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Matshepo Maleme gets to play villain

After lengthy maternity leave actress Matshepo Maleme has jumped back in the saddle.

With a hot new role on the second season of e.tv telenovela Gold Diggers, award-winning Maleme is yet again proving why she is the local acting circuit's most precious hidden gem.

But finding her feet once again after such a hiatus wasn't a walk in the park for the mother of two.

The 36-year-old star went through countless auditions before landing her first post-pregnancy acting gig - a year after giving birth.

Already a proud mother to a five-year-old girl, Maleme welcomed a baby boy in April last year.

She went for auditions in August last year and after what seems like forever snagged her current role on Gold Diggers in June this year.

"Most of 2016 was a bit of a drag for me, but mid-year things started looking up," Maleme recounts.

"My hopes were very high, I knew something was coming, but it took a while.

"In my situation the dry spell was understandable and justifiable. I was pregnant and I had a little one.

"If I have a baby, if God gives me the strength and the patience, I always like to raise my baby up to one year before I can start hustling - just to bond because this industry by the time you get back on the horse, it gets hectic and you may never be there as much as you would like to."

Her ruthless portrayal of Cat not only marks her big TV comeback but is also the first time that she has played a villain.

She is in fine form portraying the arch-rival to Tina Jaxa's feisty character, May.

In one of their riveting on-screen scuffles this week, Cat lunges at May with a machete during a cat-and-mouse chase taking place in a veld.

It's those kind of melodramatic soap opera style cat-fights between the two ladies that have kept audiences glued to their TV screens.

"I've always known that I wasn't ready to play a villain all those years.

"So I remember when I gave birth I felt that now I'm a mother of two, I'm ready because I'm more in touch with my deepest emotions," Maleme shares.

"This role scares me; I mean, I play a sociopath. It takes a lot of brain power when you have to let go and switch to the opposite of what you are.

"I work alongside Tina Jaxa, who feeds me so well, which is the best gift you can ever get as an actor.

"I'm working with legends such as Clementine Mosimane, so when I walked on set the first time I thought 'are they sure that they wanted me?'"

We were first introduced to the Soweto-bred beauty as a waif 24-year-old ingénue in the 2004 SABC1 drama series, Bubomi Sana.

Her colourful CV includes roles in Muvhango, Isibaya and After Nine.

In 2013, she won a South African Film and Television Award (Safta) for her role in the movie A Million Colours.

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