Andrew Worsdale and Phillip Kakaza
Announcing at the Cannes Film Festival this week that he would begin shooting the film of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography in October, South African producer Anant Singh said he was still searching for the right man to play the lead role. He said he hoped to find an African for that part in the movie, to be directed by IndianShekar Kapur of Bandit Queen fame.
But will an African get the part? Could Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, Patrick Shai or John Kani be in the running? Or will the role go to an American superstar (Denzel Washington’s name springs to mind) to provide bankability?
Most casting directors contacted by the Mail & Guardian said they believed Singh and his casting director Christa Schamberger (who has cast many international productions, including the recent Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean) are doing their utmost to find a South African or at least African to play Madiba.
Others in the industry think they’ll go for a “whitewash” – meaning that Washington, Wesley Snipes or Morgan Freeman are possible choices.
A compromise solution could be a big star like Washington as the young Mandela and Kani, say, as the older statesman. But a difficulty the film-makers face is the structure of the script by William Nicholson (the Shadowlands playwright who scripted Sarafina for Singh). In order to add narrative interest to the basic history of the herdboy who became president, his script is constructed around a series of flashbacks, as the older Mandela looks back on his life. This requires the same actor to play the young and old Mandela, or continuity will suffer and the contrast will be too jarring.
The film-makers are looking for someone in the 30-40-year-old range. Make-up and latex will be used to age the living legend. Another difficulty, though, is that most local black actors are too dark to play the role, and Mandela is tall – so if the actor has the Khoi-San-type features, he might need high-heels. Henry Cele of Shaka Zulu fame, for example, has the stature, but he’s just too black.
Speaking from his suite at the Hotel Majestic on the Cannes sea promenade, Singh told the M&G: “This film has been entrusted to me to make first and foremost as a South African picture. Denzel Washington is a personal friend of mine and I haven’t even spoken to him about it. I’d be the most pleased if Madiba was played by a South African, but it’s incredibly difficult to cast – he’s got to be 6’3″ and we’ve got to age him up and down.”
As for the fact that he has chosen Kapur to direct and Nicholson to write the script, he is frank.
“People mustn’t be short-sighted. I’m sure some are going to criticise me, but, listen, there 161 speaking parts in this script, so that’s a big slice of pie.”
But, with an estimated budget of over R100-million, there’s going to be a lot of work for members of the local industry come October.
We asked some local actors and film-makers what they thought of the film-makers’ casting dilemma.
To play Mandela, actor Eric Myeni suggested “Aggrey Lonake, who imitated Mandela on the Felicia Mabuza-Suttle show. No one else in South Africa does Mandela’s accent as well as he does. To cast an international actor will be a big joke. But maybe we need overseas stars as supporting actors to draw audiences.”
Playwright and film-maker Duma ka Ndlovu was on the side of the film-makers. He said, “I think it should be left to the director to choose the right actors.”
Theatre director Fred Abrahams said, “It definitely should not be Hollywood. It is an African story that should be acted by local unknown actors. John Kani is a phenomenal actor but he is well known and should not be acting in it. I can’t think of a name but there must be an actor in the sub-continent of Africa to tell a true African story.”
Community theatre worker Mziwakhe “Sticks” Mdidimba agreed. “For the empowerment of local actors, I feel South African actors should be cast. If the director wants good quality he has to look here at home – we have good film actors, including Eric Myeni, who acted in Molo Fish and David Fortune who acted the role of Raymond Mhlaba.”