interview - MORGAN FREEMAN
Die Laughing
Morgan Freeman says that if he and Jack Nicholson did their jobs right, The Bucket List — about a couple of dying seniors living out their dreams — will make you laugh until you cry
By Earl Dittman
A buddy picture about two terminally ill seniors busting out of a cancer ward and hitting the road to live out their unfulfilled dreams? Sounds kind of depressing, but one of the film’s two stars says The Bucket List is actually pretty funny.
“Folks don’t normally like to talk about death, much less joke about it, but this movie makes it okay to poke a little fun at one of our biggest fears,” says Morgan Freeman during a recent L.A. interview. Jack Nicholson is Freeman’s co-star in this black comedy directed by Rob Reiner and loosely based on the German film Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.
“The film also makes people think about some of the great things they might be missing on a daily basis,” adds Freeman. “It’s not a movie about death, it’s about living your life to the fullest, no matter how much time you have left.”
What was it like to share almost every scene with Jack Nicholson?
“What do you want me to say, ‘It sucked’? [Laughs.] Look, it was great. I loved every minute of it. Of course you always like the little, small ensemble movies because you’ve usually got a pretty good story going on, and when you’ve got a small ensemble cast, you become very familial. And, if you are part of a duo, you almost always become good friends because you work together a whole lot. And we did.”
And this was your first film with him. That surprised me.
“I have been trying to work with Jack for a long time because he is a tremendous actor. He’s great. We almost did a couple of things together, but it was just one of those things that they didn’t happen like they were supposed to. So this film was sort of a makeup for all of the movies we didn’t get to do together over the years.”
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Parachute club: Jack Nicholson (left) and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List
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Did you have any particular approach to the topic of death?
“Death is
always a touchy subject, not just in movies but in real life, too, so
you have to be careful how you approach it. In terms of making it
humorous, you don’t want to go completely over the top, because it
becomes disrespectful. You want to find that middle ground, and I think
they did with this script, because it’s healthy to laugh at the things
we are scared of, like death.”
After several years of trying to
get it made, is it true you’ll finally start filming the Nelson Mandela
bio-pic The Human Factor later this year?
“Yes, it’s supposedly
happening. Right now, as far as I know, we are again — for the sixth
year — scheduling it for the winter.”
Have you ever met Mandela?
“Oh, yeah. Several times. Yeah, we sit down,
hold hands and talk — I’m not joking. That’s what I need to do. If I’m
going to play you, then while I sit down to talk to you, I talk to you
close and face-to-face, because now I understand a little more about
your energy and how you’re animated.”
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How do you translate Mandela’s greatness onto the screen?
“Well, you can’t play his greatness. That’s got nothing to do with it. You’ve got to play him, and he doesn’t see himself as great. He’s just a guy who needs to go to the bathroom like everyone else. The most important thing that I’ll have to do to portray him is to just get his rhythm right. His rhythm has to do with how long it takes him to consider what he’s saying before he says it, and how long it takes him to say it when he starts.”
You just did Gone Baby Gone for Ben Affleck, and have directed one movie yourself, Bopha! in 1993. Do you have any more plans to direct?
“No, I just have plans to produce, because directing takes too much time. It just wears you out. If you want to be a director it’s perfect, but I know that I’m an actor. I can make four or five pictures in the time that it takes me to direct one. I know directing is not for me from working with Clint [Eastwood]. I love Clint, and I watch him work and I say, ‘Boy, I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t want to do that.’”
Are there certain films of yours that mean the most to you?
“Mean the most? Well, yeah, my favourite character was in Street Smart. My favourite movie was Glory, because I think it’s the most important movie I’ve been in. It’s important because it was a great movie that was historically accurate. And then there are two movies with Clint that I liked a lot. Unforgiven, that was a real sort of crowning moment for me, to be in a western, and then to come back and do another good job with him in Million Dollar Baby.”
You’ve played God, a blind man, an ex-boxer, a comic book character and, soon, Mandela. Where do you go from here?
What role would you find challenging? “Playing a woman. Now, I would find that really hard to do and very challenging.”
What would you like people to take from your body of work?
“I just don’t want them to ask for their money back [laughs]. That’s all. I don’t have anything I want them to take away. You want to know what I want on my tombstone? Is that what you’re asking? Well, I want it to read, ‘No Refunds.’”
Earl Dittman is a Houston-based entertainment writer.