WESTWOOD, Calif., Mar. 24, 2001 — One reporter put it best at last month’s Academy Awards by saying “When Morgan Freeman walked in, the cool factor just went up.”
And it’s true; after all, who doesn’t think Morgan Freeman is cool? He got his start as the Easy Reader on the children’s show Electric Company, and has gone on to be the gentle voice of reason or authority in more classics to count (Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, Unforgiven). Not only that, but even when a film’s a critical clunker, he manages to escape the scrutiny.
But he’s never played the same role twice–until now. In this week’s Along Came a Spider, Freeman returns to the character he made famous in 1997’s Kiss the Girls, which co-starred Ashley Judd. Based on the best-selling novels by James Patterson, Freeman plays forensic psychologist Dr. Alex Cross, on the tail of a sociopath who’s kidnapped a senator’s daughter.
This reporter recently got the chance to sit down and chat with Freeman about playing Dr. Cross again. Here’s what Mr. Cool had to say:
I heard you like to take a lot of naps on the set. Is that true?
Morgan Freeman: [surprised] Where did you hear that?
From Thomas Jane, who starred with you in Under Suspicion.
Freeman: Well, between shots, yeah, I just chill. I go into my trailer, put my feet up and close my eyes and in no time I’m asleep, yeah. Some people say they can’t do that, they can’t just nap like that.
Did you always do this during shoots?
Freeman: Pretty much, yeah.
Even when you were young and just starting out, trying to prove yourself? ‘Cause I’d get in trouble if I ever took naps at work.
Freeman: Acting is not like being in an office. You don’t have to do busy work. I don’t have to be there. When they try and be loose, I’m on my own until they send for me. “Get the talent–get what’s-his-name.”
I know that when you finish a movie, you pretty much say good-bye to the character, right?
Freeman: Absolutely, yeah. I walk off the stage, it’s done.
So how did they get you to open the door again on Alex Cross?
Freeman: Money. Are you kidding? I’ll open the door if you wave money.
And you thought “Well, I did have fun the first time … he wasn’t bad to play.”
Freeman: Not bad to play at all. He’s a one-of-a-kind character. I don’t think I’d run across him in many scripts. And if the powers that be–and this is Paramount–want me to own [him], I don’t know, it might not be a bad idea at all.
My mother has read every James Patterson novel there is. However, she reads the end first.
Freeman: [Laughs] … And [she] goes back and sees how they do it?
Yeah. Part of her wants to know [that] the payoff is there so she’s investing in something good.
Freeman: [Laughing hysterically] No, your mother doesn’t have the patience, that’s what her problem is. She’s impatient.
But audiences are very focused on the big payoff, don’t you think? They want that twist to be there.
Freeman: But that’s why you pay your eight, nine, ten dollars, whatever the god-awful sum is we’re paying to see movies.
But don’t you think that often the pursuit of the payoff, the novelty of having a twist, comes at sacrifice to the depth of character development or the chase itself?
Freeman: It’s always possible that you’ll do that, and that’s the danger. That’s the challenge to make the payoff an integral part of the story rather than the story.
How important is it to you, when you read a thriller script like this, that there be a twist?
Freeman: It’s not important at all. If the story is set up based on the surprise ending, then yeah. And who does that? Agatha Christie does that. James Patterson does that. Agatha does it with the [Hercule] Poirot series. The old Charlie Chan movies were like that. Hanging around in a black tie and gown, and it was like [makes banging noise, then screams]. Then [dramatically] “Somebody got shot, and it was someone in this room.”
You’ve had such a long, fruitful career. When do you think you’ll know it ’s time to retire from films?
Freeman: When the phone stops ringing, I’ll know. Until then, I’m riding the wave.
That’s good for us.
Freeman: Well, thank you very much. Tell your mother I said she has no patience.
