JOHANNESBURG — Hollywood A-listers Laurence Fishburne and Orlando Jones are part of a star-studded cast that will bring the story of Nelson Mandela’s life as well as a-never-before-seen view of the struggle in a six-part mini-series.
Times Live
Fishburne has been cast in the lead role alongside Terry Pheto, who plays Winnie Mandela in BET’s upcoming mini-series, which is currently being filmed in Johannesburg.
The show is being directed by renowned Hollywood actor-turned-director Kevin Hooks.
The question of why Hollywood actors play lead roles in South African stories has been a long-standing debate over the years.
In 2013, local casting agent Moonyeenn Lee came under fire after British actor Idris Elba was cast to play the lead role of Madiba in the Nelson Mandela biopic, Long Walk to Freedom.
Madiba is produced by executive producer Lance Samuels and Madiba’s grandson, Kweku Mandela.
Samuels explained that it was about the marketability of a project, which needed a famous face attached to it.
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“To be honest, we were hoping to cast Nelson Mandela out of South Africa, but there were a number of things that worked against that. Just the business of raising the money against who the lead actor’s going to be is very difficult to use a South African because you need marketability. You need someone who is a name to get the show sold,” he said.
Samuels added that it had nothing to do with the acting abilities of South African stars.
“It’s got nothing to do with the ability of our South African actors, there are only a handful of A-list actors in the world— that’s just the reality, and when you attach them to your project, financers know there’s a better chance of your show being sold all over the world rather than when someone unknown. It’s just the nature of the business.”
This was when Samuels said that they decided to use an international actor for Nelson Mandela, but then committed that Winnie will be played by a local actress.
Another important factor for the producers was that the show should be directed by a black director.
“From day one it was extremely important to Kweku and myself that we’d have a black director. Interestingly enough, if you look at every other Mandela show or film, it has always been directed by a white, and that’s the craziest thing. How can the story of Nelson Mandela be directed by a white person, it needs tell the story of Nelson Mandela.”
Samuels explained that they interviewed directors all over the world and after five minutes of meeting Kevin Hooks they knew he was the man for the job.
“His commitment, his passion for the story and his love for Africa — we knew we had found our man.”
