´óÏó´«Ã½

Behind every great man…

The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s revealing new drama Mrs Mandela follows the life of the complex and sometimes controversial wife of South Africa's first black president.

Although married to one of the most important leaders of the 20th century, Winnie Mandela's own struggle during her husband's incarceration in Robben Island Prison is rarely discussed. Oscar-nominee Sophie Okonedo confesses that, before she took on the role of Winnie, she knew relatively little about her life.

However, she reveals that she wasn't the only one: "I think people will be shocked by Winnie's story. We did a read-through in South Africa – that was a baptism of fire. I had to do a two-hour performance in front of the rest of the cast, some of whom would have known or met Winnie. At the end many of the South African actors were really shocked by her story and how much Winnie had endured.

"During apartheid I suppose there was so much censorship that people often didn't know what was going on in their own country."

Although Sophie has played two other characters based on real people (in the films Hotel Rwanda and Skin), Winnie is the best known, and Sophie felt apprehensive about the role.

"I was nervous about it. I've been thinking about playing her for a while – I knew that eventually it might happen, so I was very nervous because I didn't want to sell her or myself short. I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to get away with making as much up as I normally do!'"

Despite playing a real-life person, Sophie wanted to stay away from making judgments about Winnie and her life.

"I approached Winnie the way I approach any other role, just trying to get to the heart of it and play the truth as much as possible. It's not really very useful for me to make moral or political judgments about the characters I play because it would separate me from them. So it's almost easier for me to look at the script and imagine a fictional character to begin with.

"I didn't get into watching footage. For me that just wasn't really useful – I'm not an impersonator. I just got really familiar with the facts of that time. I found Anthony Sampson's biography of Mandela really helpful – it really gave me an idea of the context of what I was playing in, which was useful as I had to get the timeline right."

Although reluctant to create an impersonation of Winnie, Sophie still had to transform physically as she was playing her over a number of years.

"The film goes from 1957, when she met Nelson, up to 1990 – it's quite a long time period.

"I had a fat suit, and a medium suit, which were an instant way into the character. I knew Ruy [Filipe], the costume designer, really well because I'd worked with him on Hotel Rwanda and I said, 'look, we've got no time for big make up changes here, Winnie doesn't age that much, she just gets bigger as she gets older', so the easiest way to age her was to add some weight to her, literally – physically, but she also becomes a more weighty person as time goes on.

"I found it so helpful. I loved the suits – they gave me a gravitas. But it was really hot out there, so I imagined I was in a steam room having a detox! It was so delicious when I got to take it off at the end of the day. It was almost worth being uncomfortable."

The accent was also a challenge for Sophie who knew that, as she was working with native South African actors, she had to get it right.

"I have to confess, I didn't do any work on it until I got to South Africa. Then I had about two weeks to get the accent, but I worked very hard. I tried listening to recordings of her a bit, but, as I say, I didn't want to imitate her, I wanted the voice to come from within me."

The film details Winnie's life while Nelson was in prison, a time when she was persecuted by the South African regime. She was also thrown in jail herself, put in solitary confinement and forced to endure hours of harsh interrogation.

In spite of these harrowing scenes, Sophie asserts that, when you get this kind of role, every moment of filming is a pleasure.

"When you do a part like Winnie it's just constant excitement. I kept thinking, 'I'm so lucky to be doing this'. I tend to have a laugh and not think about things in between shooting scenes. If I'm doing a heavy scene I won't stay heavy in between scenes because for me – and this is my experience, it's different for other actors – that would just be exhausting, and then I'd have no energy for 'action' and that's when you need the energy. In between it's better just to chill out is my feeling.

"I was on a high the whole shoot. I found it so exciting and so interesting. I was never bored and I loved every single minute of it, including the difficult and dark scenes, because they are part of what I thought was a wonderful story and a wonderful script.

"I was very sad when we finished filming – we did the whole thing in 30 days, it was a whirlwind. It was a film I could have worked on for three months – all the ones that are three months you can't wait for them to end!"

Although this was not Sophie's first visit to South Africa, she was thrilled with the reaction of the locals and extras when they were filming.

"I love South Africa and we were filming in Soweto in real locations – around the corner from the Mandela's real house, walking down the same streets she would have walked down, and that just made the film for me.

"But I was so nervous, one of my first scenes was when I had to go into a big hall and do one of her most famous speeches. I just thought 'what the hell? I'm about to go in there and be one of South Africa's most iconic women'. I just felt like a complete fraud. I remember crying in the toilet before it started. I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to – this is just a bridge too far – I'm not going to be able to become this lady now'. I was terrified of going out in front of hundreds of extras who really knew what she was like and I just felt really vulnerable.

"But once I got out on the stage, the noise from the extras – the cheering and screaming – it was amazing and I thought, 'bring it on', I really enjoyed it.

"As I say, the extras were excellent. It's still very recent history so they all knew the freedom songs. There was no coaching necessary – they would just break out into these four-part harmonies, singing these amazing songs and dancing. They were teaching us! So those big scenes with the extras were great, like the Soweto uprising or the scenes when Mandela is released from jail."

Despite playing the fiery Winnie, Sophie confesses to being quite a timid person in real life and admits she'd like to be more assertive.

"Sometimes, when we were filming, Michael [Samuels, director] would say, 'oh you're giving me one of your Winnie looks', so I think I was quite scary when I was filming. I didn't really notice it, but it was very good for getting my own way, because I'm much more shy in life than she was. I remember thinking it does give you a kind of bravado, which I haven't had before."

Sophie tried to retain some of the Winnie attitude after filming.

"When I got back to London I thought, 'I must keep some of that' – it's so great to be able to walk into a room and not care what people think and be strong. It lasted for about 10 days and then I went back to my old self."