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Becoming Madiba

Hollywoods finest leading men reveal How tHey prepared to take on tHe role of a lifetime

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a rare and daunting pressure rests upon the shoulders of any actor tackling the lead role of a biopic. But when the man you are slated to portray is a beloved, larger-than-life global symbol of strength, endurance and triumphant peace, the actor also carries the weighty hopesand expecta-tionsof millions.

nailing the cadence and charm of nelson Mandela can take hours, weeks and, in the case of Morgan Freeman, years of practice. For Free-

man, and others given the honor of portraying the south african statesman, projecting Mandelas moral authority could not simply be imitated; it had to be woven into the very fabric of the actor. the ultimate payoff of this anxiety-filled task for a performer was to receive the blessing of Madiba himself. Just ask this elite club of brave hearts who have each walked in Mandelas shoes via the small and silver screens: danny glover (Mandela, 1987); sidney poitier (Mandela & de Klerk, 1997); dennis

Idris Elba stands as the proud and defiant leader in the 2013 film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

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ment, i didnt think it would work, but i couldnt turn down this challenge. For me, Mandela is probably one of the top five human beings who have existed on this planet. Youre talking about a man who has changed an entire country and its entire political structure. How many people in history have actually done that? Mahatma gandhi comes close, but gan-dhi didnt become the president of his country. Being in south africa was really

who were a part of the liberation fight. so there were people in the audience who have seen the real Mandela speak and talk, and here i was. i didnt look like him, and i wasnt south african, and here i was trying to portray their godfather.

there were moments when i would look into an extras eyes, and there was not a line between us. the audience [believed] what i was saying and gave me the energy. those were moments where it felt real connected; moments of achievement.

from Ebony.com, 2013

Dennis HaysbertBille august, the director [of Goodbye Bafana], called to offer me the role and told me the story about Mandela and the prison guard who watched over him, spied on him, read his letters, then edited his letters. as a matter of fact, during the conversation, i think i was actually considering turning it down. at that mo-

Haysbert (Goodbye Bafana, 2007); Morgan Freeman (Invictus, 2009); david Harewood (Mrs. Mandela, 2010); terrence Howard (Winnie, 2011); and idris elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, 2013).

some of these leading men have opened up about what it was like to rise to the oc-casion by not only re-enacting the south african leaders political victories but also portraying his personal struggles with class, charisma and accuracy.

idris elbaHe was very enigmatic; a very charismatic man. a good-looking man, too! He was very confident and a great orator who could real-ly command some attention. His sex appeal was certainly a part of that. While i hate to talk about ityou know mei channeled whatever it is im blessed with to bring it across [in playing] Mandela.

there were moments where i was doing these big crowd scenes with many extras

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daunting for me because it didnt take long for people to find out that there was a movie being done about Madiba. people from every walk of life came up to me and said, Youre going to do this role right. it was a lot of pressure.

i read everything i could find. What i discoveredand what many people dont knowis that he wanted to be a boxer, he had a wicked sense of humor and he was a prankster. those were some of the things that you never really hear about. When he was in the limestone quarries mining, his tear ducts were infected and had to be tak-en out, so he could [no longer] cry. With all the tough things that happened to him, he could not cry. the only way that you could tell that he was sad was in his voice. of course, that was tough on me because i am a very emotional person and actor. so for some of the hardships he suffered and that i had to portray, i had to really hold back the tears. each day i would go

back to my hotel and for at least a half hour or houri actually get emotional just thinking about iti would go back to my hotel room and have a good crying session. i would have to release it. to be filming those prison scenes and not be able to release it was extremely difficult. every night, id open up a bottle of wine and have a good cry.

i had an opportunity to meet Mandela while i was shooting, but i couldnt do it. its just the way i work. it would have changed the way i was portraying him if i had met him midway through the shoot. i [never got another] opportunity to meet him. His legacy is his love for his country and his countrymen, be they Black or White, male or female. this was a man who truly loved all of his people. i dont think he loved his Black african broth-ers more than he loved his White african brothers. He was open, honest and had a very devout love for all his people.

David Harewoodeverybody thinks [he or she] knows what Mandela did, but its only when you really explore what he went through that you get a sense of the man. i was very fortunate to have had quite a long lead-up before shooting [the movie]. it was about three months, and during that period, i really got to explore him and his biography. i was just really amazed at his capacity to reach out and his strength.

