Fitness fanatic, martial artist, accomplished singer, songwriter, and musician, Clint Brink is best known to South African television viewers for his tough-guy roles in the hit soapies, Backstage and Generations.
But he owes his raw, natural talent as much to his formative years in a rough neighbourhood in Paarl in the Boland, where he learned how to think quickly on his feet in situations “where you are scared to be yourself and scared to look different”.
That mental agility also helped to earn him his first TV role, when he cunningly used the name of a fellow actor’s agent to sneak his way into an audition. On the big screen, Clint made his name for his gritty performance as a Cape Flats gangland boss in the drugs-to-riches drama, Dollars & White Pipes.
But he’s really just a “mama’s boy” at heart, Clint tells Ruda in this revealing interview, in which he reflects on the demands of stardom, his happy home-life with former Miss Namibia, Steffi van Wyk, and the personal tragedy that forever changed his life.
Transcript:
R: Hello, and welcome to another session of The Change Exchange. Our guest today, Clint Brink. Actor, musician, athlete, you say?
C: Yes.
R: What’s the most important one?
C: The most important one I would say is the one that I didn’t mention, which could be humanitarian, philanthropist. Mama’s boy, I think that’s a good one.
R: Okay, well, we’ll get there. And you’re saying that you’re training very, very hard at the moment? What is it for?
C: Well, at the moment my wife and I decided we wanted to achieve a few things in the year, and one of our goals were standing on stage and competing in a fitness competition. So we got ourselves coaches, we were training hard and we are about five days out of the competition. So it’s been three months of dieting, three months of going to training twice a day, six days a week. Low calories, little bit of irritation in the house, not a lot of sleep, but overall things are looking good.
R: Why does one do something like that?
C: For me, personally, when I got into aesthetics – when I got into sport – I just felt a need to challenge myself outside of what I’m used to challenging myself in. I got so comfortable, and I think that a lot of people also got comfortable just seeing me as an artist or seeing me as a musician and I needed something to balance that out for me. As an actor or a musician, when you write a song or you’re on set, there’s always room for … you know, it’s always based on feeling. How you feel about the scene, how you interpret the scene, the feeling that you get from other actors, and when I started training – when I started training people – when you help develop people, you need to have good symmetry – you have to have good balance. You have to build everything from the bottom up and make sure that everything inside is also working properly, and I found that …
R: Do you mean your physical training and your being in the world and in life needs to be in balance?
C: Yes, for me it’s all the same thing. I don’t try and disconnect it. It’s important for me that the physical goes with the mental and the spiritual so that you can have a good experience in life. But what I wanted to say was with the training, how I got into the training was that I felt that the entertainment industry-side is so based on feeling, that there’s lack of principle, sometimes. Where an athlete – whether you’re tired or whether you’re hungry or you don’t feel like a principle forces you to push through and find a way to achieve your goal and success … So I thought it would be a good thing for me to have that counterbalance, you know, to anchor me in the entertainment industry, and just to remember why I do it, while I still have progress in other fields.
R: But your major career, your major source of income, is your acting. You grew up in Paarl. Did you always want to be an actor? Or where did that come from?
C: I did. I did.
R: Even as a boy?
C: Even as a boy. I watched TV one day, and I think I was sitting in the living room with my dad and I was just staring at the TV and he was, like, listen, you must stop watching this thing, your eyes are going to get square! And I said, you know, one day I’m going to be there. And he was like, why?, and I was like, I don’t know, I just feel like this is something that I really want to do, I’m going to do that!
R: How old were you?
C: I was about four.
R: Okay.
C: And obviously my parents were, today you want to be an actor, tomorrow you want to be a giraffe. You know? What’s going to happen next? And it just stuck with me. I went to crèche and obviously did the nativity play like the most of the other kids, and then from my first year of schooling in Sub A, I did all of the Eisteddfods, I started participating in all of the school events and for my first Eisteddfod I scored 80-plus per cent, and then I just proceeded every year, I would then compete in a monologue or solo, piano recital, solo singing, choir, but you know, a lot more within the acting sphere. And then it just progressed. All of my primary through to tertiary school and career …
R: And did you convince your dad? By the time you left school? Was he convinced?
