South African Actors Not Pleased With Foreign Casting

As we’ve mentioned previously, Jennifer Hudson has been tapped to star as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in a new film about the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela. This isn’t making South African actors very happy.

The Creative Workers Union of South Africa said that the use of foreign actors to tell their country’s stories undermines what the film industry in their country is doing.

Morgan Freeman plays South Africa’s first black president in “Invictus,” which opens this Friday. “Invictus” has two American actors in lead roles and is director by American Clint Eastwood. Yet it tells the story of South Africa’s nation-uniting 1995 rugby World Cup victory.

The film based on Winnie is going to be directed by Darrell J. Roodt, a South African whose work includes “Cry, The Beloved Country” and “Sarafina.”

The Creative Workers Union of South Africa president Mabutho Sithole told The Citizen newspaper, “It can’t happen that we want to develop our own Hollywood and yet bring in imports.”