Jennifer Hudson to Play Winnie Mandela in New Biopic
The dreamgirl has found a mighty role.
Jennifer Hudson is headed to Africa. The American Idol songstress and Academy Award-winner is set to play Winnie Mandela in an upcoming biopic about the controversial former South African leader.
Based on the biography Winnie Mandela: A Life, by Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob, the film will follow Mandela as she marries Nelson Mandela, the future first democratically elected President of South Africa, who goes on the run as an anti-apartheid activist and is imprisoned in 1962.
Winnie meanwhile becoms a highly influential politician, and soon finds herself under severe criticism for incidents of alleged human rights abuse. Most notably, she's accused of being involved in the torture and murder of a 14 year-old activist.
Now, at 73, Mandela is both revered and reviled by people of her country, and this is exactly why Jennifer Hudson is drawn to the role.
"Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I'm honored to be the actress asked to portray her.
"I was compelled and moved when I read the script," she said. "This is a powerful part of history that should be told."
The news of a Winnie Mandela movie comes out just before the release of Clint Eastwood's Invictus hits theaters, about Nelson's Mandela's life during the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.
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