The actress channels resilience and empathy into Aleah, a character navigating trauma and justice.
From a childhood dream of becoming a dermatologist to building a career in the performing arts, South African darling Thuso Mbedu has always carried one constant: a deep desire to heal. What shifted was not her purpose, but the medium — and today she does it through stories that touch hearts, challenge perspectives, and spark reflection in audiences.
It is this very drive that informs the roles she chooses, seeing each part as more than entertainment, but as a tool for social change and meaningful conversation. Her current leading role on HBO’s Task aligns seamlessly with this mission, fitting perfectly into a bigger picture where impact matters far more than fleeting fame or frivolous relevance.
“I pick roles that I hope — because you can’t force it on the audience, you can only hope — will be impactful to the viewer. That when they watch something, and they sit back and reflect on the trajectory of the character’s story, something in them shifts,” she shares during a virtual interview.
What strikes you most about Thuso, during our conversation, is not only her quiet confidence but also her playful sense of humour, a warmth that makes her presence both grounded and approachable.
“Aleah is such a role. Where we don’t know what she is initially going through, but only find out, you know, around episode three, what it is that she’s been through,” Mbedu explains, an element that resonates with people going through silent challenges in life.
“In sharing this part of herself, she starts her own journey where she then opens up to people. Because when we first meet her, she’s very stand-offish, she’s not here to make friends, she’s here to work,” she adds.
Mbedu’s career spans a successful trail of South African projects, from Is’thunzi, to e.tv’s Scandal and Saints and Sinners, among other productions. Stepping onto international projects like The Woman King, The Underground Railroad and now Task has been a platform for significant growth, she shares.
“I always grow in the role of being empathetic because every time I take on a role of someone, I learn about them. You take on the psychology and try to understand where they are coming from. So even with Aleah, of all the characters that I have played, she’s the most different from me — from her lived experiences and also her job description. I have never played a cop before. And it’s not just any cop; it’s an FBI agent. She’s badass, completely badass, but we also come to learn that she has overcome something that could have taken her out if she had allowed it — but she didn’t.”
Not all challenges were creative. Mbedu had to master a contemporary American accent, something she had never done before. “I have a very stubborn tongue,” she laughs. “It took a lot of work getting around it because, you know, when you are not confident in something, you automatically start building up these walls as a means of protecting yourself. And we are in an industry where you are constantly being judged for everything. Not only are you judged when the viewer consumes it, you are being judged from the audition phase. Not in a negative way, but when you audition — you are judged whether you qualify or not. And that is a reality. So now being under a microscope for something as particular as an accent, that stressed me out a little, I won’t even lie. I even thought at some point that I might get fired for not nailing this accent. And this was all me and not them. When they did give feedback they said, ‘Oh, you are fine,’” she adds, highlighting how the experience taught her to be comfortable in herself.
In preparing for Aleah, particularly in terms of location and context, Mbedu drew on references from her own home country’s Hillbrow — a place long synonymous with struggle and survival — while also receiving weapons and physical training, and studying what being a police officer entails.
With Task, Mbedu hopes viewers see more than a tough agent; she wants to convey a story of resilience and support. “No matter the struggle or whatever you are going through, you don’t have to actually do this life thing alone. There are others who can help you,” she says.
