Playing to Win
Morgan Freeman woos a new generation of theater goers as Mandela
2009-12-11
By Adrienne Samuels Gibbs

Portraying Nelson Mandela is no easy feat – even for an actor as accomplished as Morgan Freeman.

Yet, Freeman manages to adopt Mandela’s mannerisms, even the way he walks. All of it serves to produce a convincing portrayal of Mandela in the Clint Eastwood-produced movie Invictus, which pairs Freeman with Matt Damon, who plays South African rugby team captain Francois Pienaar. The two use sport  - to be specific, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, held in South Africa - to unite a country that was and is still healing from centuries of wrongdoing.

“This was absolutely a labor of love,” says Freeman, via telephone. “I’ve been studying him for maybe 12 years. He was not a president when I met him. He’s one of those special people who is safe and secure in his own skin.”

Freeman goes on: “It’s strictly Mandela’s side of the story. I’ve been for years planning to do something about Mandela. I was originally going to do his book Long Walk to Freedom. When this story came along we thought it was the perfect one for us.”

Freeman developed the film. He shopped the script to Eastwood. Eastwood loved it, Freeman said. “He read it and said, ‘I like it. Let’s do it.”  (Eastwood later said that Freeman was born to play this role.)

The Oscar winner is already generating Oscar buzz for his role as Mandiba in the movie, which has been named one of the Top Ten Films of the Year by the National Board of Review, a motion picture group that is usually the litmus test for Oscar nominations.  Interestingly, Freeman is only just now seeing the flick in its entirety. He normally doesn’t like viewing himself on film – even for something as crowd pleasing as The Dark Knight.

“I’m an old stage actor and as such, you get the feeling of whether you did the job right or not strictly from the audience or if you get great applause,” explains Freeman, who was en route to South Africa to perhaps view the movie with Mandela himself. “I see myself work and I’m just not impressed that much.”

He goes on, as if to drive home the point.

“The movie is great, it’s terrific. How did I do? I did OK.”

Freeman first memorized the poem Invictus when he was in the eighth grade. He pondered it during the making of the movie, reading the poem inside the prison cell where Mandela was held for so many years.

“I remember Matt stretching his arms out to measure the space, and I remember doing that myself. I imagine most men would do that,” says Freeman. “I went to the quarry and I went to the shore. And you kind of get a sense of the time and it’s a little painful. I guess that’s the best way I can say it. There’s a pang that you feel inside in your heart.”

Still, it’s got to be slightly intimidating to play Mandela, doesn’t it? After all, he’s very much alive.

“A lot of people have played Mandela,” says Freeman. “Dennis Haysbert has played him. And Sidney Poitier has played him.  And Danny Glover has played him. For me the biggest thing was, if I’m going to play Mandela, I have to look like him. I have to sound like him.”

Mandiba himself has given Freeman the thumbs up.

“One time I [was in South Africa] and he was in a hotel, and I spoke to him in his voice,” says Freeman. “He laughed.”

Adrienne Samuels Gibbs is a senior editor for EBONY.