Nomzamo Mbatha stars alongside Bruce Willis in new action film Assassin
Assassin releases in cinemas on 5 May 2023
Following her globally heralded performance in Coming 2 America, Nomzamo Mbatha continues to fly the South African flag high in Hollywood. Her latest role sees her star alongside Bruce Willis, in an action feature film, titled Assassin, that will release in South African cinemas on Friday 5 May 2023.
View the trailer here
Directed by Jesse Atlas, Assassin takes audiences on an action-packed sci-fi thrill ride featuring a stellar cast of top talent, that also includes Andy Allo, Dominic Purcell, Mustafa Shakir and Fernanda Andrade. In the film, a private military operation led by (Willis) invents futuristic microchip tech that enables the mind of an agent to inhabit the body of another person to carry out covert, deadly missions. But when an agent (Mustafa Shakir) is killed during a secret mission, his wife (Mbatha) takes his place in an attempt to bring the man responsible to Justice.
Director Jesse Atlas shares: “Assassin is an exploration of identity. The evolution of drone warfare from remotely piloting machinery to remotely inhabiting another person raises important questions about what it means to truly be oneself. Can we retain our identity when the face in the mirror is not our own? How do we navigate our psyche when cognitive dissociation becomes a daily routine? What kind of memory is imprinted when a complete stranger wraps you in an intimate embrace, and you feel their touch on skin that isn’t actually yours?
It's a psychological minefield, and co-writer Aaron Wolfe and I were instantly drawn in by the challenge of visualizing and humanizing the story. The concept gave us so many unique storytelling devices to play with, from mind-bending visuals and surreal sound design, to the repeated spoken mantra “This is not my body. But the true gift of this concept was the opportunity to bring the character of Alexa to life with two completely different actors playing her. Nomzamo Mbatha and Andy Allo both came at the character from different starting points, yet fearlessly embraced each other’s choices to discover a shared emotional truth that resonated for both of them,” Atlas concluded.
