Morgan Freeman Mistaken as Nelson Mandela on Billboard
(Photo: Samanth Subramanian via Twitter)
How embarrassing. Actor Morgan Freeman was mistaken as Nelson Mandela, who died at the age of 95 on Dec. 5, on a memorial billboard in the Southern city of Coimbatore, India.
Journalist Samanth Subramanian posted a picture of the sign on Twitter and called attention to the mistake on Dec. 18. The photo was shared more than 700 times and soon made international news headlines.
The sign that was written in the Tamil language and also featured the faces of Ghandi, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “We should be proud that we were part of an era when they lived,” according to a translation provided by the Express Tribune.
Chandrashekhar, the person who paid to create the sign, said that he is in the process of correcting the image. He blames the error on the designer. The mix-up could have stemmed from the fact Freeman portrayed Mandela in the 2009 film Invictus.
BET Global News - Your source for Black news from around the world, including international politics, health and human rights, the latest celebrity news and more. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.