C: No, he wasn’t throroughly convinced. I don’t think my dad was thoroughly convinced about me as a boy then, because I was very quiet. In primary school I was built like an athlete, but I was the kid in the side-line reading books while everyone else were … They were playing sports. And I only later got into it, you know. But yeah, I remember my dad – just when I finished at City Varsity and I was sitting at home for about a month and he was like, you’ve got your degree now, what’s going to happen? You need to find work. And I’m like, ja, but they educated us, but they didn’t tell us how to find work. I didn’t know how to find work in the industry. How do you go about it? So he was like, well, you’ve been home for a month, you have another week if you don’t get your act together, you’re going to do insurance with me. And I was like ek gaan nooit assuransie met my pa nie! Dit gaan nie werk vir my nie, nee!
R: So what did you do in that week?
C: That same day I remember I was sitting in the living room, and I just opened the newspaper, and I was like maybe this is a good start. And I opened the newspaper and I saw an article saying that there was an audition for a movie called Gangs and Dancers that was directed by James Ryan. So I took the train on a Saturday morning and I went through to the audition room …
R: Was that your first serious audition?
C: That was my first serious audition. This is now after high school and everything, and the accolades and whatever.
R: Now it’s really the bottom line. Can I earn money?
C: Dis nou grootmens-word. Dis nou gaan uittoets in die wêreld of the storie nou rerig werk.
R: So were you nervous? Can you remember that audition?
C: Ja, definitely. I was sitting on the train and I was just telling myself the whole time, you know, I’ve been on stage before and … But you never know. You always doubt yourself, you never know. Acting is an in-the-moment thing, you can rehearse it to death, but you know, your environment, what you’re feeling at that point in time, what you’re being fed by your environment and co-actors that kind-of like motivate how you feel and what comes out of you. So I was just sitting on the train and I was just thinking to myself, God, Jesus, just let me do this thing right and not work for my dad! That was the bottom line – I just didn’t want to work for my dad. So I got to the audition room, it was a room full of models and people … You know, Cape Town is very, like, eccentric and okay, as soon as I sat down, the lady was like are you new? And I was like yes. And she was like do you have a form? And I said no, and she said collect a form. And I get the form and I check everything out, and before I could start filling it in, she said everyone who does not have representation – like, if you don’t have an agent – you must leave now because we only work through …
R: Through agents. Oh dear.
C: And I was like, I can’t take the train to Paarl now and go back and face my dad. I have two days left before it’s insurance time for me. You know, so I spoke to the guy next to me and he was pretty chilled and I asked him about his acting career and what he would like to do, and as he turned away and he was talking to someone else, other model friends, I checked on his information page and it said there Janet du Plessis, his agent. So I just wrote Janet du Plessis and her number, and I waited. And she was like okay, you can come through now. And I went through and I did the audition and while I did the audition James Ryan stopped me and he was like, where are you from? And like, no, I just graduated from City Varsity and I’m from Paarl … And he was like, okay, do you have an agent? And I said yeah, Janet du Plessis. He goes Janet, and he takes out his phone and he starts calling Janet.
R: Oh dear!
C: In the audition room with all the other actors there. So Janet picks up and he’s like, Janet, I just want to tell you that I think this boy is brilliant. I love him! I want him for my movie. Where did you hide this guy? And she’s like who is this? Please just give him the phone. Needless to say she had some choice words and she was not too happy that obviously I used her name to get by …
R: Well, she was getting commission with no effort on her part!
C: She was like you come and see me tomorrow. I need to see you. I went in and I saw her, she was like, it was a very ballsy thing that you did, it’s very brave but we need to know now if you can actually back up this big mouth of yours by doing stuff like this. And I was like, okay. Then she said there was an audition for a really big TV show that closed for about a week already, but they’re still looking for a few characters and would I be interested in going the next day? And I was like sure. And that was my audition for Backstage.
R: Anything if I don’t have to sell insurance!
C: Hey! It’s that, or insurance for me, so I was like I’ll work for a drama now, or whatever, it’s fine. So …
R: So then you got that? That was Backstage.
C: That was how I got my audition for Backstage.
R: And how did that change your life? Because now, suddenly, you were in the public eye, you had an income, it must have made a huge difference?
