London-bred actors Idris Elba & Naomie Harris cover JET! (video)

Posted by | Cyrena Rose

British actors Idris Elba and Naomie Harris grace the January 2014 issue of JET magazine ~ inside the edition, the two share how they felt playing South Africa’s most iconic couple…

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is the indie film Elba and Naomie star in about the late, legendary South African anti-apartheid crusader, Nelson Mandela.  It is a role in which garnered Elba a recent Golden Globe nomination; ironically he initially refused to play civil rights icon!

“At first I wasn’t sure that the role was for me,” offers Elba. “I expected that they’d want an older actor, someone more distinguished, like Denzel Washington. Plus, I was really stuck on the way Mandela looks and the way I Iook.”

As for Harris who worked with the production team on another small film…”they offered me the role and I thought, ‘fantastic.’”  However, there was only one fact she new about Winnie Mandela when she accepted her role: “She was Nelson Mandela’s wife.”

Harris quickly extinguished her ignorance. “I felt more like a researcher than an actor at one point.” She read biographies, watched documentaries and interviewed people who knew Winnie. “But then I interviewed her and that’s when everything really gelled for me.”

Take a look at exclusive insights from Idris Elba and Naomie Harris below, as they shoot their cover with JET magazine.  Pick-up your issue on newsstands today!

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