Jennifer Hudson to play Winnie Mandela
Story by Jack Foley
OSCAR-winning actress actress Jennifer Hudson is to play the former wife of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela in a new film.
Winnie will examine the complicated life of the wife and mother who steadfastly supported her activist husband in his fight against Apartheid.
It will show how she was jailed for campaigning for his release and will examine her association with a bodyguard who murdered a 14-year-old alleged informer, right through to her conviction for fraud.
Commenting on the opportunity, Hudson told Variety: “Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I’m honoured to be the actress asked to portray her. This is a powerful part of history that should be told.”
Hudson is a former American Idol contestant who went on to win the Oscar for her first starring role in Dreamgirls
Winnie will be directed by Darrell J. Roodt on location in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.
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