Actors want Hudson out of Mandela film
By Alexandra Heilbron on December 7, 2009 | 13 Comments
South African actors are protesting the casting of Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Mandela in the biopic Winnie, because they don’t want foreign actors portraying South Africans. Though the film will be directed by South African filmmaker Darrell Roodt, Hudson was born in Chicago. No criticism was heard when Clint Eastwood cast Morgan Freeman (born in Memphis) as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon (born in Boston) as a South African rugby player in Invictus, perhaps because, although the movie was shot in South Africa, it was an American production. The Creative Workers Union of South Africa said using foreign actors to act in stories about their country undermines their efforts to develop a South African film industry. “It can’t happen that we want to develop our own Hollywood and yet bring in imports,” the union’s president Mabutho Sithole told The Citizen. “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.” ~Alexandra Heilbron
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Cry babies! Let Jennifer play the role.
she should fight it for discrimination in the work place. she was already hired, you cant change your mind now because youve decided she was born in chicago. she was born in chicago when she was cast in the first place.
No kidding. If they have such a problem with Hudson being in the film, they ought to have fought this BEFORE her casting was final, not after.
You see, this is the problem with ‘freedom of speech’…dumb@$$es who b!tch and whine over stupid things and screw things up for good people who really do have something to protest about.
freedom of speech is one thing, discrimination based on where you were born is a completely different thing. she needs to fight it if she wants respect from anyone.
Actors unions griping about the filmmaker’s hiring practices? Are they funding this movie? No, they’re just employees. The producers perhaps want to add some star power to the project to interest an american audience.
Besides, she’s the ideal girth hehe
Much and about nothing. When they South African’s made District 9 and potrayed Nigerians as cannibals they said “it’s just a movie”. So what’s the big deal with Hudson playing Winnie?
Jennifer Hudson is a talentless hack. She has no place in a movie about Mandela.
i agree with steve-o.always i’m getting tired of hudson.every time i opening a magazine i something about jennifer hudson.enough already!
Steve-o and darkangel, also South Africans let Jennifer shine. Who else would play that role other that a black woman herself who has experienced the life of a black woman first hand. What the South Africans don’t realize is that they are protesting the wrong thing. If they had a serious problem they should have protested the movie when news hit that it was going to be made. The movie itself can and will show the struggles Mandela went through as a black South African!
The south africans had no problem when oprah, an outsider, built them a $40 million school, but when it comes to a black AMERICAN woman making some money off of them it has to stop. Oprah is a fool for giving to these ingrates.
They even burnt, killed, and forced their fellow africans out of the country, and yet the oprah fool want this barbaric culture to dominate black life.
African culture is so evil and selfish all they want to do is take and never give anything back.
They want to develop their own film industry, which is fine, BUT they aren’t going to be making any money off their own people, the industry can’t thrive there alone. I think they should be more open to actors from other countries, especially rich countries, if they want their industry to survive at all.