stepping into a beauty platform because then that means i don't think my hair is beautiful if i'm gonna change it and so i decided to keep it you kept it and everyone is happy that you checked it you've also you've also kept many of the causes that you've been passionate about you know um a lot of the time beauty pageants are associated with a superfluous world but but as i've said over the years things are changing the focus is changing what people are trying to do is changing it and you've taken on a really powerful issue and that's been gender-based violence which is which is far from like a flowery issue that many people would want to tackle why gender-based violence and and what would you hope people would understand in and around this conversation you know for me i think my my my thing began when i won miss south africa and femicide and gender-based violence is very big back home and i realized that it's not only a south african thing it's a global issue because we have things like the metoo movement we have things like the time's up movement you know women are fighting all over the world to be safe again in in this world which is you know it's quite crazy to me to have to have movements where we're fighting just to be alive just to keep our lives and i like to say you know women are an endangered species those days i feel like one day we're just going to wake up and you know there's no women anymore i know right that's that's why i'm an ally that would be horrible that would be horrible yeah and so my thing is about gender-based violence is to bring in the men that's always been my message because people will ask women what do you think we should do to fight this and i'm like why are you asking me you know i'm not the perpetrator in most of the instances so why don't we call out on the people that are and so and that has been really beautiful because you have sparked a conversation not just in south africa but on all the platforms you've taken around the world and saying hey we need men to be a part of this conversation we need to be engaging men and saying hey here's how you can do better here's what you can do to be better here's how men can call other men out in making women safe because it's it's the men who are the perpetrators in in this case um you are a weekend to being miss universe yes but it is now a journey that is going to take you over the course of a year it will feel like a lifetime it will be over in a moment what are you most looking forward to what are you excited to achieve what are you what do you what do you just want to do in this period of your reign i'm so excited to travel the world i must say oh new york is so cold oh my god i can't oh when i got here i was like i'd really love to feel my toes one more time um yeah i'm so excited to travel the world i haven't really had the opportunity to travel before and i think this is i'm gonna be quite an interesting one for me i'm excited to have my messages and everything that i'm passionate about to just go across the globe and one thing i always say is i don't want to feel like when i step out of this crown that it was wasted i want to be responsible with it and now i have a platform of you know i have 2.5 million people thank you following me and yeah so i want to use that platform and whatever i do it must just be purposeful work you know but also to build my brand as well because when people ask me what is this for you personally for me i say it's the beginning of building generational wealth for my family because it's not it's not something that we've had in the past that is one thing that is one part of your story that i think a lot of people will be surprised by because you know it can often happen with the first time people see you you're wearing a crown you're wearing a beautiful gown or a dress and and people go like wow this has always been you but part of the reason many south africans were proud is because of the story that came before your victories and those you came from humble beginnings yes i do i grew up i come from a village console in the eastern cape uh yeah someone say yes like yeah i come from a village and you would know but you know they wouldn't know how how it is the eastern cape i think is one of the most impoverished places of of the country while i was fortunate enough to have a mother who's a school principal and my dad who worked at least i was able to go to school but things are quite different for other people who grew up there right and it's quite difficult to make it out of there and so i think because i grew up there and people saw me growing up there now you know on this universe it's it's it adds like an element of hope to people who feel like they couldn't have been able to do it before [Music] welcome to the show thank you for having me this is you know what it's truly truly truly one of my pleasures to have you on the show because you have taken the world by storm i remember when you first blew up in south africa you know everyone was just black coffee black coffee this guy this black black black coffee black coffee black coffee black coffee and i was like who is he what is it coffee is it a drink is there a new drink that's out what is going on i was like no there's a dj and he's huge and then you went from south africa and you went into the world and you've taken it by storm why do you think you have blown up as much as you have all over the world doesn't it sound like your story my story yeah no no no no you think so um no no no no no um [Laughter] [Applause] man it's resilience you know it's knowing hunger and knowing that you have experienced it and you don't want to go back there wow um it's working from nothing knowing that you have nothing to lose so whatever you gain is something um that that is what has kept me going that is what has gotten