WATCH: Two South Africans find each other, love 'by chance'

Love By Chance, a film about two South African aspiring actors living in Atlanta, Georgia, opens on Friday. In it, Bailey Kingston (played by Altovise Lawrence) and Chance Crawford (Atandwa Kani) meet – by chance – at an audition and begin a romance that really gets tested.

It’s a film that showcases the hardships of the acting world and the joys that can come from it if people believe in themselves, and the value of not giving up on their dreams or on the people they love.

In Love By Chance, Lawrence plays a woman who is South African, looks black, has a black mom but only speaks English and Afrikaans.

When I catch up with Lawrence, she admits that that role really does mirror her own life.

“We might not have given you the back story of the parents who would name their children these names,” she explains. “But I don’t play coloured. I am coloured. In real life, my first language is Afrikaans and then English. My parents are both coloured.

“In real life, my name is Altovise and I don’t know what it means but that’s my name. Lots of people grapple with that - like why isn’t your name Chandre or stereotypical things they attach to certain race groups.

"I think that’s where imagination comes in. You can make up your own mind what race you think Bailey’s father is.”

Aside from that conundrum, the film is quite interesting in that it takes a look at the ups and downs of this industry.

I ask Lawrence what it was like to have to put a bit of her experiences on to the screen.

She says, “The more I listen to Atandwa, the more things make sense. He was like, don’t get into character, let the character get into you. When it came to this script, it was so close that I couldn’t distinguish between the two of us (the character and the actress). That was an aha moment for me in my career.

“It wasn’t difficult portraying Bailey - it was such a reality check because I really am Bailey on a broader scale.

"Not a lot of people see the breakdowns and the mess that goes on behind the scenes and I had to breakdown for everyone to be able to see that. Everything we went through in the movie shows the real struggles that actors go through.

“It’s so hard balancing life, love and your career because we aren’t nine-to-fivers. We work 14 hour days and it takes such a toll on your body. It also takes a certain amount of courage to be able to do what we do and then still have to worry about whether people will like it or not.

"I’m still scared, all these years later. The same people who criticise us on screen would never be able to look at themselves like that. But that’s comforting for me.”

Before Lawrence won the acting competition Top Actor (which this film is a collaboration project of), she still had to audition and face rejection.

“I manage rejection much better now than before,” she shares.

“A few years ago, I would just cry. But I’ve learnt to understand the business of the industry. Sometimes it’s not me. They might have known who they wanted from the beginning.

"I am also very aware of my talent and very in tune with what I can offer so now it doesn’t feel like a personal attack any more.”

In fact, she has been having some very interesting auditions in the past two years.

“But it’s very interesting auditioning for international pieces. I auditioned for a series called Blood Drive which is coming out in June or July in America. I was 25 at the time and auditioning for a 40-year-old hardened sergeant.

“It’s like Mad Max. It’s sick and violent. It was so far out of my comfort zone. As scared as I was, I knew I was going to do this. I auditioned, got the call back, auditioned again and got the role. I liked the vision.”

Speaking of visions, it was quite visionary for Love By Chance to focus on the beauty standards of the film world.

Often in the movie, Bailey is faced with the fact that she has to wear a wig to look like all the other actresses in order to have a chance at booking a gig.

“Hair politics is a real thing,” Lawrence sighs. “We deal with it, as women of colour, on a daily basis. We’re in work environments where your hair that grows out of your head the way it does is looked at as unruly.”

She continues: “Westernised ideas of beauty have impacted Africans in a heavy way. We need to unlearn and learn again the love of self.

"That being said, no one is knocking wigs - that’s a great protective hairstyle. But in this industry, it does feel superficial at times. We don’t just want to see wigs. We don’t have enough people who look like us on TV. Now, we have black girl magic and all that but the industry is still very superficial.”

With that said, Lawrence continues to bring her whole self to auditions and we will be seeing her on our big and small screens more often.