'You will see the real me' — Lillian Dube talks new presenting gig 'Seven Colours'

Entertaining, fun and a happy place, these are the words veteran actress Lillian Dube uses to describe a new show she is presenting.

Not only is she an actress that needs no introduction, she is also loved for her comedic nature, she is an activist and now a reality TV presenter.

Lillian is thrilled that her first try at reality TV is with Seven Colours where she is steering the ship with Moshe Ndiki.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE, she said she enjoyed shooting the show where no-one was pretentious and working with a co-host like Moshe was a plus.

“The beauty of the reality show is that you see me, I’m not taking someone else’s character but it’s me. You will see the real me and I really love people and fortunately for me Moshe loves people too.  So interacting with  people whose homes we would go to and having such a beautiful experience is what I enjoyed the most.”

Seven Colours was inspired by the South African ‘colourful Sunday cooking’ and both celebrity hosts go into South African homes to see how people really cook their Sunday 'kos meals'.

The show took the 76-year old on a trip down memory lane, to her childhood.

“The reason I love Seven Colours so much, it reminds me of home when I was little because even though during the week we have to eat whatever, but every Sunday we knew that Sunday is Sunday, we are going to have beef stew, beetroot, even mealie rice, (we couldn’t afford rice at the time) and cabbage, pumpkin and all the seven colours.”

“It reminds me of cooking and the importance of family, there is nothing as beautiful as having a meal with your family on Sunday, sitting together and relating, because today people can afford to go to restaurants and all that but there is nothing like a home-cooked meal.”

Moshe and Lillian got along like a house on fire, and Lillian said she is indebted to Moshe because Moshe made her come out of her shell.

“What made us get along well is because neither is pretending, we are real. We love what we do. I’m not trying to impress him, and he is not trying to impress me. I admire his abilities and to be quite honest with you if I wasn’t doing this show with Moshe, I don’t think I could’ve cracked it.  Eventually I would but it could’ve been difficult so Moshe would just ease me into it, and I’m enjoying it.”

In the tough two years the world has been in with the pandemic, the veteran actress said she had to confront her fears about going back to work.

“I was afraid to go to any set because I didn’t know where Covid-19 was. I was scared and eventually I just prayed and said God if you can look after people who are in the taxis,  and in the malls working, I also want to be covered. So I threw away fear and just put myself out there. Because during Covid-19 being alone in the house you felt as if you were dead. It took away hope, and that is the worst thing that can happen to anybody.”

The 76-year-old said going on shoots normalised her life.

“This is normalising and knowing that we are human beings and then there's Seven Colours, going to people’s homes. Remember we wouldn’t go to people’s homes and they couldn’t come to ours so it sort of normalises my life, it gives me hope.”