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Star Trekking – an Interview with Jo-Ann Strauss
Jo-Ann Strauss puts on the kettle and makes a cup of coffee in her glamorous apartment overlooking Table Mountain in Cape Town.
Two mild cups a day is her fix. “I’m a much happier camper now,” she smiles, brew in hand as she makes herself comfortable in her open plan office which doubles as her ‘shoe room’.
“I love shoes,” she smiles, having landed from Paris the day before where she bought a pair of dazzling pink sandals with 12-centimetre heels for summer.
“I literally had 30 minutes to shop on the Champs Èlysèes before I flew home, and the moment I saw them I wanted them: they’re a combination of S&M meets gladiator meets lady-next-door. Neon pink suede with lots of straps, they’re “very unsensible but fabulous!” she laughs. Jo-Ann is known for her laugh. Sometimes she laughs uncontrollably for several minutes during a shoot and her crew knows there is no stopping her. “I love laughing, it’s healthy!”
Some good, healthy laughing was the order of the day during her Top Billing shoot at Sainte Anne Resort and Spa in the Seychelles. “It’s situated on an incredible private island in a marine reserve, and during the shoot we visited this tiny, 0.089-square kilometre island, next to it where I met the coolest guy. He made me laugh.
“He’s about 85, his name is Brendan Grimshaw, he used to be an English newspaper editor and he has this cutting English sense of humour. He bought his tiny island in the ’70s where he lives with 100 giant tortoises and signs all over the place saying ‘Tortoises have right of way’. He also has three pirate graves on his farm and he buried his Dad, who lived out his last years with him on the island, next to the pirates.
“Apart from being incredibly funny, he was inspirational, running around with great agility, being highly entertaining and welcoming, with one proviso: everyone has to leave his island at 5pm!” Rumour has it there is about 30-million pounds’ worth of treasure still buried on his island but he stopped digging years ago. “I think he has found it,” says Jo-Ann. “His island is his treasure. How insane to be able to live like this.”
The concept of an island retreat appeals to her “because we get so bombarded with what we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to want that it would be a good way to spend some time with your own brain and daydream and be whoever you feel like being.”
She leads the kind of lifestyle that many would find enviable, but it doesn’t leave her with much time to daydream.
Following her Seychelles trip, she visited over 12 European cities with Top Billing, shooting non-stop and having to be in upbeat, presenter mode, day after day.
Her European tour included a Mediterranean cruise, boarding at Valencia in Spain, and sailing to Ibiza,Tunisia, Sicily, Naples… Asked what she enjoyed most about the cruise, she laughs: “The dance-off competition my director and I had with our soundman and cameraman, but they’ll kill me if I say that, so I’ll say Tunisia,” she laughs. “I really enjoyed Tunis: it’s such a beautiful city, part Italian, part Arabic and part French. It’s also an incredibly tolerant community with a Jewish synagogue next to a mosque next to a Roman Catholic church and everyone chats outside after prayers.”
From here she went to Rome and Sorrento in Southern Italy where she cooked with two real Italian mamas. “They looked exactly like the Italian mamas you see in the adverts and they took me in, handed me an apron and taught me to make the most amazing dish: eggplant stuffed with mozzarella and basil and then cooked in fresh tomato.
“I don’t really cook but they had me cooking! Actually the only dish I can cook is biryani. My mom taught me. She said at least this way I can cook one dish to impress my man.”
Her Mom, Ingrid Strauss, is on her way to Jo-Ann’s apartment as we speak, but with more than spices on her plate. She’s Jo-Ann’s PA and she holds the reigns when her daughter is away. Not only to sort out some of her speaking and charity engagements, but also to oversee the general admin for Jo-Ann’s Corporate Social Investment business.
With a B.Com Law degree, and the first year of her MBA well on its way, Jo-Ann is an astute businesswoman who runs her own company and sits on a number of boards. She is also the chairperson of the Partnership Foundation Trust, which equips learners with much-needed skills to build a successful South Africa.
“There is time for everything if you plan properly,” says this woman of 28 years who brims with vital force and works out three to four times a week. I love the stepping machines and I have a Power Plate machine here at home – it’s excellent for toning.”
Plenty of exercise means she can eat what she likes and Jo-Ann eats “everything”. “My favourite food is a porcini mushroom risotto. I don’t believe in denying myself anything this good. What I do instead is eat in moderation.”
Encouraging her healthy lifestyle is her handsome, sporty boyfriend. A medical doctor, he is very private and prefers to keep out of the media.
Asked whether marriage is on the cards she says: “I might get married some day. My parents have been happily married for 30 years so I have good role models but marriage is not something that preoccupies me.”
What preoccupies her at the moment is the Lux Beauty Body Wash campaign. “I signed the contract earlier this year and it’s a career highlight for me.”
Lux adverts have always featured top celebrities, beauties and movie stars going all the way back to ’40s. Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Hunter Tylo, Rachel Weisz, Sarah Jessica Parker and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
“Essentially, this campaign puts me in the company of good women and it gives me a sense of coming full circle as Lux sponsored me during my Miss South Africa 2000 reign. Gosh, that was a good nine years ago!”
Jo-Ann has done quite a bit of glamour work since then, including modelling alongside supermodels Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Elle McPherson and Helena Christensen in Barcelona. In her role as Top Billing presenter she has interviewed international celebrities like Charlize Theron, Antonia Banderas, George Clooney and Bono.
“Personally I don’t want to be a big Hollywood star or a supermodel. I’m happy with who I am and where I am right now,” says Jo-Ann who landed her first acting role last year. “I had six lines playing a pushy international journalist in a German movie,” she smiles. “It’s a feel-good movie about saving whales from these oil companies that are drilling using a technology that disorientates the whales’ sonar.”
Called The Secret of the Whales it premieres in Berlin next year. “I really enjoyed the experience and they had these incredible special-effect whales that look absolutely real.”
Perhaps she is cut out to be a movie star after all.
“The reason I don’t believe in setting my sights on this kind of goal is because I think it stops you from seeing all the opportunities that God gives you every day.”
She follows the Christian faith and believes in religious tolerance “because in the end I believe we are praying to the same God using different names and different channels”. Right now she’s enjoying the opportunity to spend time at home with her thoughts and her work in South Africa.
“I love it here and I find so many of the everyday heroes I meet in South Africa inspiring. Like the Shoprite Women of the Year. These are women who have hardly any money themselves and yet they choose to support many orphaned children out of the goodness of their hearts.This is inspirational!” This, and her incredible mountain view.
Text by Heather Dugmore. Photos by Anthony Friend and Charl Marais. Taken from the September 2009 edition of Longevitv.
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