indwe magazine – May 2005

MORGAN FREEMAN
Fame, Farms & Family
Text: Susan Putter
Image: © Getty Images/Touchline Photo
“I wouldn’t put on 50 kg [for a movie], I wouldn’t lose 50. But I’d do stuff like shave my head. I’ve done that. I’ve shaved my whole face, but hair grows quickly. You can’t control your weight like that. Besides, if I got really heavy my horses wouldn’t be too happy.” – Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman has become a legend in his own lifetime. It would seem that no challenge is too big for this versatile actor. Freeman received the Oscar for Best Actor In A Supporting Role at this year’s Academy Awards for his role in Million Dollar Baby. In this film Freeman took the role of Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, an ex-boxer who sees the spark of determination in a young waitress’s desire to become a fighter.
The nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Million Dollar Baby brought Morgan Freeman’s tally of Oscar nominations to four. In response to the news of the nomination Freeman said, “It is an honour to be recognized by the Academy for the work that I was privileged to do in this jewel of a film. The fact that the venerable Mr. Eastwood and the magnificent Ms. Swank have also been nominated makes me so happy that I could just burst.”
Freeman also endeared himself to movie goers with his portrayal of God in the film Bruce Almighty. What was it like playing God? If you’re Morgan Freeman it is just like Driving Miss Daisy, or any other role he’s ever played. “It’s no different than if I was acting as some Colonel in some military operation,” says Freeman about his role as God in the hit movie Bruce Almighty. “It’s no different than acting anything. You’re pretending to be something you’re not, no different. If it’s on the page, it’s easy to do.”
One of six children born to struggling parents, Freeman’s early childhood was spent in Greenwood, Mississippi. When his mother separated from his father and moved with a young Morgan and his sister to Chicago, he started acting out. “In fact, I was pretty wild as a kid, and often I’d come home and get a good whipping,” he admits. “Yeah, there was a part of the young Morgan Freeman that was a jerk. I was someone who could have gone way down the wrong road. Way down.”
I bloomed very early. It’s just that no one bothered to notice.
Movies, and the eventual move back to the more disciplined Greenwood environment, were his saving grace. “I loved movies and I’d go every day during the summer,” he recalls. “Movies cost just 12 cents back then, so all I had to do every day was collect enough bottles. Get a couple of beer bottles and two Coke bottles and that was enough for a ticket, so I’d spend a lot of time looking for bottles in those days.”
A certain element of feistiness remained however, and landed Freeman in hot water when he joined the Air Force in the ‘50s. “I’m a born romantic, and if you’re romantic the military really beckons,” he explains. “I always dreamed of flying, but they made me a radar mechanic and sent me to this base in Texas. I was quite a smartass and I remember this sergeant saying, ‘You want to take these boxes to that radar tower half a mile away?’ And I just looked at him and said, ‘No’. And this guy stares at me, furious, and says, ‘No? Whadaya mean, ‘No!’ And I said, ‘I mean I don’t want to take this damn box over there. You’re asking me when you should be telling me and giving me an order.’ The truth is, you couldn’t say anything to me without me talking back. My problem is I question authority and I don’t suffer fools gladly – and the military is full of both.”
He was eventually tossed into jail for insubordination. “It was curiosity, because I could have got out of the situation. But I wanted to see what it felt like to be in jail. It must have been the early actor inside me, wondering about fresh experiences.”
It’s better to leave people wanting more than have them saying, ‘Enough’.
Freeman soon left the stifling environment of the military and by the late fifties he was in Los Angeles, having clarified in his own mind the serious intention of becoming an actor. The daunting reality of fulfilling this intention soon became vividly apparent. “I didn’t know what I was doing or how impossible the whole idea was. I just went around everywhere, asking for work and not getting any.”
He took a day job at the City College and this gave him access to free drama classes. “I went to Hollywood straight away. I got a good running start towards ‘The Wall’ – get down, not going to let anything stop me – but the wall was brick. So when I bounced, I bounced all the way to New York and got onto the stage and stayed there.”
Stay he did, despite sometimes going hungry. “I remember one particular day where I was just walking and walking the streets, and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything for three days. And I said to myself, ‘You could die right here’.” Theatre jobs and small television parts eventually started putting food on the table more regularly.
Fame came late in the life of Morgan Freeman. In 1987 his portrayal of a volatile pimp won him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the film Street Smart. He went on to win a Golden Globe, and receive a second Oscar nomination, for Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. That was the clincher. A string of hits followed and at age sixty-five there is no sign of Freeman’s star fading.
He is now also the co-owner (with producer Lori McCreary) of the aptly named production company, Revelations Entertainment. The aim of the company gives further insight into the measure of the man that is Morgan Freeman: “To develop and produce projects that enlighten, express heart and glorify the human experience.”
Fans who waited breathlessly for the release of the film version of The Long Walk To Freedom, autobiography of Nelson Mandela, in which Freeman portray the role of Mandela, were not disappointed. By his own admission, Freeman found the prospect or playing Nelson Mandela both exciting and terrifying, but he had the full support of Mandela himself, whom he has met on numerous occasions and gets on really well with. Widespread opinion has it that there can be no better casting than Morgan Freeman in the role of this modern day icon of dignity, peace and humanity.
Apart from acting, Freeman is happiest spending time close to his roots with his wife, Myrna Colley-Lee, on his large farm in Charleston, Mississippi. Although he points out quickly: “It’s not really a farm. It’s just a place where me and my horses hang out.”
The reason actors, artists, writers have agents is because we’ll do it for nothing. That’s a basic fact – you gotta do it.
After nineteen years of marriage, Morgan and Myrna are still blissfully happy. “She’s a wonderful woman, and very talented. The moment I met her, I thought, ‘This is someone very special.’ And I was right. We love being together and spending time with each other, and we’re best friends. I think that’s a big key to any relationship. Anyway, not all Hollywood marriages crash and burn, and not everyone goes from relationship to relationship. Look back at Cagney and how many times did he get married? Just once.”
With his professional life now firmly cemented on the side of success, Freeman is also realising his youthful dream of becoming a pilot. “I just got my pilot’s license and I bought a Piper Arrow. Now I’m studying for my instrument rating, which is very exciting,” he says.
But he doesn’t regard his leisure pursuits as relaxation after the stresses of Hollywood. Says Freeman: “Those aren’t relaxing things, they are activities. What they are is toning. They tone your mind and your muscles. They’re hard work and the relaxation is in the aftermath. You know what is relaxing? A hammock. I really, really love hammocks. Every time I visit someone who has a hammock in their backyard I go right for it, and then it’s hard to get me out of it.”
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