C: It changed my life on so many levels that I’m able to sit and have this interview with you here today, and it happened 18 years ago. When I started working at Backstage I was 18, I turned 19 on set. So I was pretty young still. It changed my life to the point where literally, I feel so blessed that I have virtually every demographic in the country know me from either the one or the other TV show. And that I’ve fallen in love with the character that I was able to portray. It’s been …
R: That kind of public exposure and the link that one builds with one’s audience … You couldn’t have seen that coming?
C: No.
R: How did you experience that? Because the flipside is a total loss of privacy and anonymity and all of that.
C: Well there were moments that I obviously … I think everyone who is kind of like well-known in the country – and especially more in the acting sphere than anything else. Because I find that a lot of actors are recluse. They’re people who like to keep to themselves and your art is a very sensitive and private thing, and people misassociate or they disassociate your character from who you are, really, and you know that happens.
R: How do you handle it?
C: For me, I love people. I come from a community – ek is van die Paarl, ek is van ‘n klein dorpie af. So we’re people-people. I’m used to either helping people out in soup kitchens or doing this or being around people and helping people in need or being served by people that’s …
R: So you didn’t experience that as an infringement?
C: No. For me … My mom just said, look here, if God placed you in a position where you’re able to touch a lot of people’s lives, it’s important for you to understand the responsibility of who you are. And I was just like, I need to be … I have a choice now. At a young age, I need to decide am I going to be the guy that’s really going to enjoy the fame and be like most of the young people who’ve never really had it, and expose the entire country and everything that comes along with it and lose myself completely, or am I just going to be the guy from Paarl who loved to play sport and loved to sing and do stuff like that and just help, take people, move people forward with me like I’m moving forward.
R: So are you … You have 24 000 followers on Instagram.
C: Ja, that’s still little in comparison to a lot of other people out there.
R: For me, it is mind-blowing. Are you aware of … Are you … Every time you pick up your phone and you start tapping away … Is there a … A guard?
C: Yes. Well now, there is more than ever. I think the older I got as well, and the more I have been exposed to the types of people and the circles that I have been exposed to, I’ve realised that it’s become even more imperative for me to be conscious of what I think and who I affiliate myself with and associate myself with, to just … Just to insure that I can give myself the best possible experience of my life. Because if I enjoy my life and now I’m happy and I feel like I am fulfilling my purpose in my life, it will directly translate and be able to do that for the next person as well. So yes, definitely when, depending on how I am feeling or whatever I feel might be a trigger point for me. I make sure that whatever I do say on social media – whether it’s positive or whether it’s something that I really want to address, that I make sure that the outcome is always to the best of my ability.
R: How do you see that role in South Africa at this point in time? Not taking into account the politics of the moment, but the bigger picture?
C: I feel it’s important for people to … I feel it’s important for public figures to be more responsible. I feel that if you have made the decision to step up and be and want to be a national figure, or to be someone great in life, you really need to accept the full responsibility that comes along with it, not just the nice stuff. Not only the good stuff and you know, the perks. But really do the back-end work.
R: So what kind of role model do you want to be for young men in South Africa?
C: I want to be a role model that young men know that they can actually really overcome their circumstances. That even if you didn’t have proper leadership or proper guidance, that it’s not an excuse for you to not be the best version of yourself. I want young men to understand that it takes strength and it takes courage to do the right thing and not to fall prey to what the norm wants you to be and what society thinks of you.
R: And it’s your choice.
C: And it’s your choice. And also with a lot of the social pressures that are happening, from my perspective there’s been such a big shift. It’s just like gender equality and just like gender perception that the male, that even just being testosterone-driven has been something that’s been made ugly for the last couple of years because of all the violence and because of all the domestic abuse and because of all of the fathers neglecting their children and their families and because of the prisons that are so full, because of all of the crime that happened and, you know, we’re so aware that all of these things and all of these atrocious things …
R: Are associated with the traditional male.
C: It’s heart-breaking for me that there’s a big segregation between men and women and, you know, there’s been definite movements now and things coming out to actually show that we need to now, there’s women in parliament and, you know, for me that’s already a problem. I feel like the only way for us to grow together is to get to the point where we can learn from each other and really understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and I feel like a lot of the good things, the positive qualities, do come along with … Being male is also the thing that can be your downfall if you’re not properly educated. If you don’t know who you are as well, and if you didn’t have a proper example of what it’s like to be a man that is in service of women so she can be her best so she can help you to be your best …
R: And that’s the role-model that you want to be.
