Waldemar Schultz on How the SA Film Industry Has Evolved

Waldemar Schultz is a versatile South African actor with a career of captivating performances spanning several decades across film, theatre and television. Best known for his role as Kolonel Piet van der Bijl in Die Byl, Schultz has made a significant impact on the local entertainment industry in South Africa. In our interview, we look back at Schultz’s career and discuss how culture and technology has shaped the film industry in South Africa.

How has the South African acting industry changed over the last 30 years? What are the most significant shifts you’ve witnessed over the course of your career?

Technologically-speaking, there have been huge shifts. I never shot a TV series on film. My first TV series was 1994 with Woestynblom. And we were shooting digitally, but which wasn’t anything like what we do today. It was shot on Betacam cassettes – so it was a lot quicker. And with Woestynblom, just about anybody who was anybody in the industry was in it.

I had arrived fresh out of varsity… still studying my master’s and just blown away by this whole process. And they all said, “Oh, but we’re moving, we’re shooting so fast now”. We used to shoot four pages a day. And we were shooting seven, almost double what everybody was used to.

Nowadays, we shoot an average of 12 to 14 pages a day, sometimes over 20 pages a day, depending on the shoot and how many cameras you’ve got – it’s just insane. There’ve been a lot of technological advances that make everything a lot easier and quicker. You’ve got faster setup times from scene to scene, because everything is now wireless and battery-operated from the focus puller to the boom mic. There’s not as much cable spaghetti on set anymore – everything is digital.

The cameras are so ridiculously sensitive to light, you can conceivably shoot with a single candle. So you don’t have the massive lighting setups you used to have. But even so, we work at an incredibly difficult pace. Nowadays, it’s on the move – we don’t have the luxury of time.

Generally-speaking, because we don’t have the luxury of money, we don’t have huge amounts of cash to throw at our movies and TV. You’ll get on to set, get your blocking, give it a run or two, and you’ll go for one or two takes, and then you move on. Nothing like the seven, nine or even twenty takes. Some directors in the film industry go for way more than that. But I’ve got to say that it’s made South African actors, but especially South African crew very good at what they do. Everybody’s so focused and there’s no time for dilly-dallying. Creatively, I think it’s a bit of a pity, because you never really get a chance to discover or think of other options by your fifth or sixth or seventh take.

Can you share a story about a particularly challenging or rewarding role you’ve played? What made it so memorable?

I’ve got to go to Die Byl on that one, since we shot six seasons of it over 10 years? I think we started in 2013. So obviously, that remains particularly memorable to me. I’m extremely proud of every season of Die Byl and I’m proud of the character, who developed tremendously over the course of the series. I haven’t been the same person. I mean, it’s been a journey of 10 years so far.

I think season six starts early next year anyway and the core family has kind of remained the same. But it’s been amazing how people have changed, how the way that we work has changed. And I think it’s been amazing. But to date, I would say probably… magnum opus.

Is there a particular role or character you’ve always wanted to play but haven’t had the opportunity yet?

Yes, there are several. In particular, I would love to play Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s ‘Amadeus’. It’s always been a dream role of mine. And if I could sing better, I would really, really love to play Tevye Mostel in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at some stage.

I’ll cock up the singing. Although, no, Topol was very, very good. I grew up with Fiddler on the Roof, the movie and the soundtrack on vinyl. And I really, really, really love it. It’s probably a bit dated because people don’t have the concentration span to sit through such a long play anymore.

Where do you think young actors and filmmakers should be focusing their attention?

I’m sorry to say it, and I’m probably going to be shot and vilified. They need to be focusing their attention on the TV and film industry and diversifying as much as they can. So do art direction, act in another, try your hand at directing, do continuity, script supervision, makeup, tech, camera, sound… whatever.

Diversify, diversify, diversify. There is not enough money out there to keep an entire industry in business. It’s terrible because in a very real sense, it’s created an industry of hobbyists where everybody kind of leaves the industry and becomes a property salesman or a financial advisor or a street sweeper and just acts on the side as a hobby because the industry struggles to sustain us all.

I’ve been extremely lucky over a career that spans something like 30 years. Many times I’ve been in the right place at the right time. I’ve also sat on my butt at home for months at a time because I’m not in the habit of creating my own work.

The kids coming out of university now are very aware, they’ve got to be able to write, produce, direct and act in their own stuff. They’ve got to create their own work because the old style I grew up with in the industry with sitting, waiting at home for the phone to ring and your agent saying, “oh, I’ve got a lovely audition for you” is a pretty poor strategy.

