Mandela’s a role I could not refuse: Fishburne
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Laurence Fishburne Laurence Fishburne
After Idris Elba’s portrayal of Nelson Mandela (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, 2013), you wouldn’t expect another production on the subject anytime soon. But yet another US big-screen giant, Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix Trilogy, Boyz N’ the Hood), is in the country to make a TV series on Mandela. What else is there to tell?, you might ask.
“This story will be relevant for the ages. It is not just a South African story, it’s a world story. The man has inspired so many people, while he was incarcerated and while he was out. There are very few historical figures who an actor like me will get an opportunity to play, so when I was offered the part I jumped at it. I could not refuse it,” said Fishburne, who plays Mandela.
The actor had just finished shooting a scene of the upcoming production, Madiba, which BET will release next year, and mentioned why this is different from what we have seen before.
“We have six hours to tell this story and no one has had that long before. We are different in that we are able to include not just Winnie (Mandela), but we have Joe Slovo, Bishop Tutu, Robert Sobukwe and a lot of other people. We have a multitude of people that even young South Africans may not know of today. The international community will also come in and exclaim that they did not know this or that.
“Our advantage is that we have a much bigger canvas to bring in a lot of different elements and you can start to see all the people who were instrumental in dismantling this horrible system of injustice,” he explained.
He added that no matter how good this show may be, Madiba is only made for one season.
“This is going to be six episodes and then we are done. We have to cut it off. It is a once-off production, but it is a good one,” he said.
Given that the Elba movie was made not so long ago, and several others before that, it was intriguing to learn why we should care about this particular project.
“It’s been only 20 years so the history is palpable. If you throw a rock, chances are it will hit someone with another Madiba story. It is all around you and the preparation was easy thanks to that,” said Fishburne.
Mandela had many layers to him and Fishburne respects that so much, that he’s put in the work to make his version of the revered man believable.
“I have to sit in a make-up chair for an hour every day to get the look right. They have to paint my hair and do things to my face. I am not as tall as he was. Madiba was a giant. I am tall, but he was a tall dude. He was over six feet, and to get that tall I have to act it out. My closest attributes are that I have a similar kind of colouring and Chinese eyes, but other than that, I don’t really look like him, but that’s not the point. There are so many guys who’ve played him, but many of them did not look like him. The point is to try and capture the spirit of the man in the story. For me, it is about getting out of the way and letting the spirit of the man take over,” he pointed out.
While looks were just one of the challenges, the political figure’s native language was also a hurdle to be overcome.
“Xhosa is really difficult for anyone but a Xhosa-speaking person. Most of the Xhosa- speaking people give you a pass. Even though Madiba was Xhosa, he was an eloquent English speaker and writer. He used words like ‘yah’ and ‘chap’ a lot. He was erudite. His vocabulary was a mash-up of different things. He was able to disarm people with his comic timing. He used it surgically. The best way I can say it is that he was part politician, part freedom fighter, part prisoner and part stand-up comic because he is funny as hell,” said Fishburne.
Apart from Elba, actors including Terrence Howard, Morgan Freeman and Sidney Poitier have played Mandela and that made Fishburne carefully consider whether to take the role.
“I said I would like to play the part and then 10 minutes later I panicked and asked myself, ‘what are you doing?’ I made a trip here last November and went to the foundation where I saw his personal effects. Among them was a statue of a man named Thurgood Marshall who was a black American lawyer who became the first Supreme Court justice in our country. He argued a famous case which ended legal segregation. I had the same statue and I got it from the same people who gave it to Mandela. It was with that that I thought, ‘this is meant to be’,” he said.
• Madiba will air on BET (DStv channel 129) next year.