Monday, December 7, 2009
“Brilliant, Triumphant, Timeless… Bravo to Damon, Eastwood and Freeman”
Celebrity Profiles by Sandra Varner
The unprecedented and unparalleled legacy of world leader Nelson Mandela extends well beyond the body politic that once imprisoned him for 27 years, 18 of those years, spent on Robben Island --in a South African jail cell so small-- it is unconscionable.
Trust me. I have been there.
Proving irrefutably that the power of the mind is limitless: Mandela’s greatness was never bound. Released from prison in 1994, celebrated the world over for his accomplishments in civil rights and relentless pursuit to end apartheid in South Africa, he was elected his nation’s president against a backdrop of divided loyalties, fear and doubt.
Mandela, today at age 91, remains a visionary leader, pragmatist and strategist who began his presidency fully aware of the weight of the tasks before him. In unceremonious fashion, he sought out the most unlikely of allies to engage in his approach to reconciliation and nation re-building: the losing Shadowboks rugby team, who would help him, and together they would began the process to heal South Africa.
On December 11, Warner Bros. Pictures releases “Invictus,” an Oscar-winning triumvirate helmed by filmmaker Clint Eastwood (“Mystic River,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”), starring Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven,” “Amistad”) as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting,” “The Informant!,” The Jason Bourne franchise,) as Francois Pienaar, renowned rugby star.
“Invictus” is a celebratory film about the 1995 World Cup Final and the relationship forged between Pienaar and Mandela.
Next year, 15 years since then President Mandela encouraged his country’s team to victory, the World Cup Final returns to South Africa.
“Invictus” cast and producers talked about the film during a press conference in Los Angeles, which is where I caught up with Morgan Freeman--
Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): How were you chosen to play Nelson Mandela?
Morgan Freeman: This started out with Mandela naming me as his heir apparent, so to speak, when he was asked during the press conference at the publication of his book, A Long Walk to Freedom. ‘Mr. Mandela, if your book becomes a movie who would you like to play [you] and he said, Morgan Freeman.’ So, from then on, its like, ‘OK, Morgan Freeman is going to be Mandela somewhere down the line.’ So, we spent a lot of time, Lori (McCreary) and I, my producing partner at Revelations Entertainment, to develop ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’ into a script; couldn’t happen. Then, in 2006, I believe we got this book proposal and it was perfect. We bought it, we got a script written, and this was the role to play to give the world insight into ‘who’ Mandela ‘is’ and how ‘he’ operates; it was perfect.
Talk2SV: Nelson Mandela is one of the most revered people in the world; how did you go about developing and preparing to play him and what was the most important aspect you wanted to get across.
Freeman: (Contemplative) Um, how did I go about preparing to play him… well, when he said that he would prefer that I be the one to play him, back in ’90, whatever that was, I had to start --then-- preparing myself to do it. I met him not long after that and I said to him, ‘if I’m going to play you, I’m going to have to have access to you. I’m going to have to be close enough to hold your hand.’ Over the years while we were trying to develop ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’ that is what happened. Whenever we were in close proximity, like a city away for instance, and I would know about it, I would go to him and have lunch, have dinner or sit with him while he was waiting to go on stage for whatever and during that time, I would sit and hold his hand. Now, that’s not for camaraderie, because I find that if I hold your hand it transfers and I have a sense of how you feel. That’s important to me in trying to become another person. I had a lot of pressure to bring a character like that to life in any kind of real sense. The danger of course, is always caricature, sort of indicating what the character is like. The biggest challenge I had of course was to sound like him; everything else is kind of easy to do. To walk like him -- he has a few tics and things that I noticed-- and I could pick those up. I didn’t have any agenda, as it were, in playing the role other than to bring it as close to reality as I possibly could. The agenda was incorporated in the script and all I had to do was learn my lines.
Talk2SV: You have worked with Clint Eastwood on several occasions; describe your relationship to him?
Freeman: When working with Clint, you really don’t want to go to him and say, ‘I just want to talk a little bit about the character.’ He’ll reply, “Why?” He expects you to know what you’re doing and he’s going to take two giant steps back and let you do it. I have such deep appreciation for that part of him and the other part is that he runs a well-oiled machine. Try to imagine yourself as a captain of a ship that really runs well. You don’t do anything, you just get credit for the fact that it runs well – engine room does their job, steering does their job, deck crew do their job. It’s all done and done well. So, that’s what Clint says he does and everybody who works with him has this very same reaction to him, ‘Can I stay with you?’ (laughter)
Read more at www.Talk2SV.com.