GREAT PERFORMANCES YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN:
Million Dollar Baby (Golden globe-nominated and Oscar-winning performance as a trainer, alongside Clint Eastwood)
Bruce Almighty (God, with Jim Carrey)
Evan Almighty (God, redux, with Steve Carell)
Lucky Number Slevin (a gangster chief)
Lean on Me (a principal of a tough New Jersey high school)
Driving Miss Daisy (Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning performance as Southern chauffeur Hoke)
An Unfinished Life (sidekick to Robert Redford on a ranch)
Gone Baby Gone (a cop, in tight Ben Affleck-directed drama)
Nurse Betty (eccentric assassin gunning for Renee Zellweger)
Invictus (Nelson Mandela, again directed by Eastwood)
Feast of Love (a wise dispenser of advice)
Along Came A Spider (forensics expert Alex Cross)
BLOCKBUSTERS:
Batman Begins (Bruce Wayne’s r&d guy)
The Dark Knight (Bruce Wayne’s R&D guy, with a raise)
he Shawshank Redemption (Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated performance as Red, the prisoner who can acquire any object, opposite Tim Robbins)
Wanted (head of a brotherhood of assassins)
Glory (gravedigger in Union army)
Se7en (detective, opposite Brad Pitt)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood’s sharpshooting sidekick)
Robin Hood (the Moor, with Kevin Costner)
Bucket List (guy taking one last adventure, with Jack Nicholson)
Amistad (freed slave turned abolitionist)
Deep Impact (the President)
The Sum of all Fears (head of the CIA, opposite Ben Affleck)
THE REAL FREEMAN:
Feast of Love
A guy who has made himself integral to the life of a small town. Morgan Freeman owns a restaurant in his home away from Hollywood, the very bosom of the blues, Clarksdale, Mississippi. He doesn’t seem to have played any restaurateurs or even musicians, and wisely steers away from any Southern roles. Look him up on the Food network, Electric Company episodes, or any of his many brilliant Broadway roles for the Morgan you never knew.
ACTING STYLE:
Quiet authority and kindness (aka God). Actually, as confident and calm as he is, and as much fun as he is to listen to, Freeman’s finest roles are almost all as the reliable pal/partner/sidekick supporting roles. He’s the kind of guy that a Clint or a Jack or a Christian would want to hang with or have watching their backs. He is also the sassy but reliable moral compass, literally supporting his co-stars, even when he isn’t God.
BITS AND QUIRKS:
The practiced even tone and the quiet authoritative voice. Big hearty smile with one quick chuckle. A good stare, particularly with the head cocked a little forward and looking up, as from a desk. A great stare of complete surprise. The high-pitched voice of outrage, usually in the form of a rhetorical question; this voice, probably on purpose, lets in varying amounts of his Southern accent.
GREAT SCENES:
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Conversations with Eastwood over his socks > Giving advice to Hilary Swank about the hit bags > Knocking out the jerk fighter
UNFORGIVEN
Meeting the blind gunslinger
AMISTAD
Going aboard the slave ship
SE7EN
The final scene in the desert with Kevin Spacey and Brad Pitt
WANTED
Showing Jim McAvoy the “knitting factory” > the circle at the end > the training exercises
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Before the Parole Board, particularly the last time > Finding the box in the fence
EVAN ALMIGHTY
Appearing to Evan in the back of the car
BUCKET LIST
skydiving > racing the cars > the talk at the top of the Great Pyramic > Having it out with Nicholson in front of his daughter’s house
LEAN ON ME
The vice principal telling him off > the assembly before the test > the students protesting outside of the school board and his speech to them
BATMAN BEGINS
Developing Batman’s high-tech gear with Christian Bale
ALONG CAME A SPIDER
The stand-off with the kidnapper > Outside the Russian embassy > Rescuing the girl at the end
Morgan Freeman, Acting Review - MovieActors.com
