Kiss it better, baby! Youngins' Tabile Tau opens up

“How do you feel about kissing a guy?” It took Tabile Tau about 10 minutes before he gave his agent a resounding “Yes!” to the question whether he wanted to play closeted soccer player Sefako in Youngins.

First day on set, the 25-year-old actor was already locking lips with co-star Lebohang Lephatsoana (Tumelo). Their onscreen gay teen romance on the Showmax YA series is the year’s most daring love story, capturing TV viewers and changing the world for the better.  

Tau identifies as straight, but that hasn’t mattered — he got the job, and he aced it. So much so that he’s being asked about his sexuality on social media at every turn (he doesn’t mind) when he’s not receiving NSFW content (which he does mind) in his direct messages from both women and men.

He is also in a committed relationship with a woman; madly in love, at that — “Baby, I want you to know that I love you, Sofa Silahlane, until death do us part,” Tau proclaims when the spotlight falls on his love life.

But make no mistake about it, Tau is not complaining about his newfound fame: this is every actor’s dream, he says. He notes that he is now so popular that he’s part of two viral search bars on TikTok: “Sefako Youngins” and “Tumelo and Sefako”.

He is also enjoying being on the set of his SMag cover shoot, saying that this is the life he has always envisioned for himself. He, of course, photographs like a dream. Tau eats up his solo moment in front of the lens, so much so that when Lephatsoana follows, he admits he’s intimidated about topping that.

Forget Zoolander’s caricature “Blue Steel” poses, Tau truly understand his modelling angles, and his body movements and flexibility are on point — watch out Denetric Malope. His “triangle of sadness” is serving moody and cheerful at will. There is a moment he’s wearing an oversized pinkie ring and he kisses it like a kingpin in a Hollywood mobster film — the camera loves it.

“I love wearing our local luxury brands — David Tlale, MaXhosa, Imprint — and show that, as South Africans, we have these local brands that can compete with European ones,” he later tells me.  The biggest surprise about his casting came from his parents when Tau broke the news to them, especially his father, whom he describes as a traditional African man.

“He said to me, ‘Ijob ijob, mntwana wam’ [a job is a job, my child],” he remembers.  Born and bred in Cape Town, Tau is the second-born of four boys. His mother is a teacher and his father an administrator at Sassa. He studies performance at Afda. 

“I grew up soft. I wasn’t rich, but I could get anything I wanted whenever I wanted. My parents never made me feel like we didn’t have enough,” Tau says. “It was beautiful growing up because my mom encouraged me to do all these things based on how hyperactive I was, and I used to mimic Sarafina and The Lion King.”  

Tau explains how his late friend and actor Thapelo Maropefela influenced his decision to accept the role from the other side.

“I had this internal conversation with my late friend Thapelo and I just asked him, ‘What do you think I should do?’ Knowing him as someone who liked to jump out of his comfort zone, he would have said, ‘Go for it, you might reap the most benefits out of it.’ Ten minutes later I was like, ‘F*ck it, let’s do it,’” Tau says.

“First day on set, I was kissing my boy Lebo. Then I figured I’m truly a professional, I can separate my craft from who I am. That’s how I have been looking at it, but you know the assumptions and speculations about my sexuality. The reception has been amazing. As much as we do it [acting] because we love it and the work, you do want to delve into a bit of fame. I’m enjoying it because it now means all eyes are on me for the work I do.

It shows me that I’m on the right track and it’s a good feeling. People are telling me that I have the potential to be one of the best to come out of this country.”  Maropefela, known for his role in The Kingdom, died in 2021 on the eve of his 25th birthday.

“May his soul rest in peace… I dreamt of sparring with him on a set, unfortunately that didn’t come to life. The last time we worked together was at school; we would have made moves in this industry.”  

In the media in recent years, straight actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Jacob Elordi, Paul Mescal, and Nicholas Galitzine have had to defend portraying gay characters amid accusations of queerbaiting and being “gay for pay”. Tau does not shy away from weighing in on the widespread debate about queer representation. 

“If I play a murderer, am I a murderer in real life? If you say no, then it ends that conversation,” he replies. “You don’t have to be queer to play queer. It’s a craft, it’s acting, you don’t just go there and read lines. You embody parts of yourself and your essence into the lines to deliver a performance.

In accepting the character, I knew there was going to be reception where a lot of people were going to make assumptions about my sexuality. I was mentally prepared for it.”  

This is hardly Tau’s first taste of the limelight. His breakout role came when he was cast as Bonga in in the SABC 1 daily drama Generations: The Legacy in 2020.  

“That was an overwhelming experience. It’s that one show you tell everyone, ‘Guys, one day I’m going to be on Generations,’” he says. “Nobody takes it seriously that you are going to be an actor and then, boom, you are on Generations. Just the reaction from my family members, it’s like we’d won the World Cup. Seeing myself on screen for the first time, I was in tears because it was a life-long dream to be on Generations.”  

He has also booked roles on The Station, Goodbye Gogo, and Grootboom & Sons.