Evelyn Kironde Namatovu, A Muse With An Edge!

The beauty queen-turned-actress on life, work and evolving

Evelyn Kironde Namatovu is very beautiful! Her face is one, from the moment you set your eyes on it, will spark fire. That memory will linger on in your mind rent free, and constantly resurface every often. This, and more, are the many ‘superlative laced’ profiles she’s read or heard about herself. However, just like they say, (although it’s hard to believe), ‘beautiful’ and ‘unhappy’ always tow behind each other. It’s not easy being beautiful.

“No, it’s not,” she tells me. “The daunting part is getting put in a box that you are just a ‘pretty face’. I’ve had a generous share of challenges, where I’ve had to prove myself almost every time, work harder than everyone else and so much more, to prove that I’m much more than what meets the eye.”

However, Namatovu still admits that if it wasn’t for her beauty, perhaps she wouldn’t have gotten the colorful career she has. The highlight of it being her role on ‘Prestige’, DSTV’s hit TV show. She plays Chelsea Kintu, a girl with unresolved feelings of hatred and anger towards her mother. She doesn’t know who she is outside her mother’s plans for her. In her powerlessness, to please her mother, she looks to control those aspects of her life that she can – her outward appearance.

When I ask if she bears a few similar traits with Chelsea she laughs, “Just a few!” “Actually, the dramatic side of Chelsea is hard to play. I always have to prepare myself. I try so much to embody that character to be able to play it well. I get to watch my favourite actors and actresses for inspiration and feed off what I see.” She goes ahead to admit that both Chelsea and Namatovu do have a meeting point as well – both are humble, selfless, hardworking and love fashion.

Namatovu’s career didn’t start off in film, but rather fashion. It all started with her enrolling as a model with Joram Model Management in 2016, whilst pursuing her degree at Makerere University Business School. One of her reasons for giving modelling a shot was admittedly ‘money’. In an interview with Sqoop Magazine, she recounts how she had gotten tired of bothering her parents for pocket money.

“I had gotten to a point where I was tired of asking my parents for pocket money. I don’t think it is a great idea to constantly ask our parents for money. The habit can become quite irritating,” she told the publication. She had to juggle coursework with booking shows and walking runways.

It is here that she landed the opportunity to run for Miss Uganda in 2016 and later Miss International, for which she represented Uganda in Japan and finished in top 3. Namatovu describes pageantry as “a rollercoaster that’s also a great learning experience.” Beauty pageants are known to boost confidence of winners and crush that of losers. When I quiz her about this, she’s quick to disagree. “Honestly, just like every competition, there will be only one winner. During bootcamp, young women are trained to pick so much more than just a crown at the end of the race. After all, it’s just one crown,” she explains. “I owe almost everything I know now to pageantry.”

Indeed, Namatovu’s ‘beauty queen’ status contributed to her landing the role of Chelsea. Nana Kagga, one of the casting directors of the hit TV show at the time, recalls how she landed the role, describing the audition as ‘unusual’. “She looked perfect, but there was something about her eyes. I knew there was a crazy side to her, which I’m glad I pushed her to the wall to unravel,” she recalls.

Namatovu says her experience auditioning for the role was both nerve wracking and exciting. “It’s one of those uncomfortable experiences I’m glad I went through. I was tense, well, because I had never done an audition where I had to slightly jump out of my comfort zone,” she recalls. “It was worth it though; I landed a lead role.”

Now, with the show in it’s second season, it’s fair to say that she has become accustomed to the demands of the acting world.

“I’ve learned that the job is far from easy, especially when it comes to planning time. I’m now a great time keeper,” she says. “I’ve learned to be patient; I’ve always been patient but it has since gotten elevated because of this experience. I’ve also learned that creating a great project is a process, one that requires commitment. I’m also learning to work with people. I’m such an introvert, and this is a great learning curve for me. Of course, you can’t be on the same project with people like Cleopatra Koheirwe and not have a great deal of learning. You are consistently learning and evolving. Who wouldn’t want that?”

The 26-year-old has indeed evolved. This year in April, she fronted Kwesh’s SS21 collection with a colourful campaign, a bust of bold colours, prints and fluid silhouettes. “It was such a thrill doing that campaign, by far my best experience as a model. Plus, also working with Juliana and her team, she’s such a professional, who takes her work so serious. She also values models, I’ll never forget that. It was such an experience,” she tells me.

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Now, she’s starring on the cover of our November issue. For this particular project, Mavo Kampala, the stylist and creative director, looked around for a face that would imbue his concept and only Namatovu could. Titled ‘Silver Bloom’, it is inspired by flowers and their exotic beauty. “Only Evelyn could bring this to life,” he tells me. “She’s uniquely beautiful. But there’s something beyond her beauty, and it’s that she can morph into literally anything. I didn’t think twice about her.”

“Mavo says only my face had the features to bring this concept to life,” she laughs. “Of course, I pinch myself every time I hear this. It was such an honour shooting this story. Seeing that the concept was created just for me. Again, who wouldn’t want that?”

Albeit being tight-lipped about what she’s coming up with next, she’s generous to share that it’s a lot. “I’m working on a lot, most of it being charity projects and a slew of ‘personal hustles’. I’m really grateful to be able to do what I desire to do.”

Clearly, she’s on a train that does not look like it is losing steam soon. “With how the pandemic affected the creative industry, I taught myself to be versatile and that has helped me stay innovative with my work,” she says, in closing, “plus I love research and this has greatly enabled me to evolve.”