C: I feel that that’s something that through the little that I have I would like to do the best that I can with that opportunity, yes.
R: Tell me something about your musicianship? Where did that start and where is it going? You said that piano was also part of the Eisteddfod picture when you were very little?
C: Yes. I play three instruments. Piano is my main instrument, and it started with the acting thing from day one for me. I think music is something that’s even a little bit more private to me than my acting process. I really love it. It’s been a part of who I am for such a long time. I toured Europe for three months when I was in high school, with a choir. I remember there was a time where I was a part of a boys’ ensemble in our high school and we toured South Africa. And they had a competition – the Fresca competition – and we came second, which was a big deal for our high school because these are guys from Paarl and no-one knows Paarl, and it’s a small place.
R: And you’re up against St. John’s and St. this and St. that.
C: And then we came second and everyone – they were rooting for us to be like the, you know, we were the crowd favourites. So that was a great thing for me and from there on I decided okay, I’m just going to invest a little bit more and when I finished high school, when I worked at Backstage, it’s actually when I got my first opportunity to start growing musically a little bit more. I never really had any mentors. I never had a mentor. Yes, I had acting lecturers and stuff, but I never really up until now in my life I still never had anyone invest in me and look at me and say I think you have talent and I think that you can be this and this and I will help you get there. It’s always been a struggle for me. It’s always been something that I had to fight my way through or work my way around obstacles or really smash the walls to break through for me to be the best version of myself. So when I got to Backstage I met Musa Manzini who was the musical director of the show and he heard me play and sing piano … He heard me play piano and sing backstage one day, and he was like, just come to the studio. And I sat with him and the next thing you know some of the songs that you hear on the show are stuff that I wrote and produced with him and I ended up being a music student on the show and that’s how, I think nationally also the exposure started of me being a musician.
R: What difference does it make having someone like that in your life?
C: Having a mentor or having a coach? Oprah has got four coaches. For me, it’s simply put … Any athlete you can find … Mohammad Ali was a boxer like many other boxers, but what made him better is his coach found out how to tap into his potential and find out who he is to maximise his ability. Michael Jordan also. A great player. He had great coaches. And for me I think we should … Either your parents or your community … You need to have some form of coach in your life that can show you what success is like. I mean, growing up in Paarl for me, that time, it was going to high school, walking to high school and back was scary for me, because I could have lost my life … I could have been stabbed …
R: Rough neighbourhood?
C: Ja, it was pretty hard, you know. So making it through High School on that level was a good thing, but growing up in an environment where you’re so scared to be yourself and so scared to look different, because I was also the lightest, the light-skinned guy at school, you know? So I was like a target. The white guy, let’s go for the white guy! But ja, I think those were the things that also taught me mental toughness. And I learned how to assess different types of people and different types of situations and scenarios.
R: And plans and dreams professionally?
C: Plans, dreams professionally … You know, I’ve had a couple of auditions now for international movies that seem to be going pretty well …
R: You’ve just done the Ellen Pakkies movie?
C: I did.
R: How did you experience that? Because that story has become such a …. I don’t know what? A motif, almost for the country?
C: Ja. It’s … You know, it’s …
R: And let me just say in case you don’t know, it’s a true story of a mother who in the end murdered her own son because he was addicted to tik.
C: Yes.
R: And it’s … Of course it’s gut-wrenching. You play the advocate?
C: I play the advocate, yes. Advocate Adrian Samuels who represented her in court.
R: And how was that experience for you?
C: What I must tell you firstly, is Darren and everyone on the production team for the film … The script was written so beautifully that you really feel for everyone. You really have empathy and you understand, you feel the weight of the situation that forced people into, to become really just the worst versions of themselves.
R: So it is really a kind of Shakespearean tragedy?
C: Yes. From a film perspective if you look at it that way, that’s what it is. But the story is so beautifully written that it really serves the characters and you know, you feel for them. For me personally, growing up in Cape Town and obviously some of my friends going through stuff like this …
R: You could identify with that community.
C: Definitely. You know, the drugs ruin families. They wreck people, like horribly. Mothers who are scared to be mothers for their own children, to their own children … They can’t look after them, they can’t do anything for them. And that spills over to the relationships with the other children, the other family, the extended friends. Everyone knows the pressure and there’s always tension. So ja, it’s …
R: So you think it’s an important story to tell.