me to where i am today what i what i also loved about your journey and i've always enjoyed is that like in south africa and in africa and many countries around the world there was always um an instinct for people to aspire to create like an american or to or to create like a european what set black coffee apart for me was you made the music of africa the music of south africa and the world fell in love with that was that like a specific choice you made where you're like i'm not going to make european dance music i'm just going to make my music and it's going to be big in the world definitely and it hasn't been easy you know um because sometimes there's hype that comes with the name and then you get a big room right because the name is so big and then but the music is is so maybe too soulful for the room oh right right um so we've been through different phases trying to build uh that sound and um it took patience yeah you know it took a lot a lot of time it took a good team behind me and it took love for what i do man to to really push it really is soulful i remember at uh coachella i was so excited when i saw your name on the list of artists who are going to be performing and you know a lot of people think like when it was dance i remember my friends i was like guys let's go to black coffee and they were like what what is what is no i want coffee with milk that's like no again no because everyone thinks as soon as you say do you like black coffee people are like ah a bit of sugar dj black coffee and and so we went to we went to the tent that you were playing in yeah and my friend said to me he's like man i'm not a big fan of like edm i'm not a fan of dance movie i was like no it's it's different you're dancing to it but it's not because people always think of like dick that's what people think of yeah whereas your music has a and i'll never forget the whole tent was just like i mean you had like a thousand people just like bouncing together it was you know what i mean it was africa in the middle of california black white everyone dancing to your music that's what i love yeah no it was really beautiful it was really beautiful you you've done something really special for me though or in my opinion and that is you've taken the success of your music and you've used it to inspire a new generation in south africa you started a project where you are building a school yeah but i think more impressive you're building a neighborhood yeah what is that about and why um we we're trying to and i'm going to say we because i'm working with with other people it's myself it's nelson magamu who was here before right the artist yeah it's la duma uh mavolo who was coming right the designer yeah yeah you had he's coming right what are you warning me i'm telling you he's coming to this show [Laughter] um we we try to change the narrative about the continent where maybe it is our fault where we we always see africa as an inferior place um all the best things were on tv which means they were here in america or in europe and it took away so much from the continent and we're trying to reverse that and and and create a space in africa that will inspire africans to want to stay and create a future right it's powerful it really is powerful because you have you you have this initiative and it's called africa is not a jungle yeah and what i love about it is you say it's about africans creating for africans and not always looking to europe to create for them which is a powerful statement to make when you look at your journey as black coffee i mean you went out into a very competitive world djing is not like an easy thing to just break into especially when you have a different sound what happened to you dj what me djing yeah yeah i i used to dj i know i used i actually used to create music as well and then i sent you a few samples and nothing has i mean i'm glad you brought it up um but i mean i i sent a few no one has ever gotten back to me about mine is this water it's yeah i mean there's nothing in here but we can act like we're drinking just to get rid of the awkward situation but yeah what like what do you hope to achieve with the music around the world you know because i i've always been intrigued by the message that you have when you're playing your music we see you collaborating with people like drake we see you you know uh people like usha we see we see artists who you wouldn't even associate with this genre saying no i love black coffee because of his message and how it pertains to music as an art form what are you trying to accomplish all over the world with your music um africa has a voice and over the years i feel like that voice has diminished because of how the world has painted the continent you know one of the things that used to happen with me when i get bookings back in the day they would want to put like bongos and african masks on the flyer wow you know because i'm from africa right we all wear masks and have bongos you know so it's something that we really fought for from the beginning to say look we wanna play on the global stage right you know uh which is what you're doing right right right no um i would like to for the world to see that voice i would like for the world to know that we are capable um to be on the world stage this is why i continue to try and collaborate with the greatest artists being from africa though and still keeping the sound that i believe in right because we have that voice you know so i'm trying to create different platforms that will showcase that not just conversation but with action [Music] arts has always felt like it's been like a european thing yeah you know it's like that's art yeah and then it's like the africans make nice things they'll be like oh this is cute where did you pick this up you know but but but you're starting to shake that you're