{"id":548030,"date":"2026-06-22T09:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/548030\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T09:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:47:09","slug":"the-polygamist-ive-been-praying-for-this-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/548030\/","title":{"rendered":"The Polygamist: ‘I’ve been praying for this role’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gugu<\/p>\n


\n Gugu Gumede shines as Joyce in The Polygamist, earning global praise. \n <\/p>\n

ACTRESS Gugu Gumede enjoys widespread acclaim for her latest role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She stars as Joyce in Netflix’s hit drama series, The Polygamist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her performance has earned her praise from audiences around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old actress from Ulundi, KZN, has become a household name through her memorable performances on Mzansi television.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She’s best known for her role as MaMlambo on SABC1’s hit soapie Uzalo,\u00a0and has also appeared in popular productions such as Generations and eHostela.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking during an interview on Metro FM’s Best Mornings, Gugu opened up about her journey in the entertainment industry and the overwhelming reception to her latest role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Fourteen years in the making. I’ve been in this industry, and I’ve been praying for a role like this. I haven’t slept in days. I just can’t believe that one can dream, and a dream can actually be realised in this manner. It feels surreal. It’s a pinch-me moment.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

ALSO READ:\u00a0<\/strong>The Polygamist: Jonasi angers Mzansi sistaz!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Gugu revealed that she knew The Polygamist was special from the moment she received the script.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When we got the script and started reading, that’s when we knew that we had something absolutely golden in our hands,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her portrayal of Joyce, a deeply layered and emotionally complex character, has been singled out by viewers and critics alike.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Gugu insists that bringing the character to life came naturally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Joyce was actually not a difficult character to bring to life. All my training, all my life’s experiences, the bad, the ugly, the good, my grief, everything brought me to this moment. I feel like it was all for Joyce,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actress also shared her approach to acting, explaining that she doesn’t subscribe to method acting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, she believes in observation, empathy and research.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think as humans, we understand each other’s behaviours. It takes research and understanding people. When you’re susceptible to human behaviour, it makes it easier to portray a person who is that layered,” she added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gugu Gumede shines as Joyce in The Polygamist, earning global praise. ACTRESS Gugu Gumede enjoys widespread acclaim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[3308,434,20705,235000,18,117,234998,19,17,234999],"class_list":["post-548030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actress","tag-celebrities","tag-controversy","tag-drama-series","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-gugu-gumede","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-polygamist"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116793131747695727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}