Local star Litha Bam has scored a dream job for any actor by starring in four-time Oscar-nominated director Ridley Scott’s new television series, Raised by Wolves.
The first season of the sci-fi series is currently the second most popular show on streaming platform Showmax after premiering last Monday.
For the 36-year-old Mthatha-born actor, who has starred in TV shows Scandal!, 7de Laan and Intersexions; it’s still sinking in that he features in a Scott production.
Scott is renowned for helming big productions such as Prometheus and Gladiator, and .
“It’s very overwhelming and great. It’s been a mind-blowing experience,” Bam said.
“It’s very cathartic for me because I have been doing it for a very long time (17 years). To be cast in something of this magnitude right now, I’m very satisfied with where I am.”
The 10-part series was filmed in Cape Town. According to Film Afrika line producer Cheryl Eatock, it is the biggest budget show to ever be filmed in SA.
Bam was cast in the show after submitting a self-tape audition in January 2019.
“It was a very quick process. I got the brief from my agent as usual via email. It was a very small window period; I had to submit the tape by the next day,” Bam recalled.
“I didn’t think anything of it because I was in a disillusioned place when it comes to the industry. I was in LA at the end of 2018 and I had booked a job on another local production. But the job didn’t happen and I was in a low place about that.
“I heard back from them a month-and-half later that I had booked it, which was crazy because there were no callbacks.”
Bam filmed on set for almost five months in locations such as Good Hope Centre and old Maitland abattoir.
His character, Bartok, gets introduced in episode three and sees little action for the first half of the season. But Bam says viewers will get a sense of the character in episodes seven and nine.
“There is just as much mystery about the show onscreen as there was behind the scenes,” Bam said.
“I was going with the flow and thought my character would be dead in a couple of episodes. So I just enjoyed it as much as I could and it ended up being a long stay.”
The show has been renewed for a second season and Bam confirms that his character is coming back and that filming is set to start in the next month or so.
Aside from being met with rave reviews, the show has received three nominations at the Critics Choice Super Awards. It has also been nodded for Best Episodic Drama at the Writers Guild Awards.
Before moving to LA in 2016, Bam studied acting for film at the New York Film Academy for a year.
“There is a joke that Hollywood is a place where dreams come to die. It was tough, but I’m still standing,” Bam said.
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