starting to change all of that you just came back from your own showing in paris you know where people like your artworks also all sold out yeah who is nelson macamo and and why do you think you're experiencing this success in the art world um wow i mean i don't even know where to start um i mean art has always been part of me right growing up i mean i grew up i was born in a small town in south africa um it was quite interesting because growing up toys were never actually an option as a black child right so you had to create your own choice so my foundation of art started from there i started actually making toys from clay and then from them studying from primary it was quite interesting because i mean south africa as you know in the 80s post-apartheid yeah um were limited in terms of choices art was never an option yes so as a child um you were told to either become a doctor you know you become a teacher a lawyer yes that's what your parents hoped you would do that's what my parents were actually hoping for me to do drawing is not an option for like a young black child that's exactly that yeah but i was actually a job i was fortunate enough to have a mother who truly believe in my talent that from an early age she truly supported me right so i had a strong supporting um figure from an early age right and but it was also quite interesting because she never saw that as something that i would also make a living out of it as well you've made more than just a living now i mean you've gone from being a successful artist in south africa to a world-renowned artist i mean you know people come to south africa to view your art to purchase your art and i mean everybody you know from you know from from from alicia keys through to to oprah winfrey i mean i remember oprah telling the story of how she came to your building yeah and you have a building in the hearts of johannesburg in south africa and there's no elevator actually that was quite of one of the most interesting story because um i was on the fourth floor yes there was no elevator right so she had to take the steps from the first from the ground floor to the fourth floor right she wasn't happy at all because my favorite one when oprah tells her she's like oprah doesn't climb stairs for anybody that oprah was like no she's like where's this guy why is he not coming with the arts and nelson's like no this is where the studio is but but she came to you and she fell in love with the art and as many people have why do you think it connects with so many people from different walks of life because so many people would think of african art as african art but it's like no this is art yeah and you happen to be south african i think like one of the privileges that i actually had was i mean i studied in a community-based college right and i applied for residency which i went to italy for three months i think having to have an experience of outside south africa that has actually helped me to sort of view things not for only from a an african perspective but to actually look at things from a global perspective as well right i started creating work more like a language a universal language in a way that um it was quite interesting because the first thing that i did was to use a child as a subject in my work yeah we've seen some of those amazing pictures you've got these images of children and i think on the cover of time they called it the art of hope yeah you know it it because it it it showed south africa and africanness in a very different way for so long we've seen art that makes it it's all about poverty it's all about pain it's all about suffering and here these images you can you could they're open to interpretation but they feel hopeful they feel young they feel like children who live in africa and the scale of them is also huge i mean we have some some pictures of you you know like working on some of your artworks you you have giant giant pictures that you create why the children why their eyes why the glasses what does that symbolize um you know i think another thing that i actually realize as time goes i realize that um you know and art i mean when you look at art doesn't matter i mean i got inspired by picasso which he was none non-african right then you start realizing that and ironically picasso was inspired by africans that's that's exactly that as well but then you realize that there was something there that says that as people we don't necessarily in terms of culture i mean the way we live the world today we all sort of aspire models to the same thing as well right um i had to use a reference that was too close to me which was a child an african child and the reason why i also did that was the fact that if you look at how the image of an african child was portrayed globally it was portray either hungry disadvantage and all of that as well but if you've been to africa and you realize that none of those things it's almost like a taboo yes and um i had to go back and actually reintroduce how the way we are as africans to actually say that we are more or less the same as any other person in the world as well right success etcetera and we're also inspired by beauty right we follow culture we love music um today when you go to africa you have a child who's got a smartphone that actually tells you in terms of where we are as people as well my thing and my view and how i've actually also drawn the inspiration from the world the advantage of traveling has made me to also look at my environment as a source of inspiration as right and why did i actually also had to blow them and make them so giantic is to actually bring them up close and personal and when i did that i realized that it actually also created a dialogue that as human beings we experience the same thing we experience the same joy we all sort of have we go through the same