Terrence Howard Makes A Better Nelson Mandela than Idris Elba

Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard's portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the new biopic "Winnie Mandela" by accomplished South African director Darrell J. Roodt (Sarafina!, 1992, Cry, the Beloved Country, 1995, and Academy Award nominated Yesterday, 2004) is more convincing of the real life personality from his youth to old age than Idris Elba's portrayal in Justin Chadwick's "Mandela" and of course Jennifer Hudson's "Winnie Mandela" is more accomplished than Naomie Harris' brave attempt to capture the iconic character of the most celebrated wife of the great Madiba in motion picture. We can actually re-title Idris Elba's Mandela as "Idris Elba: Long Walk To Mandela".

Idris Elba does not look or act like Nelson Mandela. He looks more like a character from Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

The best portrayal of Nelson Mandela in old age is Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood's 2009 biographical sports drama "Invictus". And the worst, should be Danny Glover who was not convincing in his portrayal of the great South African anti-apartheid hero in the HBO biopic "Mandela" (1987). He did not look like Mandela and he played the role with more of his African American accent than Mandela’s Black South African accent.

You can read more on my analyses on "Can Will Smith Play President Barack Obama?" on Blog Critics.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.

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