Having said that, I don’t write off theatre. I hope that I will always be doing theatre. But shortly after having done a television series where I’ve got a few months grace, salary-wise, and you can afford to do theatre, it just simply doesn’t pay all that much. The pay scale in our industry is ridiculous, but that’s the subject of a completely different interview.

You had a Big Lebowski type role in Die Bloedhonde – can you tell us what it was like playing this character?

I think he’s probably the closest character to Waldi that I’ve played so far. There might be like smaller things that have come and gone or been forgotten, like a one day call here or there. I was kind of going for exactly that Big Lebowski feel. I am, in fact, and I have been since September 2009, an ordained minister or priest of Dudeism, which is a semi-jocular religion inspired by The Big Lebowski.

You can go online and get free ordination and you will instantly become a priest. I discovered the website in 2009 and I’ve been a priest ever since. So it was similar to me. I played him perhaps a little more, shall we say earthy? But he has a lot of Waldi elements.

Who are some of the most inspiring or influential directors or actors you’ve worked with? What did you learn from them?

Short answer, the most inspiring actors and directors are those that I can collaborate with and be creative with and allow the work to grow organically as a living beast.

Firstly, I’ve always said, I will stop doing what I’m doing when I stop learning. So I can say… with a few exceptions of some really great lecturers at varsity, I learned what I do and what I know from great actors and directors and other people involved in the industry. And I don’t want to name names because there are too many to mention.

But I’ll tell you what, the directors and actors that I work with, that I’m able to collaborate with creatively, that I can say, “hey, director, can we try this shot? Hey, actor, can we try this angle? What if we bring in this emotional aspect? Are you okay with this? I’m not comfortable with that move. Can we try this?” And the people that work with you and within the ridiculous time constraints we have, allow your process to be organic and grow into a different beast, which can make it unique and surprising rather than doing just the obvious.

It’s a trick you have to learn as you get older in the industry. Don’t always go for the obvious because you don’t have time to explore. You go home after a 12-hour day, learn your lines for your two, three, five or 31 strips for the next day, so you’re performance-ready when you’re in front of the camera. You don’t have time to explore… what if I say this 17 different ways, one different way on each take.

Have you faced any significant challenges or setbacks in your career? How did you overcome them?

I face significant setbacks every year when inevitably there comes a month where there’s too much month at the end of the money. And I have just built a little home for the first time in our lives. We’ve been married 28 years… and we’ve always rented. And all of our money is being pumped into the house. So generally when I finish up a job, I’ve got so many months that I can survive on that, maybe two or three or four months. So my biggest freaking setback is lack of stability within the industry.

What inspires you as an actor? Are there any specific themes or stories that resonate?

Wow. At varsity, I thought I was going to be a serious actor and I would only do really deep dramas that confronted and touched people emotionally and ask the difficult questions because that is what great art is. And towards the end of my university career, I had a lecturer who said: let’s do a show that’s just spectacle.

We did Brecht’s ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’. And I went, wait a second, there are a lot of other challenges other than just look at what we’re doing here. The work is done by other aspects of the theatre. It’s not all up to the actor. Look at what your lights can create. Look at what your script can create. Look at what your set can create. Look at what your costumes can create.

This production that made me realise, wow, there’s so many aspects of things that we focus on. So the point is, let’s not pull our nose up at everything or anything. Try comedy, try farce, try clowning, I don’t know, silly things. Do lowest common denominator, high energy stuff that people really love, whether it’s for television or theatre. Do the deep kind of drama. I guess the short answer to your question is no, there are not specific themes or stories that resonate.

My one prerequisite is there must be a story. There must be something, an element that can touch people, whether it is cerebrally or viscerally, that our voice, it’s great if one person sees something you’ve done, walks away and their life is changed in whatever tiny way… then it’s been worth it.

That inspires me as an actor. Before I go on stage, before every performance, I stand in the wings and I audibly say to myself, because we’re nervous, we’re always nervous… and I say to myself, just tell the story. That’s all you got to do. Just tell the story. Everything else falls into place.

What’s it like being married to an actor? Are there any unique challenges or benefits to both being in the same industry?

Now, luckily Ira has a drama school in Somerset West. She teaches from grade one to 12. She has learned to diversify and not wait for the phone to ring. So she literally does everything. And in a very real way, although she is also an actor, the way in how she approaches her work is what gives me the opportunity to do what I do, which is sit at home and wait for the phone to ring until it isn’t. And then it’s balls to the wall, 18 hour days, sometimes six days a week, 18 weeks on the trot kind of thing. Not often, but that’s what six seasons of Die Byl has been like.

