DEREK LUKE - LUKE LEFT SCARRED BY SOUTH AFRICAN MOVIE

LUKE LEFT SCARRED BY SOUTH AFRICAN MOVIE

DEREK LUKE was left so scarred after playing real-life anti-apartheid activist PATRICK CHAMUSSO in new drama CATCH A FIRE he couldn't work for nine months after the film wrapped. The actor spent months researching his character in South Africa and admits the country left a huge impression on him. Committed Luke visited the tiny jail cells at Robben Island Prison, where Chamusso and NELSON MANDELA were held for crimes they didn't commit and trekked all over South Africa, visiting places connected to his rebel hero character's story. But, after working so hard to capture Chamusso, who now runs an orphanage, Luke says he struggled to turn his back on his character. He explains, "I couldn't let go. I think I was really wound up when I got back." Director PHILLIP NOYCE noticed the burden of playing Chamusso, who confessed to a crime he didn't commit to save his wife, was lifted after Luke performed his last voiceover work for the movie's trailer nine months after the film wrapped. He was relieved because Luke's commitment to the role had started to worry him: "After five weeks into the training, he was almost paralysed. The more information he got, the more of the burden he felt."