C: I think it’s something that the world needs to see. I don’t necessarily think it’s always our right to say what’s right and what’s wrong. I think sometimes things need to be left to the human psyche and people need to think further and develop. In introspection and then find out what resonates with you, so I definitely think it’s an important story that needs to be heard.
R: Sorry that I interrupted. Where do you want to go?
C: I would definitely like to try the international scene just because I feel like it will be challenging, a new challenge for me.
R: Bigger stage?
C: A bigger stage. But right now I’m pretty content with everything that I have done so far in my life. 18 years of working consecutively in the entertainment industry.
R: That’s a thing.
C: Ja. I’m very happy.
R: It’s a huge achievement.
C: I’m proud. Right now, I’m enjoying all of the other things that I didn’t do when I was younger. I never really had an opportunity to enjoy my fame that much or stuff like that, because I’ve always been super responsible. Always been there for my family, always not wanting to be too much in the world and always being reserved and looking for like, the good things. I don’t like attaching myself to things that are … How can I say? I have no permanent things. Things come and go. So I like connecting with people really. I like finding things of value. Neither learning from it or contributing to it now. Being married and being in that space and sharing my life with someone like in this mind-set, in that sphere for me, is something completely mind-blowing. I love every second of it.
R: So when did you get married? It’s recent. Only a few months? To an ex-Miss Namibia? Steffie? What’s her surname?
C: Van Wyk.
R: Where did you meet? How did you know that this was the right one?
C: Well, actually, on Instagram. Unashamedly so. We have a mutual friend and I saw some of her posts with this friend and I was just, okay, gorgeous. Let me just see, you know? I checked out her profile and I saw that she was into fitness and I saw that she was a hurdler, and I was like, okay, that’s great. Someone who has a good, strong mind-set and definitely, I know people who are athletic are like, you know, serious about stuff. And then I read the rest of her posts and I found that she’s also someone that looks for enlightenment, she’s also someone that likes to inspire people through who she is and what she does, and shares a lot of her feelings and her opinions.
R: And so how did you reach out?
C: I just decided like, like, some of her pictures, and then scroll down and, you know, like some more pictures, and then I would see her like back, and I was like, okay. And then one day I decided to send her a DM, like a private message, and then I just, uhm … She actually showed me the picture of our first conversation, she showed it to me the other day. And I took one of the pictures from her profile – I thought she was stunning – I sent it to her and I just said I just want to say I think you’re absolutely gorgeous. Hi! Firstly. Secondly, ja, look, if you ever want to chat or whatever, here’s my number. I would really like to get to know you. And when we met, finally …
R: Did she phone?
C: We started chatting immediately, and she was like ja, okay, that would be nice. Ja, I checked out your profile as well and I see you do this and this and that and that, and then we exchanged numbers and we started talking and we spoke about for two-and-a-half weeks before we …
R: Met face to face.
C: Met face to face, ja.
R: And what was that like?
C: Uhm …
R: Was it nerve-wracking? Or did everything just flow? Or …
C: So I tried to be cool, calm and collected. It didn’t really work very much, but it was so funny for me when the day that she arrived in South Africa, she was here to do a pageant, and I was supposed to finish work at like 17:00 or 19:00 in the evening, and it just so happened that they cancelled the rest of my day and I finished at 10:00. She landed, and she let me know like look here, I’m at the guest house here. Apparently some of the other contestants still need to fly in and out, so we don’t have anything to do for the rest of the week, so I’m free.
R: So the fates conspired.