So I don’t know if there are any, I think financially it could possibly be a unique benefit to both be in the same industry. Of course, it keeps us tied together. And every now and again, we get a chance to work together on little projects.

We haven’t done anything really major together. I think the closest we’ve come to working together is season five of Die Byl, where the character is ever-present and she has a lot of interaction with all the other characters. Not actually so much with me, but she was there and it was wonderful actually to have on set with me. We don’t often get to work together, but it happens every now and again.

What is your approach – do you have a particular method or philosophy that guides your acting work?

No, I don’t. And I view the method with skepticism sometimes you work from the outside in, sometimes you work from the inside out, sometimes your brain does all the work for you and the character is created and things just happen externally. Sometimes you need to start putting things on externally and go, oh, this is how I this shapes up. It really changes for just about everything I do. Most of my process is mental.

I don’t go and kill people to investigate what it’s like to be a murderer before I play a murderer or a cop who catches murderers. I don’t learn open heart surgery to play a doctor. So I’m not that kind of… we don’t have time. We don’t have money for that. And like I said, in the pace that we work, there’s generally not a lot of time for nitpicking and pulling things apart and really going into the teeny-tiny details. I’m lucky I have pretty good instincts and I generally understand what the writer wants.

So my approach is to tell the story as best I can in the most original way that I can. And this is something that I’ve taught acting students sometimes. I said, you can teach a parrot to talk. You can teach a monkey your moves. What makes your performance unique is what you and you alone bring to that character. So always trying to make it special, surprising, unique in a way that serves the script, not a whole bunch of surprising uniqueness for the sake of surprising uniqueness.

How has acting helped you grow as a person? What have you learned about yourself through your roles?

Acting is genuinely, genuinely not something I do. It’s something I am. It is my identity. Chiefly, I always say, I’m an actor and I’m an artist. And then I had kids and I said… okay, fatherhood is my identity. But close second behind that is actor. It’s who I am. I’ve learned just about everything I have through my roles, because good scripts are meant to confront your audience and you with the human condition… the challenges, experiences or even answers they might bring.

So, yeah, acting teaches you to observe, teaches you to observe humans. It teaches you to access your own emotional intelligence or emotional responses. It teaches you to be spontaneous… to think on your feet. Honestly, I am who I am because of my chosen career path.

The industry is in a state of flux with technological advances. What do you see as the future of acting?

So we’ve had strikes about people being replaced by AI images and blah, blah, blah. I feel, that you can’t tell the difference between camera footage and a human. It’s not that good. You always see a little glitch, a little something that says to you, that is not a real people. We’ve seen it with recreations of actors who had passed away, done by computers for movies, scanned in images.

Anyway, but it’s becoming more and more real. And if you look at all the stuff that Andy Serkis did, Gollum and Planet of the Apes and all these kinds of things, because it’s not human, we’re not quite as attuned to the little tiny things that tell us it’s a lie. I mean, those things are mind-blowingly realistic.

Do you remember the first time you saw Jurassic Park and that dinosaur foot stamped down in the mud and the skin rippled and the water dripped off it? Nowadays, I haven’t watched it in a long time, but it blew our minds at how realistic it was. And we are very fast getting to a point where you can no longer tell the difference.

So it’s going to move ahead at a tremendous pace. There is a question as to whether or not you will even need actors in the future. The other thing about the industry’s technological advances is how our content is consumed and how to monetise it because nowadays everything’s being streamed isn’t it?

So you’re not selling advertising and making money so there’s less money that’s going into your production and look thankfully it is becoming… it’s probably becoming cheaper to do what you want to do if you’re telling a relatively simple story.

The good news is that every student fresh out of film school can probably get hold of the equipment to make a movie. The bad news is that every student fresh out of film school can probably get hold of the equipment to make a movie. It seems, I say this with great reservation and I mean I’m being a little bit facetious about it, but it seems like it’s becoming too easy.

It’s kind of like the cell phone camera revolution that turned everybody into a photographer and photographers sat idly by going what is happening to my industry. So yeah it is you can you can shoot and whole feature films have been shot on cell phones for goodness sake. I’m trying not to be negative I hope, this is an actor answering this question, I hope that there will always be a need for humans to watch humans tell stories.