The first footage has hit the web from Darrell Roodt’s Winnie, a biopic of Winnie Mandela and ostensibly an awards vehicle for Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson. But as the footage begins, Hudson is quickly overshadowed by FilmDrunk favorite Terrence Howard’s powerhouse performance as Nelson Mandela.  Mandela has previously been portrayed on film by a who’s who of fine actors — Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier, Dannis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Dave Chappelle — but never by a philosopher on the level of Terrence Howard.  Naturally, we wanted to get the news straight from the source, so we asked Terrence Howard how it felt to play a living saint.

(*the faint sound of bongo drums can be heard across the alley*)
Read the rest of this entry »

Morgan Freeman was born to play Nelson Mandela, but his performance in Invictus was unfortunately overshadowed by that movie being super boring. So it was pleasant to hear that our favorite philosopher Terrence Howard would soon be trying to breathe new life into the role.

Terrence Howard (“Iron Man”) is to portray Nelson Mandela in the Jennifer Hudson-starring feature “Winnie,” based on the story of Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s former wife. Darrell Roodt is directing the $15 million historical drama, a South Africa-Canada co-production set to start production May 31 in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for 18 years. [THR]

Him being a close friend of FilmDrunk, I asked Howard himself what it was like stepping into a role so recently played by someone else, especially on the same day a role he first played was being handled by Don Cheadle.  Here’s what he had to say:

“Look, man, some cats look at life as if it’s a dusty dresser in a Penny Saver ad, man, but that ain’t me, ya dig?  Where you see strife I see synchronicity, because I’m not riding shotgun in the cockpit of negativism. It’s a free association, not homeowner’s assocation.  I cruise through life like it’s a Segway scooter, man.  And if I find a harmonica, it don’t matter where it’s been, it’s about the music that it makes, man.  So if you’re asking me not to make music, I’d have to say you’re seeing the world through rusty sunglasses, man.  Our separation is an irrelevancy.  I feel the rhythms of the universe, and it’s poetry.  We’re all of us connected — me, you, Morgan Freeman, Nelson Mandela, a vacuum cleaner, Mexicans, a Susan B. Anthony dollar, goats, my sock drawer, and the oceans, man.  Mother nature provides the drums, and all we can do is beat on it for a while, you dig?”