How his mother's love for '90s action films inspired Emmanuel Kabongo's own acting career
From Denzel to Jean-Claude, the '21 Thunder' star talks about the icons that pushed his own career forward
Actor Emmanuel Kabongo currently stars on CBC's soccer drama 21 Thunder — but if things had gone another way, he would have been an athlete himself. He was entertaining a basketball scholarship when he saw himself on screen for the first time in Bryan MacDonald's short film Daniel, and decided at the last minute to turn the offer down in favour of pursuing acting full time. And once he did, he turned to one of his mother's favourite pastimes for inspiration.
"Taking acting serious came from watching how my mom reacted to films of the '90s," Kabongo says in the above video. "[She] loves Denzel, Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone...My mom watched all those movies growing up, and knowing how that made her feel, I just wanted to do the same thing for her."
Years later, he's definitely succeeded and admits his mother's favourite actor is no longer Denzel or Sylvester...it's Emmanuel.
Watch 21 Thunder Mondays at 9pm on CBC TV and online at cbc.ca/watch