C: I’m telling you! So I went … Okay, I was like, would you like to go and do lunch? And she’s like, sure. I drove … I think the guest house was in Auckland Park, and when I drove up the street and she was wearing a purple dress, I remember, and she was wearing sandals and her hair was loose and I just remember her coming, because this athlete, I’m just seeing calves and hamstrings and olive skin, and I’m just like phew, okay, let’s hope I’m able to maintain a good conversation, at least! She got in the car and we just chatted, it was like, we carried on like we were chatting for the last two weeks and everything was just fine. We went to Greenside and we had lunch, and the thing … It was so evident to me that wherever we went after that even … But the first moment really felt like we were in a bubble. And obviously being an actor, you work on sense memory. You record every moment, every conversation you have with everyone, you dissect everything so that you can remember every moment, every detail in case you need to reproduce it one day. And I just remember … I think I actually took a second, just a look around, because I couldn’t really hear anyone else, and I couldn’t really see much going on except this woman, you know? And she was shy, she didn’t really talk much, you know? We ate and then I was like, okay, we’re having a really good time and I didn’t want to leave, I didn’t want it to end and I asked her if she would like to go and have a slice of cheesecake and coffee somewhere else, and she was like, sure. We walked over to the car, and I opened the door for her, and when we got it, while she was putting on her seatbelt, I just leaned over and I kissed her. But not like anything severe, you know? I just kissed her, like, I’ve known her for a long time or we’ve been together for a long time and she just looked at me, and I was like, where do you want to go now? And she was, like, wherever you want to go. And since that day, we’ve literally been inseparable. And three months after that we got married.
R: And how has this partnership – not just the marriage – but the partnership … How has it changed you? If at all?
C: It’s really made me the best version of myself. It’s so weird, like …
R: Why? Because that’s what you want to be for her?
C: No. Before I met Steffy, and before we started conversing, personal relationships were very difficult for me. I think from my upbringing and also my conditioning that I’ve been through, I’ve always been engaged with people who, you know, their upbringing and conditioning … We always clashed. So a lot of times, and I think it all stemmed from the fact when I lost my fiancé in a car accident when I was 21 years old … Things after that, my perception of time changed a lot. And my perception of how to invest in people and what I want out of life changed a lot.
R: Why? Or in what way?
C: Because I just realised that life is fragile. More fragile than we all realise.
R: So things were more important.
C: Ja, things were more important. But I was also young, and, you know, going through something like that at such a young age … After that followed three years of going to court. I had to find a way to fly down from Joburg to Cape Town …
R: Were you driving at the time?
C: I was driving the car, yes. And the state then charged me with culpable homicide. And the two cars who forced me off the road just carried on driving. No-one stopped. I was the only one left to answer. And it had serious repercussions in my family for a long time. Financially, the financial implications, not to mention the emotional scarring it had on people. And it took …
R: What was the outcome?
C: I was acquitted.
R: After three years?
C: After three years, because the baby sister of my then-fiancé who was in the car with us … It was difficult for her and she couldn’t testify. She couldn’t bring herself to do … She had studies to get through, you know? And there were just a lot of things that happened. I remember the one time my lawyers didn’t pitch for court, and I was standing in front and the judge was, like, Mr Brink, this is an unfortunate event, but if this happens again I’m going to have to give you the maximum sentence in prison. And that was eight to 25 years in prison, and I’m 21 years old and I don’t know what just happened to my life and I moved to Joburg, I don’t have a proper job yet, I’m sleeping on people’s floors, I’m dealing with the fact that I … The loss that I went through and having to rebuild my life all on my own in a city that I don’t know, in an industry that I’m fairly new to, with no family and no support. I really had to find strength and cultivate a good sense of self. And I think if I didn’t go through that at such a young age, I wouldn’t know now who I am and what’s important to me now. And I feel like the years that followed after that and the relationships that followed after that were not good for me, because probably I wasn’t ready. And I didn’t know that yet, and I just feel like my wife is such a blessing to me now, because I remember there were so many days where I either tried to, like, drown my life in alcohol because I was hurting and I couldn’t find a way to deal with things and I just needed to find a way to cope. That the times where I wished that life would stop. Times where I wished that things would just be over and so many times where I said so many negative things about myself, because of the situation that I was in.
R: Sjoe, but then you’ve changed 180 degrees?
C: Majorly.
R: That was before Steffy? By the time you met her you were ready.
C: Yes.
R: So what made that change? Did you just gradually regain your balance?
C: It took me a couple of years after that just to find out what it is I want. And to look at the situation and be okay with the fact. Because I’m also … People who know me … I’m very tenacious. I don’t like losing. I work hard, I prepare well so invest myself, I invest everything I have. So when I found myself in a situation that I wasn’t able to rectify myself, I couldn’t do anything about it. It was the worst feeling for me. Nothing that anyone could say was …
R: Beyond your control.
