Gavin Hood: Living in the West, Roots in Southern Hemisphere, Relives Presley Chweneyagae

Spending time with Gavin Hood and chatting about his prolific career was scintillating. It was apparent that in spite of his humble talk, I was in the company of someone whose career was unique and full of finesse. Above all, it was obvious that the paths that he chose to walk down would continue to open up before him and, in turn, to the audiences who get to watch and see his work.

Hood, who wrote and directed “Tsotsi,” winner of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2005, has lived in South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom. However, it is in the United Kingdom that he has set up home where he gets to work while walking his dogs, in a manner that he believes would not be possible in South Africa or the United States.

He says: “In South Africa, one is too afraid to walk; in America, if you walk on someone’s land, someone might pull out a shotgun and say, ‘Get Off My Land.’ But, in England, there are public footpaths that cross people’s farms, move through forests, and you can walk for tens of miles. You are allowed to walk across what is essentially private land.”

In spite of this, Hood loves all three countries for different reasons. “I love South Africa for its unbelievable natural beauty. I love it for its people and the diversity of its people. I love America for its ‘You can do it’ and ‘The sky’s the limit’ attitude.” It’s safe here, but what’s missing is the dynamic pulsing energy that South Africa has. South Africans are full of joy.”

He adds that his emotional roots are very much in South Africa, because that is where he was grew up until his 30’s.

Best known, perhaps, for his role as a director, the Oscar winner is also a scriptwriter, producer and actor. Reflecting on the many acting roles he has played, Hood says that the most meaningful role he played was when he was Lady Macbeth at the age of 13 at an all boys’ school.

“It was quite difficult being a boy in an all-boys school playing this feisty female character. It really allowed me to see the world from a very different perspective. It opened a portal and that’s a conversation for my psychologist,” he adds, with a coquettish laugh, quite unlike the ruthless and ambitious Lady Macbeth.

With a career with huge milestones, both local and global, the South African filmmaker, during our conversation, acknowledges the enormous impact that “Tsotsi” and Presley Chweneyagae had in shaping his career.

“Tsotsi,” an adaption of Athol Fugard’s novel with the same title, is a gritty apartheid-era crime narrative set in Johannesburg. Hood points out that the mother and father of the baby, whose car was hijacked, do not exist in the book. Also, the carjacking was an addition to Fugard’s original story.

Revisiting the adaptation process, Hood says: “The only question of each piece as a piece of art is does it effectively capture the essence. So, when you’re adapting, your job is not to be “faithful” to the book; your job is to be faithful as an artist to the medium that you are working in. In this case, it’s the spirit of Tsotsi and his psychological struggles and his journey.”

Hood recalls Fugard’s remarks on watching the film: “Gavin, I’m so moved. I know you made a lot of changes but thank you for staying true to the spirit of Tsotsi.”

The death of Presley Chweneyagae on May 25, 2025, of natural causes was a shocker, to say the least, to the South African entertainment industry. As an actor, “Tsotsi” was the breakout role that catapulted him to international stardom. This might not have been if Hood had not crushed the initial idea of outsourcing Tsotsi’s lead role to an American big name.

Advocating for a local actor, Hood invited casting director, Moonyeen Lee (Feb 1944 – July 2020), to join the production. Lee, as he recalls, attended every community theatre project and was on the lookout for young up and coming talent. One day, she said that she thought she had seen the person who could play Tsotsi, in a play.

Chweneyagae was brought in for an audition and, in Hood’s words, “Presley felt it deep inside and he had what every actor really needs, which is a deep empathy and a great ability to find emotional truth in an imaginary moment.”

On this quality, which Chweneyagae embodied, Hood posits: “You need to be emotionally truthful, but you also need to be interesting to watch and make imaginary choices beat by beat, moment by moment and some people just have this innate skill and deep compassion and empathy for man and that’s what Presley had. He would be fun, naughty, and crazy but when you focused on work, it was as if he could just turn a switch and connect with that truthful place and connect with his character.”

As a result, Hood reveals, the choice to go with Presley was not based on him being a handsome chiseled GQ model type actor but rather based on his sheer acting talent and his wonderful presence.

Lee also discovered Terry Phetoe. For Hood, Phetoe was very much the adult to Presley’s bumbling almost teen out of control incompetence. He adds: “I think the two of them together have this extraordinary connection, where she is the braver adult in the room, and doesn’t allow this young out of control boy to bully her. It’s an incredible dynamic.”

Hood sums up the significance of this collaboration, “I think those scenes, when he stumbles in with the gun, you can imagine if that were an older 30 year old hard core gangster: the dynamic would have been very different! Sometimes, difference is not worse, but it would have been a different film and, we’ll never know, because I didn’t make that film. I made a film with Presley and Terry. That was the film that literally changed all of our lives: my career, and their careers. I’d like to think it did something for South African film. I’m so thankful to Paul Raleigh, Moonyeen Lee and Presley and Terry that, between a culmination of people, we brought authenticity to that film.”

Hood believes that “Tsotsi” is one of those magical experiences where the right energy behind the making of the film is what made it special: from the producers and the actors. “I think hearts were in the right place and that is why it has this feeling of authenticity, and I think that, if it wasn’t for finding Presley, I don’t know if any of us would have had the results that we had.”

Another factor for Tsotsi’s and Chweneyagae’s success was the latter’s ability to articulate the film. As the lead actor showcased at film festivals, he did not lose the audience. Nostalgically, Hood says: “Presley was great in this setting. We would do a screening. The audience, generally, would love the film and then, you would go on and answer questions and, I can tell you that after those questions, they loved the film more because they loved Presley. I hope I did my contribution too. But we were a good double act and Presley always answered sincerely, warmly and with humor.”

Hood, with a somber tone of voice, says, “I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I’m 20 years older than Presley and I’m still here and Presley is not. It just doesn’t seem right.”

Hood enjoys the privilege of “working” whilst walking his dogs, and explores his multi-faceted artistry, while attempting to answer authentic questions in a true voice as possible. Rest assured, though, that he has several interesting projects in the pipeline that, at this stage, he’s only prepared to hint at.

“Films take a long time to make; stories take a long time to write. You need to be genuinely interested in what it is that this story is exploring to sustain you through that period. If you author a story that involves ethical or moral dilemmas that you yourself are struggling with or struggling to have an opinion about, then you’ll be motivated to keep researching, writing, and trying to make it interesting for others. If you’re not interested yourself and you’re just knocking something out, it’s unlikely to be interesting for others,” Hood declares.