Idris Elba, who plays the protagonist in Oscar-nominated film Mandela: long Walk to Freedom, says it was physically and emotionally taxing to play the iconic character on screen
The first scene after Mandela is arrested and is basically in a labour camp situation, was that something you were able to rehearse at allIJ Or did you try and save it to experience for the first while filmingIJ
There was really, very little rehearsal, as far as Justin was concerned. The “360 set” idea was about just getting straight in there. You’re doing it how he would have done it… They showed us how to break rocks. But we didn’t break rocks prior… That just made it feel in the moment, for me as an actor. It transferred to camera, I think.
Although Nelson Mandela wasn’t involved due to ill-health, different members of the Mandela family had various levels of involvement in the film. Did you want to spend a lot of time with themIJ Or were there reasons that you didn’t want toIJ
I kind of split my time. I didn’t want to spend too much time with the family. Because I didn’t want anyone to tell me how to play their dad. I didn’t want to get overly-influenced by that. But they were generous, sporadically, with information. Especially the type of information I wanted. Because I didn’t want to know what he sounded like when he woke up. I wanted to know what was said about him when he left the room. I wanted to know what the anticipation was like when he was about to step in. I wanted to know what his sense of humour was like.
Physically or emotionally, what was the most strenuous thing you had to put yourself through in the course of filmingIJ
Emotionally, the time in prison. When he was losing his family one-by-one. His son died. His daughters were living by themselves… That was emotionally draining. That was tough stuff to play. Because it’s very deep and it’s under the surface. It was really difficult. Physically, I was in every scene every day, pretty much. So that took a toll on me. I was physically knackered. And we did some six day weeks as well. So that was pretty tough.
The entire time you were working on the film, what did you see or hear or learn about Nelson Mandela or South Africa or apartheid that surprised you the mostIJ
I walked into South Africa with a prejudice… Most people coming from England, we didn’t like what happened in South Africa. And I walked in with a prejudice. I realised, ‘that’s wrong at this stage.’ South Africans are such warm and quite welcoming people… I really felt welcomed there. I didn’t feel a bitterness from anyone, to be honest. There’s still extreme poor. There’s still extreme rich. There is still some sort of apartheid. But it’s moved on from there in a really progressive way. And I was really surprised by that. I think South Africa actually is a really progressive country.
Why is it important to watch the movieIJ
To keep the legacy alive and to reinforce Mandela’s ideals. Mandela sacrificed a lot for what we have now. let’s not take this for granted. Young people are not going to read books on him probably. But they will watch this film. There’s a beacon for individuality in this film…You and I can actually make some change.
What if it gets OscarsIJ
For me, it would be such an honour to accept an award based on this film about that man’s story. He deserves an Oscar. He deserves any sort of prize you can get after what he did. And I think for the people of South Africa…It would be absolutely amazing. Because it was financed there. It was made there. And the artistry comes from there. It would be such a big salute to their industry. I would love to carry that Oscar, or whatever it is, back to there and say, “Here, we did it.”