Movies That Angered Their Real-Life Characters

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Nelson Mandela is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most iconic men of the 20th century. It's not really much of a surprise, then, that someone in Hollywood would decide that, particularly after several successful films about Nelson himself, it'd be a good idea to tell the story of his wife, Winnie. Winnie Mandela is an extraordinary woman in her own right, from taking on an enormous amount of social work even before she met her future husband, to later holding several powerful positions in the South African government. She wasn't immune to controversy, but she's most definitely a woman worthy of having her story told.

Only, she really didn't want to have her story told. So you can imagine her irritation with the film Winnie, which starred Jennifer Hudson as the titular real-life woman. So against the film was Winnie Mandela, that she tried to stop it in its tracks before it was released. And you can see her point, really. As she said, she's still alive and well, and while she's a public figure, it's got to be kind of annoying to hear that a movie studio is going to make a movie about you but not even bother to get either your permission or your input.

Mandela had originally asked to simply see the script before the film went into production, but for some bizarre reason, the studio refused. In response to a threat of legal action, one of the producers said the screenplay was "well researched and [written] without any interference." That, given in response to the woman the script was about, is kind of like meeting someone and assuring them you know more about their life than they do, because you heard stories from very reliable sources. We're guessing, at the end of the day, Mandela was still pissed but at least slightly satisfied when the film absolutely bombed with critics.

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