The most challenging movies of Morgan Freeman’s career
Today, Morgan Freeman is noted as one of the greatest actors currently in operation, known for his velvety tones as well as his ability to adapt to a wide variety of roles. Across his celebrated filmography, Freeman has spanned a plethora of genres and character styles, earning an array of accolades in the process, including an Academy Award for the Clint Eastwood-directed film Million Dollar Baby. However, Freeman’s filmography has not always been sunshine and flowers, there has been a fair amount of sewage pipes the actor has had to clamber through to reach the top.
It is not uncommon for actors to resent certain instalments of their career in film. If you look at the greatest actors of any generation, there will inevitably be some misguided roles and box office bombs within their otherwise respected careers. Look at Robert De Niro, for instance, and you will see that he is an undeniably brilliant actor, yet he has performed in some truly terrible films over the years. For Freeman, however, the cause of his career regrets tends to be rooted in poor experiences during production, rather than the final product.
In 1990, Freeman was cast in the long-forgotten black comedy The Bonfire of the Vanities, based on the celebrated novel by Tom Wolfe. As anybody who has had the displeasure of watching the Tom Hanks-led film will gladly tell you, it is not very good. The fact that it wasn’t going to work became apparent to Freeman – who played Judge Leonard White in the film – during production. ”I knew that movie wasn’t going to work. I don’t think [director] Brian De Palma had a clue.”
Explaining the admittedly bizarre casting choices of the film, Freeman shared, “Originally, they hired Alan Arkin to play my role. I thought that was perfect casting. But then they thought they had to be politically correct and make the judge black. So they fired Alan Arkin and hired me. Not a great way to get a role.”
Freeman added, “I never did get around to seeing the movie.”
Freeman’s luck did not seem to improve during the 1990s, as only a year later, he would be cast in another doomed production, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. While the film is a lot better than The Bonfire of the Vanities (although that’s a low bar), the production process was fairly difficult for Morgan. “The thing I remember most is being in pain,” he once recounted, “We were up in northern England in the winter, and I don’t do cold very well.”
The cold did not seem to help Freeman’s pinched nerve that he had received during a massage prior to shooting, but his time on set seemed to be plagued by injury anyway. “During filming I jumped off a wall,” he said, “and my knee went backward. So I remember standing in the mud in the cold with this pain running up my leg and hip. They got me an osteopath to try to work it out. He never could.”
Surely, then, when Freeman scored a role in the seminal film The Shawshank Redemption – hailed as being among the greatest films ever created – those previous disasters could be put behind him. Despite the success of the movie and Freeman’s Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding, what the actor remembers most about the film was the horrible atmosphere on set. “There were moments of extreme tension on the set,” he recalled. “Between the producers and actors, between the director and actors, between everybody. Just this personality stuff between different groups. Very strange. Let’s stop talking about that one.” You might not want to forget about it, Morgan, but it seems unlikely people will ever stop talking about The Shawshank Redemption.
For all the discomfort and difficulty that Freeman had to endure during the production of these three films, the benefits of appearing within them undoubtedly outweigh the negative experiences while making them. After all, The Shawshank Redemption arguably provided Freeman with his defining role, bolstering his career for years to come. Either way, it seems that, in the case of Morgan Freeman, acting is not a fairytale world.