experiences in life as well we go through the same political we go through the same struggles as well so as a young african who actually been given an opportunity to sort of like rewrite history and reintroduce our image to the world i had to go back and look at myself and say if i was if i were to sort of represent ourselves globally what language would i use i had to actually use a universal language i hate to use um a child who is close to me as a point of reference but that child is like any other child in the world we don't actually choose to be born in certain spaces as well actually for me it was such a blessing to be born in a continent that has so much history that allowed me to actually tell that history what is actually currently happening as well take the very same inspiration that i've actually thrown globally combine it and putting it in in in in an artwork as well [Music] welcome to the daily social distancing show it feels good it feels good to have somebody pronounce my name and surname very correctly i practiced for a very long time just so you know okay it was like i said the whole day i was like and then i practiced and i practiced when i practiced yes and i just sat there and i was like i'm gonna practice how are you i'm so good all the more better for being here oh are you kidding me are you kidding this is an amazing day for me because not only do i get to celebrate you as a fellow south african i get to celebrate your success in the most successful movie of the year the movie that broke amazon prime coming to america congratulations on not just being part of the biggest film but also being one of the breakout stars i mean do you ever take a moment to think about how amazing that is eddie murphy james earl jones arsenio hall wesley snipes you know leslie jones jermaine fowler and so many people are like man that nom zamo she's amazing it is crazy it is crazy i mean honestly it's been an out-of-body experience for the longest time but i think you would be able to let me know you know how to you know go about this hollywood thing because having to call eddie murphy eddie yeah you know when eddie came on to set or arsenio and it's not a senior hall or wesley so yeah it's been an amazing journey honestly and a very incredible out of body coming together like a full circle moment for me your coming to america story was was almost as crazy as the original coming to america's story because you had to audition for this movie you weren't in the country when you were doing it walk me through the story of how you came to be one of the stars in the movie so it's crazy i'm in the uae i literally flew from new york to switzerland to the uae by the time that i'm in the uae i'm supposed to fly back to south africa because i'm supposed to go and host the south african music awards yes right i get a call the night before my flight from my agent and he says you want to be in the room for this one you can send a self tape but you want to be in the room and i was like listen i've spent so much money flying in and out these auditions are not working out and i'm not going to spend another penny and he said well it's for a lead in coming to america and i'm like well i don't know hello so i literally uh changed my flight from flying out of abu dhabi to south africa to a new flight from dubai to uh l.a and so i cancelled that and i drove from abu dhabi to dubai caught a flight from dubai into la and i i made them to unto um the officers of leah butler and i did my audition it it is quite uh a feat you know because i mean getting into a an american film is already a big jump getting into a you know a major marquee film is another jump but i mean to be seen as one of the breakout stars of it is the ultimate ultimate ultimate celebration of what you have done and you know like eddie for instance even said he's like you have the most authentic accent he's like he loved how you were doing the thing you know you play um jermaine fowler's baba in the in the story you know and the love interest and and what's cool about the story is you don't you don't know which way it's going you're like are we gonna stay in zamunda or we're gonna go back to america but but here you are in this world was it was it was it interesting for you when you were getting the job because i mean a lot of people don't know this especially like americans they just go to other countries and they work you know you can go to another country and you can work and if you're you're british you can just go to another country in new york but as a south african there's such a big process behind like did you you had to go to get a visa and everything right you had to they had to approve you to come and do the job i mean first of all you are coming into america with a tourist visa right and then you move from being a tourist to being somebody that's employed in america so it's a whole process i mean i remember even when uh you know i got the call to make it back to the states it was like you need to come back you need to sign papers so that we can give you you know your official 01 visa and go back to the embassy in south africa to have that vita stuck in your passport and then come back let me tell you i was like i really genuinely deserve this movie i've worked really hard for it did anybody say anything to you at the at the visa place because i remember one of my favorite things about about the process americans don't realize you do this so to everyone who's watching who doesn't understand this is how it works for a lot of countries around the world if you're going to come work in america you you can come in for the interview and then americans can accept you for the job but then you have to go back to your country so that americans in your country can stamp your passport and put a visa in your passport so that you