C: It was beyond my control and it shook me to my core. And I remember I just walked out of my flat in Tamboerskloof in Cape Town, still, and by that time I was finished, I had no hope. I’ve seen pastors, I went to talk to therapists, my heart was completely shattered. I still had to work at the same …
R: You have to pay the bills.
C: Ja, but I was still working at the same show where my ex-fiancé was working, as she was a character on the show as well. And I still had to see her wardrobe there and her clothes there and go back home and I had to pack all her clothes in boxes and send it off to her family myself. And I got into the car one day and I was just done. I was just like, you know, whatever needs to happen needs to happen today. And I drank half of bottle of Jack Daniels and put it down next to me on the seat like this and I started the car and I was like, whatever happens must happen. If God was able to take me out of that car accident and have everyone else go, then whatever needs to happen in this incident now will happen. And I remember, just as I started my car, I got a beep on my phone and it was a message from my baby sister, and she sent me a message and she was like, I have no idea, I won’t be able to understand how you are feeling, I cannot imagine what you must be going through. All I know is that if you can’t make it through this, then none of us will, and I need you.
R: Sjoe.
C: And immediately after that I stopped drinking for, like, a year and a half, and that was the day I decided that I’ve always been someone that’s been driven by challenges, and I said, well, this is going to be the biggest challenge of your life. What are you going to do now? And I just took it a day at a time. I just took it the next day, and the next moment, and then things got better and then … Ja … I grew. I started seeing things around me and I started seeing how people around me also kept me in a space to make me feel bad about myself, or … And that was also another thing that I had to overcome.
R: So there was some relationships that you needed to shake off … And it’s huge changes.
C: It was also a big shift of identity if I had to look at it that way because I was associated to that person, I was also associated to that show and people had a perception … Even my family had a perception of who I was. And I think I was presented an opportunity to reshape who I was and who I wanted to be. And for me to do that, I needed to overcome this, and I did.
R: So did you also walk away from the show? Find a different job?
C: What happened then, was like Backstage had a big fallout with eTV. The producers of Backstage then, they had a big legal dispute, they went to court, the show ended and then I was asked, well, while Backstage is going to end, why don’t you come over to Joburg and join Generations? And I was, like, it’s a perfect excuse for me to get out of Cape Town, it’s a perfect opportunity for me to redefine myself and rediscover myself and just, like, be away from this. And then I moved up to Joburg in 2002, and from then on things just changed,
R: So, on a lighter note … You’ve now lived in the Western Cape, in Cape Town, in beautiful Tamboerskloof. You’ve been in Johannesburg for 15 years. Pros, cons?
C: Pros, cons … I love Joburg. I think …
R: The weather is the first plus!
C: Ja. Joburg weather … Cape Town, I’m sorry, guys. Joburg weather is pretty decent. I also like the energy here, I feel like people are driven here and there’s a lot of people who are driven here. So that you’re always bound to bump into someone who is ambitious and who wants to do something, and you know … Realise their dreams, which is cool for me.
R: And your physical space? Where do you live? Where do you and Steffy live now?
C: We live in Westdene. So, I’m … It’s a quiet area, there’s like churches all around us and a ouetehuis so everything is quiet.
R: So what did you look for when you bought there, when you settled there.
C: I just wanted … I like for my house, and when I’m at home … I like peace and quiet. The entertainment industry is so noisy and people are talking all the time and you’ve got to network and you’ve got to go to this event and there’s music playing and music business and all of this and talking the whole time. I just like to switch off and relax my mind and be calm at home. And ja, every day since the day I got married my life has gotten better tenfold. Tenfold. I think for a man … Young men … I didn’t understand it until I was ready, obviously, to move into this space. But being married is … For me it really forces you to be the best version of yourself if you want to be successful. For it to be successful is not going to be easy, you know. There’s a lot of stuff that you have to go through, but the reward is going through these challenges with this person and finding a way to never have that division between you and me, but, you know, you’re one person. And with my wife and I, this is the first time that I think even people in my space see me like this. It’s the first time that I really had a relationship with someone who reciprocates the way I feel properly, who on every level compliments and supports me, and I never really had that. So it’s really a blessing for me. I didn’t see it coming and I’m appreciative of it every day.
R: Good luck, may it last many, many, many years.
C: Thank you! Thank you very much.
R: That was Clint Brink. Until next time, go well.
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