Mzansi Celebs

They cancelled my role because l was pregnant – Gail Mabalane

The star became the latest celeb to share her experience of how falling pregnant affected her career, telling Afternoon Express that she was left confused by the incident.

Actress Gail Mabalane claims that film creators once backtracked on their decision to cast her for their project when they discovered she was pregnant

“I was cast. I got the role. They called me in to just read with another actor that they were busy casting. I went in and I was about five months pregnant. I just thought out of courtesy, because you couldn’t tell that I was pregnant, I thought let me tell them.”

Gail Mabalane

She said that she didn’t think it would be a big deal because by the time shooting would happen, her baby would be five-months-old and she would be able to jump straight back into work.

“Literally the next day, my legal guy was busy going through my contract, so I had already received the contract, and they were like ‘No. Sorry. We’re just not sure. We don’t know.’ I’m not sure if it was ‘we’re not sure that you’re going to lose the weight’ but I just couldn’t believe it,” she explained.

The challenges women in the industry face when falling pregnant has led some to not consider having kids. In an interview on Touch HD late last year, DJ Zinhle told Lalla Hirayama that it was a fear for her before she learned she was expecting.

“I was also scared of making a baby as someone in the industry. I was chatting with a friend the other day and they were like, ‘this is a problem with the woman in the industry.’ They forget their role of being a woman, like just being a woman. Now you just want to be the person in the industry full time.”

The DJ added that women need to take time out to live and not be pressured by the industry or even social media. “The industry should not rob us of other that privilege, like being someone’s wife or mother. The thing is, there are also things like Instagram that are just misleading all of us. It is just unrealistic.”

Actress Andrea Dondolo also told TshisaLIVE in an interview last year that the fear of being ill-treated or being out of a job because of pregnancy is part of the reason she waited until she was in her late 30s to have a child.

“In this industry, we are conditioned to think, ‘no let me not fall pregnant. What if a big job comes and I can’t do it because I’m pregnant’. This industry is often hostile to pregnant women. So before you realise it, it’s ten years later and this big job is yet to arrive.”

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Source: Times Live