Jennifer Hudson slept in jail cell for Winnie Mandela role

The 29-year-old isolated herself on a South African prison set and even stayed away from her 18-month-year-old son to shoot the traumatic scenes.

Hudson took the dramatic steps to film the biopic Winnie about Nelson Mandela's ex-wife, who once spent 500 days in solitary confinement.

The actress tells Newsweek she wanted to 'experience some of the hell that woman went through.'

The mum-of-one says of Mandela, 'They snatched her out of her home and she had no idea what happened to her children.

'Imagine living like that? This was her life. This was real.'

In real life Hudson has an 18-month-old son David JR with her fianc

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