can come back to the country which is america so that you can get the job and what happens in between is you get you get like you meet some of the most interesting people in the process so on my side i'll never forget the the the guy who was working you know immigration he looked at my visa and he's like yo man yo your visa says you got an 0-1 and i said yeah and he said man o-1 means you the best of the best i said well i'm just good at what i do and he's like nah oma means you the best you like the michael jordan of what you do and i said well i don't i don't know about that he's like what do you do i said i'm a comedian like you to michael jordan of comedy i was like i don't even know what he's like hey man if i see your jokes and they're not funny you're going back to your country you hear me and then he stamped my passport and i came in so i wanted like did you meet anybody like because they always say interesting things it is i'm thinking right now i'm cracking up because i'm thinking you got a threat and i had a threat as well because she saw my she saw my own and she said it says paramount and i said yes she says well what do you do and i said i'm an actress oh which movie and she and i said oh coming to america and she was already you know i said coming to america and she stopped writing she looked up she said don't mess it up no one wants to no we want to make a good movie movies on your shoulders girl you don't if i'm watching that movie and i'm gonna come find you and take your passport and go you're going back home please don't please don't i like it um no it's it's it's only been a success story it's been beautiful people have been celebrating you back home you know everyone's excited and say kaya they're just like oh nom zamo you've done it for us um it's a new journey now and i know it's scary and it's a crazy time to come to america during a pandemic but you have dreams you have hopes you have aspirations what are you hoping to do now that you're in this new world you know building on the success from south africa into the us um honestly just to continue to do the work that i do um to continue to work with the united nations the refugee agency to continue to make more films uh right now i want to get into producing as well i think i'm in that space just like that creative what are you what are you doing for life though like because i this is a question i love asking people who've just come to a new country like so do you have any favorite things you do in la do you have like because it's pandemic plus a new country so what is what is your like normal life now do you have any normal you know honestly you when you come to america i think you've you've said this before about the eating so there's the first couple of months of just eating and thinking that it's not going to go anywhere and then you want to go home and everyone says my goodness america is so good to you your cheeks so i try not to eat a lot um but also you know i'm i i love chicken sandwiches i didn't think i love chicken sandwiches as much as i do i enjoy chicken sandwiches what's the most american thing that uh oh oh but the the crossing of the street was kind of very hard for me in the beginning honestly you're looking the wrong way yeah definitely i was trying not to die in america yeah it's very expensive to transport a body palm so uh yeah there was just those those kind of things that i was going through but i honestly it's very hard to come into a new country as a person who's on the other side yeah i had a lot of culture shock a lot of culture shock but there's a lot of learning as well so i mean what do i do i haven't hiked i haven't done i haven't done the the normal um touristy things i haven't gone to the hollywood walk of fame so you know i'm taking it slow oh i love it so what you need to do is i'll give you a few tips for la what you need to do you need to get like a really nice dog and then you need to go for a hike but then you need to dress as if you didn't care but you have to dress as if you're on a runway and then you go for the hike and then make sure you don't sweat but make it look like you were working out exactly and do i need to have a bottle of water as well but it must be like a like a like a special type of bottle it like it must be a bottle that says something about you as a person very natural but not too natural and then like yeah and then and then just enjoy la be yourself but don't be yourself just be who you who you think you should be and you'll have a good heart for me i don't think i can be able to do it and as i don't know can i tell you no but can i tell you the thing for real though is that's the great thing about what you're doing what a lot of people do is you are you and people are loving you for that i think that's why you're successful in the movie you play the character fantastically and i think when people meet the real nom zamo in real life they go like wow she's even more of a princess in real life so uh i think you're gonna experience more success more joy and you have no risk of somebody taking away that passport thank you so much for joining me on the you and i can't show hello see you when the lockdown ends yes yes yes please stay safe okay all right and we're so proud of you yes thanks trevor bye welcome to the daily social distancing show hi trevor how are you i am fantastic because i'm speaking to somebody who is not just from my home country but somebody who has also moved to america and is making a name for themselves i'm less happy for your success and more happy that i have somebody to share south african stories with and eat south african food that's that's really what i'm excited about but um congratulations first of all i'm not just making it into the industry but making it in such a big way what has that journey been like