Some are protesting the casting of Jennifer Hudson in new film.Johannesburg, South Africa. Some South African actors have spoken in opposition of the casting of Oscar winning actress Jennifer Hudson in a film about the life of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The Creative Workers Union of South Africa recently stated that the use of foreign actors for films such as the one to tell the story of the former wife of South Africa’s first black president hinders efforts for expanding the film industry in the country on a broad scale.Mabutho Sithole, President of the union, is quoted by AFP as stating to The Citizen newspaper on the matter, “It can’t happen that we want to develop our own Hollywood and yet bring in imports… This decision must be reversed, it must be stopped now… If the matter doesn’t come up for discussion, we will push for a moratorium to be placed on the film.”As noted in the report, Hudson was cast for the role last month.Controvery has always followed Winnie Madikizela-Mandela like a giant shadow she just couldn’t shake off. Even now her unauthorised film biography is embroiled in controversy.News that a film is to be made of her life, with former American Pop Idols contestant Jennifer Hudson, playing the leading role, has sent local actors and actresses reaching for their affirmative action vuvuzelas and making noise.The Creative Workers Union of South Africa, leading the cacophony of howls, claims that using foreign actors to tell South African stories undermined efforts to develop a national film industry.Udo Froese, a close friend of Madikizela-Mandela, says: “There’s a lot of good local talent, why not use them? Winnie herself is not involved in this, and in no way has given any sort of green light.”Duh, it’s not a movie commissioned by Winnie of South Africa for that matter. It’s only a movie about her.The film is an unofficial biography by Anna Marie du Preez, a local journalist and will be directed by local film maker Darrell J. Roodt, who also directed Cry, The Beloved Country and Sarafina.Now what the local natives don’t understand is that the film industry is a business, and money talks and bulshit walks. The movie has nothing to do with ubuntu, economic empowerment or affirmative action. It’s an outside production. If they want to do their own version of a Winnie movie, they are free to do so. But what they can’t do is piggyback on those who took the initiative – for comercial reason I must add – and then dictate what should happen and who should be cast.The movie has to sell for its producers to give investors the expected returns on their investments. Political sentiment never paid anybody’s bills. Instead of criticising, we should be glad that Hollywood is taking an interest in our stories for a change.Our actors and the rest of the noise makers should understand that one has to develop him or herself into a brand to be marketable. Take the leader of the Creative Workers Union of South Africa leader, Kid Sithole for instance; who in Korea, Vietnam, Senegal, Morocco or Russia would go watch the movie if he was the lead actor?Good stories neeed big names to sell. Viewers need names they know. If you want to sell to the global audience, you go for a name even mainland Chinese would recognise and say “aah, Jehnifah hassen, pop adols”.Hudson is not a bad choice, except she should play Winnie in the later years, because the “mother of the nation” has only gained weight as she got over 50. She was always slim and trim and wore her dresses well – except the rediculous hats of course.Sidney Poitier played Nelson Mandela and Michael Caine the apartheid leader F. W. de Klerk in Mandela and De Klerk (1997), in a made-for-TV movie. Morgan Freeman plays the old man in Invictus, a recent movie about how Madiba and Francois Pienaar united the nation around the 1995 rugby world cup, which SA won. . Matt Dillon played Pienaar.There have been some dud imports too. Whoopie Goldberg failed to sell Sarafina. Some might argue that the story didn’t have as much global appeal as the Pienaar and Mandela rugby story.To play Winnie in her early years I thing Nia Long would be a good candidate. We all know her from Soul Food, Ware We There yet, The Best Man and Love Jones. Other possibilities are Gabrielle Union, Tamala Jones and Elise Neal.But I guess Hudson is Hollywood’s current flavour of the moment, after her successful acting debut in Dream Girls.Angela Basset can also carry the lead role well. She is by far the best living female African american actress. Her roles in in “Boyz n the Hood”, “Malcolm X”, “What’s Love Got to Do with it”, “Waiting to Exhale” and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”, showed her versatility.Halle Berry has for years been considered to be one of the most beautiful and sexiest women in the world, but she just can’t play Winnie. Whoopie Goldberg, is disqualified purely by her looks. Wendy Raquel Robinson, could fit the role, except I haven’t seen her outside the sitcom The Steve Harvey Show.
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