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"Denzel Washington has revealed that he is considering playing Nelson Mandela in a biopic of the former South African president. Speaking to Empire, the Oscar-winner admitted that he is wary of taking on the movie - which follows Mandela&amp;#039;s 27-year incarceration at Robben Island - having portrayed so many real-life figures in the past. He said: &amp;quot;A friend of mine is trying to get me to do a film about Mandela, and it&amp;#039;s a good script. But I&amp;#039;m like, &amp;#039;Not right now. Maybe down the line.&amp;#039; &amp;quot;It starts just before he went to jail, when he was around 38, to when he was released. How old&amp;#039;s he now? 91, nearly 92 (he&amp;#039;s 92). So yeah, it would be from his late thirties to around 70. I could do that - with make-up. We&amp;#039;ll see.&amp;quot; Morgan Freeman took on the role of Mandela in Clint Eastwood&amp;#039;s Invictus, while Terrence Howard will play him in next year&amp;#039;s Winnie. Washington, who has starred in Steve Biko, Malcolm X and Rubin Carter biopics in the past, confessed that he once turned down the opportunity to play civil rights leader Martin Luther King. &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t be Malcolm X and Martin Luther King,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I just didn&amp;#039;t want to do it, maybe because of the stigma, &amp;#039;Oh, there goes Mr. Biography.&amp;#039; And I didn&amp;#039;t have the energy for it.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a286006/denzel-washington-ponders-mandela-role/>