African are against Jennifer Hudson playing Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife in the biopic about Nelson Mandela. It seems that they would like to tell the story themselves without the use of foreign actors. According to Hello Beautiful, The Creative Workers Union of South Africa said using foreign actors to tell the country’s stories undermined efforts to develop the national film industry, according to the AFP.
“It can’t happen that we want to develop our own Hollywood and yet bring in imports,” the union’s president Mabutho Sithole said in The Citizen newspaper.
“This decision must be reversed, it must be stopped now,” union secretary general Oupa Lebogo said in The Times. “If the matter doesn’t come up for discussion, we will push for a moratorium to be placed on the film.”
J-Hud landed the role of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela last month. As previously reported, the film will be directed by South African film-maker Darrell J. Roodt, whose films include “Cry, The Beloved Country” and “Sarafina.”
Does this mean that they are planning to do their own version? It seems like they want more control over the version being done by USA studios. I see their point because the movie is about one of their countries leaders. However, like the old saying, if you want something done right do it yourself. Perhaps they should create their own version and leave USA to theirs.
