Morgan Freeman is left-handed, but to portray Nelson Mandela as accurately as possible, something which was very important to him, he trained himself to use his right hand when he was seen writing in this movie, because Mandela was right-handed.
Before production began, Morgan Freeman and producer Lori McCreary visited South Africa to get Nelson Mandela's blessing for this movie. According to McCreary, Freeman started off by saying, "Madiba, we've been working a long time on this other project, but we've just read something that we think might get to the core of who you are..." Before he had finished, Madiba said, "Ah, the World Cup." For McCreary, that was "when I knew we were heading in the right direction."
The word "invictus" is Latin for "undefeated". It is also the name of a short poem written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley. The poem was written while Henley was in the hospital having a foot amputated. Nelson Mandela is heard saying lines from the poem.
The prison cell that the South African rugby team visited was the actual prison cell on Robben Island where Mandela stayed for eighteen years of his prison sentence.
McNeil Hendricks: Nicknamed "Maccie", as Chester Williams, the Springboks' only black player. Hendricks was capped twice for South Africa in 1998, and has been a professional rugby player with Blue Bulls and Western Province.