Mandela speeches ‘boring’
THE British screenwriter of the Nelson Mandela biopic, Long Walk to Freedom, says the film failed to win an Oscar because 12 Years a Slave “sucked up all the guilt about black people”.
Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales this weekend, William Nicholson told the audience he had to rewrite the speeches in the film because Mandela’s speeches were boring. The 66year-old screenwriter had spent 15 years working on the screenplay, and, after Oscar nominations with Gladiator and Shadowlands, thought he had a winner with Long Walk to Freedom.
“12 Years a Slave came out in America and that sucked up all the guilt about black people that was available. They were so exhausted feeling guilty about slavery that I don’t think there was much left over to be nice about our film,” Nicholson told The Telegraph.
“All but one of the speeches were
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made up by me because his own speeches were so boring.
“I know it sounds outrageous to say a thing like that, but when he came out of prison he made a speech and, God, you fell asleep.”
Late yesterday Nicholson backtracked when he responded to the article. In a note to South African filmmaker and the film’s producer, Anand Singh, Nicholson said: “What can work in a stadium is boring in a cinema. So the first intervention was editing. For example the Rivonia courtroom speech uses the actual speech, but is greatly shortened.”
But his words have done little to appease the angry local cast of the movie.
Actor Atandwa Kani, who plays young Mandela from the age of 16 to 23 in the movie, said Nicholson was a “very disgruntled man”.
“As a writer he has every right to be disgruntled that the movie didn’t get any Oscar nods, but what is he aiming at with these comments?
“He must remember that Mandela’s speeches were made from the view of a freedom fighter not of an entertainer.”
Kani said Nicholson should not “not take credit for what he polished to entertain people. He should have kept his two cents to himself.”
Actress S’Thandiwe Kgoroge, who plays the role of Walter Sisulu’s wife Albertina in the film, said she was “hurt, disgusted and heartbroken” by Nicholson’s rants.
“Clearly for him this was just another business outlet, it breaks my heart that this is all he has taken from this experience instead of treating it with respect, because this is a story that many South Africans and people all over the world relate to. Maybe if he didn’t change the speeches he would have won an Oscar.”
The R350-million production took 16 years to make, using 300 books and 5 000 images as references. The actual movie, with British actors Idris Elba and Naomi Harris in the lead roles, was screened over a period of four months.
The film received a lukewarm response from critics.
“There will one day surely be a great film about Nelson Mandela, one that shows the man in all of his glory as both revolutionary and peacemaker. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom isn’t that film,” said Peter Howell in the Toronto Star.