Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Madela in new film

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 8:44pm

South Africans are furious with the casting of Jennifer Hudson as Nelson Mendela's ex-wife. This is what people have to say about the casting:

"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."

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/afp-south-africa-jennifer-hudson.html




Updated On: 8/9/13 at 08:44 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 8:47pm

Well they should be furious because she as an actress has no business playing that role.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 9:25pm

The people of Argentina didn't want Madonna playing Eva Peron (they didn't want a whore playing a whore).

[Q]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 9:32pm

Good luck fighting the 'machine' - or getting the people with money on the line to agree.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 9:33pm

Did they object to Morgan Freeman playing Mandela in INVICTUS?

[CAX]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 9:35pm

They sure as hell should have, with Morgan Freeman dating his damn granddaughter.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 9:36pm

This also reminds me of when Mexican-American activists protested the casting of Jennifer López (a Nuyorican) as Selena (a Chicana). They demanded an actress with Mexican roots. But it didn't change the outcome in either case, and I hope it doesn't here, either.

[Q]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 9:37pm

"Morgan Freeman dating his damn granddaughter"

???

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:05pm

She's his step-granddaughter, but yes.

http://www.celebutopia.net/2009/07/wtf-morgan-freeman-dating-step-granddaughter/

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:11pm

Her name is E'dena! I want to know so much more about this.

I think good old J Hud might not quite have the chops, not to mention the gravitas, for this role, but who knows?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:24pm

Jennifer Hudson is playing Winnie Mandela in a musical version of "Long Road to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela"?

Did I miss something?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:26pm

Or is it a musical version of "Part of My Soul Went With Him" by Winnie Mandela, called "Call Me Winnie!"?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:26pm

I can't imagine why anyone would give a flying fu*k what South Africans, or anyone else wants?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:27pm

Wouldn't it be FUN if the Wicked book writer did it?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:32pm

They could call it "Winnie Does Winnie."

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 10:00am

I was lucky enough to watch a perfectly horrible staged reading of...wait for it..."MANDELA! the musical". It was wonderfully horrible. The girl who played Winnie had braces and was a foot taller than Nelson...and tone deaf.

Hudson can only be an improvement.

Oh, and Judy Kaye played a journalist.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 5:40pm

According to an interview with Clint Eastwood on Ellen, Freeman was asked by Mandella himself to play him. Seems they have wanted him to play Mandella for a long time.

[danmag]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 5:47pm

Wait, Morgan and his step-granddaughter???

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

[CAX]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 8:49pm

Danmag--- Yep. Read it and wince. I have heard it said quite a lot that Mr. Freeman is a full on wackadoodle. I am probably in the minority but I haven't been impressed with anything he has made on film in a couple of decades. Every movie he plays himself.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:27pm

oops. wrong thread!

[nygrl232]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 5:42pm

So it's okay for America to import talent from all over the world (and take jobs away from American actors), but no one else?

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 5:47pm

They said nothing about Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon playing white Afrikaaners in movies and in Damon's case he is playing Francois Pienaar who is probably one of the most celebrated athletes of the country.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 6:20pm

Morgan Freeman is dating his step-grandaughter. That's pretty gross.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 6:42pm

I thought it was just a rumor. I remember seeing that BBC special of Stephen Fry traveling around America in an old school taxi cab and he goes to see Morgan Freeman's bar/club down south. Morgan definitely came off as a 'player' for sure, cameras had him flirting and dancing with different ladies. Well he is single and he is Morgan Freeman and they may not be blood related but yeah.... that's just gross. To be specific the girl in question is the granddaughter of his ex-wife, a wife that he had a full-grown child with.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 3:30pm

The film will finally have a release on September 6, 2013 and here is the new trailer for it.


VIDEO: First Trailer for WINNIE MANDELA Biopic Starring Jennifer Hudson