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<p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; There are a handful of roles that every good actor is more than honored to play. So when Laurence Fishburne was asked to portray Nelson Mandela in a new miniseries, he didn&#8217;t hesitate. At first.</p><p>&#8220;I was offered the part. I said &#8216;yes&#8217; immediately, was completely honored to be asked. And then, 15 minutes later, panic set in. I was like, &#8216;What are you doing?&#8217;&#8221; recalled the Emmy- and Tony Award-winner.</p><p>Fishburne put aside his fears when he learned he&#8217;d be filming exclusively in South Africa with South African actors helping tell the story Mandela told in his own autobiographies.</p><p>&#8220;Our storytelling is really about the man, more so than the myth. We&#8217;ve tried to reveal how the man became the myth,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was a life-changing experience.&#8221;</p><p>The result is &#8220;Madiba,&#8221; a six-hour film broadcast over three nights on BET starting Wednesday. It takes its title from the clan name of Mandela, who became one of the world&#8217;s most beloved statesmen.</p><p>The star of &#8220;The Matrix&#8221; and &#8220;Man of Steel&#8221; has played real people before &#8212; Thurgood Marshall and Ike Turner &#8212; but Mandela is in a special class. &#8220;There&#8217;s Christ. There&#8217;s Gandhi,&#8221; he said, listing options. &#8220;A couple of Shakespearian kings and queens, if you will. Popes. Some Roman emperors. And perhaps a few gods, some Olympian gods.&#8221;</p><p>Producer Lance Samuels reached out to Mandela to get his blessing almost eight years ago. The only directive Mandela had was he wanted the film to explore the less well-known figures in the anti-apartheid struggle, like Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.</p><p>&#8220;The fact that we have the six hours to work with gives us a much larger canvas,&#8221; said Fishburne. &#8220;We can introduce people to the audience who were instrumental not only in bringing apartheid down but also people who very influential in Nelson Mandela&#8217;s life &#8212; people who helped to guide him, shape him, counsel him, oppose him, challenge him.&#8221;</p><p>Orlando Jones, who plays Tambo, noted that the vast majority of the cast in &#8220;Madiba&#8221; is South African, plus it marks the first time an African-American director has helmed a story about Mandela&#8217;s life and also the first time a South African actress has played Winnie Mandela. &#8220;South Africans finally have a voice in this South African story,&#8221; said Jones.</p><p>Director Kevin Hooks, who directed Fishburne in &#8220;Fled,&#8221; put the actor at the top of his list when it came to casting. Hooks knew he made the right choice while filming Fishburne in a scene in which the imprisoned Mandell learns his son has died.</p><p>&#8220;I was at the monitor when I said, &#8216;Cut!&#8217; I had to compose myself because I was near tears,&#8221; said Hooks. &#8220;I was speechless because it was just so powerful. That&#8217;s when I knew that it was a home run for me.&#8221;</p><p>Though daunting as an acting task, Fishburne knew he could handle the assignment as he was doing a special tour of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg before filming began.</p><p>He was looking though Mandela&#8217;s letters and artifacts when he spied a bust of Thurgood Marshall &#8212; the same kind of bust he had been given by the Thurgood Marshall Foundation to celebrate his opening night playing the Supreme Court justice on Broadway in 2008.</p><p>&#8220;I think, &#8216;OK. I&#8217;m good. Somebody gave him the same kind of award they gave me, so I&#8217;ll be OK. I should be able to pull it off,&#8217;&#8221; said Fishburne. &#8220;When I saw that, it was like the silent wink.&#8221;</p><p>In a twist, Fishburne&#8217;s BET movie will not only be competing with his latest movie &#8212; &#8221; John Wick: Chapter Two&#8221; &#8212; but also with his turn as the crotchety Pops Johnson in ABC&#8217;s &#8220;black-ish,&#8221; which he said he&#8217;s loving.</p><p>&#8220;I am in the grandpa chair and I&#8217;m loving the grandpa chair,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I get to show this side of myself that&#8217;s been in the background, not really at the forefront. It&#8217;s nice because I like change. I don&#8217;t want to always do the same thing. I don&#8217;t want to be predictable. I want to mix it up.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">This image released by BET shows Laurence Fishburne as Nelson Mandela in a scene from, &quot;Madiba,&quot; a six-hour miniseries premiering on Wednesday, Feb. 1. (Marcos Cruz/BET via AP)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_AP17030760395801.jpg</photo0><caption0>This image released by BET shows Laurence Fishburne as Nelson Mandela in a scene from, &quot;Madiba,&quot; a six-hour miniseries premiering on Wednesday, Feb. 1. (Marcos Cruz/BET via AP)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Kennedy</p><p>AP Entertainment Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

Laurence Fishburne calls Nelson Mandela role ‘life-changing’