Thuso Mbedu’s more than up to this task

South African-born actress Thuso Mbedu is a force. Having starred in The Underground Railroad (2021) and The Woman King (2022), she has landed yet another challenging role as Aleah Clinton in the crime drama Task, premiering on HBO and Showmax on 8 September. 

From the creator of Mare of Easttown, Brad Ingelsby, Task dishes out seven gripping episodes, featuring high-octane action, simmering tension and nuanced performances.  

Primarily filmed in Philadelphia, Task is about an FBI task force formed in the wake of a series of robberies executed by a pair of sanitation workers who are stealing drug money from a local motorcycle gang. 

The task team is led by priest-turned-FBI-agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) and includes state patrol officer Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver), detective Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel) and Mbedu’s character Aleah — a tight-lipped agent grappling with a haunted past. 

After a day of reacquainting myself with the time difference between South Africa and the US, I finally got to chat with Mbedu via Zoom. 

She tells me she has often felt frustrated after being told she doesn’t look old enough after auditions for various film and TV roles but that her meeting with series director Jeremiah Zagar in 2023 was different. 

Because Aleah is in her late twenties, and Mbedu is older than her, she was initially ready to walk out the door. 

“But Jeremiah was so kind and explained that he had been following my career since The Underground Railroad and that he was excited to work with me. 

“So, we jumped right in and did the audition. Fortunately, I got the role from that. It was great to collaborate with him.”

Getting in character

In preparation for a role, the twice-Emmy-nominated actress says her process normally involves building the character psychologically, as expressed in the script. 

“Another level of research entails Google, finding books — or I’m on YouTube trying to find interviews with people that have found themselves in a similar situation. 

“Aleah’s lived experience is, unfortunately, one that a lot of women have faced, including women in South Africa.” 

Due to Aleah’s haunted past, Mbedu had to do research she found distressing: “I needed to find cases of people in her particular line of work, experiencing the same thing, which I did find — and it was heartbreaking.”   

Preparation for the role included physical elements, something Mbedu says she enjoyed. Three or four weeks before shooting started, she and fellow cast members had to do hair, make-up and wardrobe tests. It also involved finding the best fit for the FBI vests, learning how houses are raided and weapons training. 

“I remember we went to the shooting range a couple of times just to  do target practice and then we also had to master assembling and disassembling a weapon super quickly, because it had to be second nature to us, which was a lot of fun.” 

Mbedu also got an opportunity to interview real-life detectives and police officers. 

With automatic rifles peeking out from the back and laptops on the dashboard, Mbedu got to ride in a police van. 

“I had a chance to be in a police car, so when something was called in, we would have the blue-lights moment and just, like, weave through traffic, bypassing traffic lights. It was so cool.” 

Collaboration and accents

Task has an experienced cast, such as the actors portraying the two disparate central characters — Tom Pelphrey, as the antagonist Robbie Prendergrast, and four-time Academy Award nominee Ruffalo as Tom Brandis, who leads the task team. 

She’s worked on a few South African and Hollywood productions, but I ask Mbedu if she was intimidated by such an experienced cast.  

She alludes to her university training as a performer as her buffer to any feelings of inadequacy. 

One of the first South African productions she was in, Saints and Sinners, had a veteran cast, including Nthati Moshesh and S’dumo Mtshali. 

“I was fresh out of university and I never felt intimidated or nervous because I knew what I brought to the table. I knew the amount of work that I put into every project and they embraced me so lovingly that I’ve always carried that with me.” 

In Task, Mbedu adds, cast and crew collaborated well to produce a memorable series. 

“At the end of the day, I am there as a colleague and an equal. So, as with all actors, when we are on set it’s a collaboration. There’s no play or space to be intimidated. 

“But I also come into the set knowing I am there to learn and grow. You don’t have to have all the answers.” 

Despite picking up a slight twang after her fifth year in the US, this KwaZulu-Natal-born actress’s biggest hurdle in Task was getting the regional accent correct. She says in The Underground Railway, the nature of the story, the process of storytelling, was difficult, but the Southern accent came easily. 

“In Task, I had dialect sessions to get the regional accent correct, which was super hard. 

“But, you know, it challenged me in a good way. It made me excited for the character, because I’m always trying to learn. 

“Growth comes from those things that are hard and uncomfortable.” 

As I got my five-minute warning during the interview, my last question to Mbedu was what she was hoping viewers take away from the series, especially South Africans.

“It’s a slow burn of a story. So, viewers have to sit and grow with it to fall in love with all the different characters. Because our palate is different from person to person, I’m looking forward to viewers experiencing something different.” 

She alludes to the growing number of streaming platforms that offer viewing of varying degrees of quality. 

“There are so many stories bouncing around that you don’t know what the quality of the story is anymore. But Task is a guaranteed quality product I think people will enjoy.”

Packed with unforeseen twists, turns and betrayals, Task explores life’s moral complexities in all their shades, delivered through raw, relatable and grounded characters.

Task premieres on HBO on 7 September and on Showmax on 8 September.