Naomie Harris at the UK premiere of Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

Where were you the day Mandela was freed?

I’ve no idea because I have the worst long-term memory in the world. I just remember being about 10 or 12 and my mum explaining to me about apartheid and saying, on the other side of the world people live a third class existence because of the colour of their skin and they’re not allowed to ride on the same bus as white people and they get a third rate education and I remember being terrified because I thought, “Wow, that could come here to England and what would that be like?”

And I also remember that when we went shopping as a child, my mum would say we can’t buy this because that’s from South Africa and don’t bank with this particular bank because they’re from South Africa. So even at that young age she was really instilling in me political activism.

And finally, you nailed the Xhosa accent. How did you manage it?

It was a huge challenge and that was one of the things where I had so many sleepless nights thinking, “I’m not going to be able to get this.” But I had a great acting coach who worked with me in South Africa. She came to my hotel room for one to two hours every day and she would just work me out and say, “Look you’re playing Mama Winnie, you’ve got to get this right.”

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is out now. Photos: Rex Features

Naomie Harris on Mandela