Hudson talks of honour in role of Winnie
Winnie, which will star Oscar-winner Hudson in the title role and Terrence Howard as the former South African president, starts filming in South Africa on May 31.
But Ms Madikizela-Mandela, as she has been known since her divorce, is understood to be unhappy about the biopic, which is based on Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob’s biography, Winnie Mandela: A Life.
A spokesperson for the film said its producer Andre Pieterse and director Darrell Roodt met lawyers representing Ms Madikizela- Mandela and refused to give her script approval because they wanted to preserve the integrity of the film.
Speaking in Cannes yesterday, Hudson, 28, insisted the movie would let movie-goers make up their own minds about the controversial figure.
“I feel like it’s not biased at all, one way or the other,” she said. “It puts it out there for you to decide on your own, but it does put it out there, and I think that’s the important thing.”
The actress said it was an “honour” to be cast in the lead role: “There’s definitely a story that’s worth being told, and I’m still shocked that I get to be a part of this and I get to portray this role... It’s just such an honour.”
Roodt said: “It’s not a film for Winnie Mandela, it’s a film about Winnie Mandela, and we are treating the material with the greatest respect.”
Ms Madikizela-Mandela remains a contentious figure in South African history – she was considered key to the anti-apartheid struggle, but was later convicted of fraud and theft.
She and Nelson Mandela divorced in 1996, six years after he was released from prison.
Meanwhile, Woody Allen’s latest mix of comedy and drama, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, premiered Saturday at the festival. With an ensemble cast, it deals with familiar issues at the heart of the filmmaker’s 40-some movies – love, death, aging, romance between older men and younger women.
The film features Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Gemma Jones and Freida Pinto as an ensemble of Londoners coping with failing marriage, stymied ambition, the yearning for new relationships and the fear of mortality.
Speaking about the film’s themes, Allen said: “The only way that you can be happy is if you tell yourself some lies and deceive yourself, and I’m not the first person to say this or the most articulate person on it. It was said by Nietzsche, it was said by Freud, it was said by Eugene O’Neill. One must have one’s delusions to live. You look at life too honestly and clearly, life does become unbearable, because it’s a pretty grim enterprise, you must admit.”
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