and please tell me how on earth did this happen for you yo i don't even know where to start um but i heard of the underground railroad in november 2018 i was in new york for the international emmy awards and i did like um the first audition then and i sort of just forgot about it because i didn't think anything of it i was like this is my first international audition i don't even have the accent right it's just like go there do your best and then i came to l.a in top of 2019 and then i was able to make it into a room with francine maisler who was the casting director for underground railroad and then at the end of that night i got a call from my manager telling me that it was a a call back and that barry wanted to meet me the next day barry jenkins barry jenkins and i'm like point them you know first of all call back how when i don't i don't even tell i wasn't like emotionally mentally you know like just yeah and so i met barry the next day at the end of it he actually looked at me and he said you are the character i'm not saying you got the role but you know and then in those two weeks between meeting barry and the test shoot i read the book like twice in preparation for that and i was like you know what i want to do this but i don't know if i have it in me to serve the character as authentically as she needs to be served but i'll just do my best and then the rest is up to barry so what makes the story so so so difficult to tell is you're talking about one of the most painful periods in american history and that is slavery when you're playing this character it must have felt strange and yet familiar to be an african woman playing a story about africans who are displaced and put into america what was that journey like for you in building and creating that character so for me most importantly i realized very early on that i had a lot of unlearning to do in order to learn the truth and the same that what i knew about the enslaved body in america was shaped by media and a very white male gaze so that serves a particular agenda so i had to throw all of that away and completely you know be open to new information barry sent me stuff to read he sent me audio tapes to listen to audio tapes of former enslaved people and when i heard them like the sound and how they spoke that something in me really shifted because here i was listening to people who are 75 years old you know 90 years old but they sound 16. and the english that they speak is broken and it made sense because they were being taught english for instruction and not english for conversation right right really struck me is that the broken english that they spoke is that in english that if you went to south africa today or parts of africa that's how people in the rural areas or in the townships speak today so when that hit it stopped being an african-american story and became a story about africans in america and so would hit much closer to home for me what was the hardest thing for you to do in in playing the character and trying to tell that story as authentically as possible you know man i think the hardest thing to do was actually outside the world of the character which was keeping a balance and you know being aware of who tusso is and who the character was because it's very easy to take on what the character is feeling and have it bleed into your everyday life especially because what's happening in the story is still very relevant to what is happening today you know and the character is shaped by this huge sense of loss rejection abandonment and she kind of has to fight to to get that what she wants which is ultimately her freedom and you know being a black woman being a black body in the world today i'm not even going to say just america those are the same type of struggles that we see you know it's just it happens to be in a different time so i had to be very very self-aware would when you're feeling this way that's the residue of the character and not just yeah but otherwise on set i always felt protected i completely trusted barry when he pushed me i knew it's because he knew i was capable of doing it you are now pushing yourself um to explore new horizons in the us i mean you already lining up projects and one of the most exciting that we've seen is that you are going to be teaming up with none other than viola davis herself tell me a little bit about that and um how how that came about and what you're going to be doing in that in the very first audition i was already working with the director gina prince by the way she was you know was a whole working session stretching me but then she did something to me she said at the end of it she says good luck and i said no you can't say good luck because now imagine going to an interview and then they say good luck with all your other interviews it means for me i was like but i want you to be my good luck we must work right right you know yeah and then i think a few days later we had a meeting and i got a chance to meet ooh viola and i absolutely loved it because from the interviews i've seen of her her processes my process and i was like i'm going to learn a lot from her if i get to work with her and then eventually we were able to do the test shoot and then ta-da we're shooting it in south africa it's gonna be awesome i'm excited oh well they they you i feel like you've achieved the ultimate goal you come to america you make it in america and then you find a way to make the american production go shoot in south africa and look at that you've just got a free round trip congratulations [Music] [Applause] i am so happy to be here i don't think you understand how excited i am i know i am not afraid to share this when you won your academy award i remember i was sitting in i i owned a tiny little volkswagen golf and i was in it and they had announced that you won the oscar