When i got to south africa and went to get my medical exam, i learned that the doctor who was doing the exam had been-Madibas personal physician. He actually rang Mandelas house and put me on the phone to talk to him. then the housekeep-er said, Madiba wants to wish you the best of luck. Hes very tired right now, and he just wants to wish you the best and hopes that you get it right. Just having his bless-ing was good enough for me.

i read so much about his amazing po-litical achievements, his amazing strength, but i had no idea that he had this personal fight going on as well. it was most sur-prising and quite heartbreaking to think about the woman he loved and had spent so much time away from, that their mar-riage had crumbled. unfortunately, i think he blamed himself for exposing Winnie to the terrors of the south african state. i had no idea that Winnie spent some 365 days in solitary confinement. and over the years, nelson became aware that she had changed. When Mandela finally came out, Winnie really was not the same woman he married, and i dont think people quite un-derstood just what kind of toll that took on him. He really did love her. the love letters he wrote to her from prison were extraordi-nary, beautiful, romantic letters.

My job was to portray the reality of their relationship. they spent a majority of their time apart, and they grew up apart. dur-ing the visits while Mandela was impris-oned for 27 years, you could see there was a gradual decline in Winnies sense of self, and i think upon getting out, Mandela be-lieved that it was all going to be like it was before. i think he still had this romantic notion that they would pick up where they left off, but she was a very different woman. she was not the gentle, meek wife hed left years before.

in spite of it all, Madiba leaves us with the idea that its possible to forgive your en-emy, and that its possible and achievable to look beyond the hatred, to look beyond any form of prejudice and reach out and take the

Clockwise from above: Dennis Haysbert as prisoner Mandela in the film Goodbye Bafana; Alfre Woodard and Danny Glover star in the

1987 TV movie Mandela; in Invictus, Morgan Freeman gives an Oscar-nominated performance; David Harewood, with Sophie Okonedo,

shows Madibas softer side in the BBC series Mrs. Mandela.

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Mandela is probably one of the top five

human beings who have ever existed on

this planet.

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ligations. the father of the nation is usu-ally less than the father of his family.

from The New York Times, 2009

sidney Poitierthis incredible man has [such] a wisdom and a compassion and a selflessness and, indeed, a universality that he appears saintly, almost godly, if you will. no actor in the world can play Mandela better than Mandela, and he has played it for all the world to see. i think the best way is to cre-ate a reflection of the essence of the man, his values and his philosophy.

accepting [the role] was never a ques-tion. For me, it was how the character fash-ioned from an extraordinary life, whether it complimented the mention of this phe-nomenon we know as nelson Mandela, how close it came to reflecting the essence of the man; that was the only consideration for me. never the question of whether i would accept the role. When i came back [to south africa] i began to feel a dif-ference; i began to see a difference, and ev-erywhere i went, it was almost the opposite of what i had experienced many years ago. and i was very pleasedexhilarated,as a matter of factto experience that feeling in the air [here in Cape town].

from The Los Angeles Times, 1996; and Reuters, 1996

hand of your enemy; to not only understand your enemy but negotiate with him for the greater good. thats something that we se-riously lack in our world now, people who are big enough to reach out and take the hand of their enemy. We live in very violent times, and there dont seem to be statesmen who can really lead us through. Mandelas legacy will be one of a man who did have the strength and principle not only to under-stand his enemy but also to love him.

Danny Gloverive been to south africa at least 35 times; however, i met nelson Mandela on his very first visit to Boston. there was a lunch for him at the Kennedy Library in June of 1990, almost four years before the election. i did a movie in 1986 that we shot in Zim-babwe. Because you could not in any way show him or [play] his speeches, no one had really seen Madiba since about 1964. i knew a great deal about him and you look for everything you can when youre developing a character. the first part of it certainly is that you make the words your own. His great speech on the dock before sentencing is not unlike dr. Kings speech at the March on Washington in 1963. and i believed that they were my words. to be able to transpose those ideas as an actor is an important element of it. they werent simply words on a page; they were my words, and i took ownership of the words. once you take ownership of the words, you take ownership of their relationship to you.

from South African Broadcasting Company, 2013

morgan FreemanHe said he wanted me. so it [happened]. that was the whole sanction, right there. i told him that if i was going to play him, i was going to have to have access to him, and i would have to hold his hand and watch him up close and personal. Whenever weve been in proximity in one city or another, i have had access to him. as an actor, youre looking for the physical: how he stands, how he walks, how he talks, nuances he has in terms of tics or movements. things that sort of define him. the inner life has to come off the page.

Knowing what i know of Madiba person-ally, his real concern was not for what he did but more for what he didnt do. He had family obligations that he couldnt live up to because he was in prison, and they just wouldnt allow it. He had so many other ob-

Sentenced to life in prison, Mandela, portrayed here by Sidney Poitier, was released after serving 27 years.

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