Morgan Freeman: ‘Acting Is Easy, Getting Work Is Hard’ — Extended Interview

We just love you that much. Well, that's happiness. Happiness. Yes. I'm glad that I'm glad that it's there. Yes, sir. We're glad that you are here. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so happy to have you. Let's see. You've been in the industry over six decades, which is amazing. Listen, you have so many iconic roles. I can't even get through them all. Street Smart, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Glory, 7, Million Dollar Baby, Driving Miss Daisy, which is one of my favorites. The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark. I mean, it goes on and on and on. Is there one that you want to play or a style that you haven't done that you would want to do? Too late now. It's too late now. What was it then? Alan Ladd Jr. And I decided that we should redo Shane. Oh, okay. Remember Alan Ladd and Shane? Yeah. Anybody remember that movie? Yeah. Well, try and think of me in that role. Would have been interesting. It would have been interesting. Yeah, and then I want to know from you, who inspired you growing up to want to become an actor? Cindy Pudio. You know, when I was a kid, not going to the movies, it occurred to me eventually that I wasn't well represented and then Sidney came along. And I think from about the age of 12, it was a foregone conclusion that I was heading this direction. That is not stardom, but as a working actor, you know, and he was there to show me that yeah, it's okay. You can you can come on. Wow. Well, we glad he did that. You are so loved. Okay. What advice would you give the next generation of actors? Acting is easy. You do that. It just comes natural to you. Getting work is hard. So what you have to do in that case, it just keep moving forward. I feel like we can apply that to whatever our passions and dreams are, right? Absolutely. Okay. Now you have an impressive collection of awards, Golden Globe, Oscar, Kennedy Center Honor. That's the name of you. Where do you keep all your awards? Well, there were some that are more prestigious than others. Yes. And I have a home in Mississippi right now. I'm living in Alabama. We call it LA because it's lower in Alabama. But I have a, when they were building my house, one of the builders says, I'm going to build you a case for your Academy Awards. I caught that. I heard you. They built me a very nice glass case. And so all of those are in that glass case. Then I have a whole lot more that are in library shelves. You know how people do it and all. Everybody's not Morgan Freeman. I'm not too far out of the ordinary. I hope. You say so. We'll take it from you. But you know, we're all in awe of you. Like to the point, you know, people have tattoos of your face on them. No. He said no. Yes, sir. Look. Those are tattoos of you that people get. Well, my grandson did that. Did he? Yeah. What do they think of that? I mean, could you imagine Morgan Freeman being your father, your grandfather? You know what I mean? What do they, do you get cool points from your grandchildren because, you know, of all your work? Yeah, from some of them. Sorry, you get all the cool points from us. Okay. I gotta ask, since you've been a part of the Batman movies, if you could play any superhero, who would it be? Well, certainly be one that can fly. Oh, so you would want to fly. That would be your superpower. Yeah. Okay. So, hmm. All my, I used to dream of falling and never hitting the ground. Okay. I just level out. Ah, soar and flow. Okay. So you will be, I think you could play yourself and just fly around because that's like a superhero. That's right, right? Okay. Now, I'm big into voices and your voice has to be one of the most recognizable voices in the world. Did you notice the impact it has? Soon as you speak, does this happen everywhere you go? Soon as you speak, we all get still and it just like draws us in like this. You feel that way guys, right? Was your voice always like that? No, heavens no. I grew up in the South. So my voice was maybe a half octave or an octave higher than it is. And I had a very thick Southern accent, but when I was taking acting classes at the LACC, night courses, the voice instructor just tore it down and fixed it. Really? Yeah, there are ways to do it. Relaxation is the key. Okay. Learn to relax this part here. And you do that by yawning a lot. Open your mouth wide and that kind of relaxes the throat. And if you do that a few times, you're going to realize, you may not hear it, but other people hear, oh, voice is lower than it used to be. And it's just opening. We should do chicken wings. That helps open up your chest. Give your lungs more room. All kinds of stuff like that. And you're doing that in class, obviously doing it every day for a few weeks, six maybe. So and then something's going to happen. That's what happens. Then we'll sound like you. I want to. Okay. No, no, no, you don't y'all. No, no, no, no, no. I'm listening to you. Okay, y'all can sing. Y'all heard her sing. Okay, let's talk about your show, Lioness. Tell us about your character. I'm Secretary of State and what we are, what the show is really about is a team of black ops operators and I think I kind of ride bird on them because being black ops, they can go off on a tangent somewhere and kill the wrong people, get involved with the wrong stuff politically. So I think my character is like, okay, you got to do this this way. You can't do that. Right now. What is the key to longevity? What you say? I don't know what the key is, but one of the things that helps you along is activity. If you sit down too long, you won't be able to get up. Come on. There you go. Because you do a bit of everything. Oh my goodness. And then you got like 15, speaking of, if you sit down too long, you'll never get up. You stay busy. You got 15 projects right now. Do you hear that? What haven't you done? What's left to do for Morgan Freeman? I don't know, darling. I don't know. I've done everything I wanted to do so far. Yes. Even flying. So, yeah. All you have to do is whistle, child. Thank you.