and i started crying and i was like she's so good she's so like all of south africa and i was like she's so amazing and so golden is so good thank you i said exactly the same thing when you got this you cried as well and i said he's so amazing he's so cool thank you very much for being here wonderful to have you here happy to be here uh you are a bona fide action star i mean atomic blonde is based on a graphic novel you spent what five years developing yeah this story for those who have no clue what it's about uh real quick what is atomic blonde all about it's about a mi6 agent who gets sent into berlin five days before the wall falls and she's supposed to just go and recruit up a colleague's body and bring the body back and then she gets kind of caught up trying to find this list and uh and all sorts of action ensues yeah action ensues is an understatement i have never seen more people being kicked in my life like this is just excessive kicking it's amazing you are kicking them by the way i like i've i've seen you kick ass in a movie but not like this you you uh you did a lot of your stunts yeah is this is this like a new thing you just don't like how you like an old thing i feel like south african girls are just tough there's something in the water in south africa right cholera no that's not true that's not true we actually have some of the best water in the world that's not true some of the rivers some of the rivers have a problem but the water is good let's change gears for a moment and talk about the work that you do off-camera um you have a foundation that has been really successful working in and around south africa and in africa the charles duron foundation that you you you work with uh people to help and fight the scourge of hiv and aids uh i mean we we joke about that all the time and it's funny because back home we joke about it more than people are comfortable with america no because i think part of it has been like we don't we're trying not to stigmatize you want to turn the light on in the black room yeah we don't want it to feel like the thing that people are whispering about or nobody's talking about so i get that i think sometimes you have to do we're looking at the work now do you feel that people are still paying attention to issues that are happening in third world countries or do you think now that trump is turning america into a third world country people are more focused on what's here do you still have a tension in what you're doing i might i might have to bring my work back here the foundation moves um look south africa is unfortunately uh the hardest hit when it comes to hiv aids still today but we're also you know it's a virus and it's still um very much alive in in america um it kills a lot of adolescents in america and so i think it's a big mistake to think that we've come this far and you know we have medications and arvs and everything's going to be okay it's a virus and if it comes back it might come back roaring and our bodies might not be taking to those arvs anymore so i think that it's a big mistake to kind of be complacent right now when it comes to aids let me ask you one final thing uh as a fellow south african i love it when you say that as a fellow south african uh as a fellow south african i've always wondered you know you came to the us at a different time but i always wondered if you had a similar experience of people wondering what south africa is and africa is i know that i had some people look at me and go like africa africa and be like yeah yeah i'm from africa and they're like huh not not like egypt or algeria and i'm like oh no africa like just africa africa yeah but you you don't look like like what many people would think they would find in south africa yeah i get the not sweden sweden um yeah i mean i think it's strange for people to see a white girl say she's from africa right there we yeah there are white girls in africa too um and we have the booties to prove it but i always get i don't know if you get this i a lot of times i get so did you grow up with zebras in your backyard yes did you get that a lot i did and then one day i i i was i fumed that someone was like that's not what it is we don't just have zebras running around and we don't have and then the next day in the news there was a story of a zebra that was blocking traffic on the freeway and i was like that's an isolated incident that's never happened before we are about much more than that yes we do have the zebras yes but not all the time yes exactly not all the time uh of the two things i just have to ask for for those back home what would you say is the biggest thing you miss about south africa because i mean we get that you're a hollywood star a list the work is where you are but what is the one thing you go like man one thing is tough i mean i it smells like i miss all the food i really do i i this is going deep yeah and pop and sauce and all of that all of that but you know i think i'm lucky i get to go back at least once a year if not twice a year because of my foundation and then i just pig out but you know i there's something in the soil there there's something uh in the air there's something in the people that you just can't find anywhere else [Music]

Channel: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Views: 492,119

Rating: 4.9194288 out of 5

Keywords: the daily show, trevor noah, daily show with trevor noah, the daily show episodes, comedy central, comedians, comedian, funny video, comedy videos, funny clips, noah trevor, trevor noah latest episode, daily show, trevor, news, politics, Black Coffee, Nomzamo Mbatha, Zozibini Tunzi, Nelson Makamo, Thuso Mbedu, charlize theron, south africa, daily show interview, daily show throwback

Id: oG5Zc7EUPh8

Length: 44min 33sec (2673 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021