Jennifer Hudson made sacrifices for Winnie role
Jennifer Hudson The 29-year-old is starring alongside Terrence Howard in the title role of Winnie which is due for release later this year. Jennifer plays anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela's wife in a new biopic about her life.
Part of Jennifer’s preparations for the role was to remain locked inside of a cell day and night during filming where she went through the motions of Winnie’s confinement. The star – who has an 18-month-old son David Daniel Otunga Jr. with her partner David Otunga - has revealed that she didn’t have any contact with her child throughout filming in South Africa in order to mentally prepare herself for the role.
“I was only playing her for four months, but this was her life, what she went through, and that’s a story that is so worth being told. I wanted to make it as real as possible, even down to being away from the baby – I didn’t see him the whole time I was away,” she revealed in an interview with Pride magazine.
The singer-and-actress says that even though the crew tried to convince her it was OK to have contact with her son, Jennifer decided to live in absolute solitude. The American star says that she wanted to do the role justice and so pushed herself to her absolute mental limits in order to make it as realistic as possible.
“I remember the crew saying to me ‘We can bring the baby here,’ and I was like ‘It’s OK.’ Winnie was away from her children, and she couldn’t see them either. It made it that much more real to me, being away from my baby too. I got to feel what Winnie felt, and that’s basically what it takes to make the character that much more real to me.”