The one actor Morgan Freeman called the absolute best: “She almost stands alone”
There comes a point in certain actors’ careers where they no longer need to work for a job. The painful days of queuing outside auditions, along with a string of your lookalikes, fighting for a role, feel like a distant memory, and instead, the roles start coming to you.
For Morgan Freeman, that’s been the reality for some time now, that the excruciating days of auditioning feel further than a distant memory.
The prestigious and revered actor he now is, there isn’t a whole lot left on his bucket list to tick off. In fact, to prove that point, he recruited Jack Nicholson to make a film about bucket list activities, proving that he can simply go skydiving for work and get away with it.
With an Academy Award to his name, several silver screen classics and a filming alumni that includes the likes of Nicholson, and directors David Fincher and Christopher Nolan, there seems to be just one more cinematic scratch to itch, before he can rest up and say he’s conquered it all.
When asked about a list of potential collaborators, Freeman was keen to list off a who’s who of contemporary stars, stating, “I was very impressed with Cate Blanchett’s movie, Blue Jasmine. Very impressed with her. I was very impressed with Joaquin Phoenix in Her. Very impressed with Bradley Cooper in The Place Beyond the Pines.”
But while he admired their work from a distance, there wasn’t a burning desire to work with them at all costs. No, Freeman commended their work with the sort of patience fitting for a man who has done everything. But then, another Hollywood A-lister was named and, in turn, revealed a very obvious weak point within Freeman.
He continued, “And then there was August: Osage County. Meryl Streep, goodness sake! She is the absolute best. You might get up to her level sometimes—Cate Blanchett does on some occasions—but she almost stands alone.”
It hasn’t been the first time that Freeman has gushed over the triple-Oscar winner. No, he’s regularly dropped her name not-so-subtly to the floor in the hopes of bagging an opportunity to star alongside her. In fact, he openly said that he would do “A comedy or anything else, I don’t care. Whatever it is, I would do it.”
Given the extensive list of names that litter the filmography of the pair, it’s somewhat curious that their paths have never met on set. It’s even more curious when you add up their combined volume of work, which pushes nearly 200 films between them.
As we enter 2026, there seems to be a gaping hole in Freeman’s upcoming schedule, which at 90 years of age is rightly earned, and just one project is in the works for Streep. Besides her highly anticipated return in The Devil Wears Prada 2, there seems to be enough room for cinema goers to campaign a project that finally sees Streep alongside Freeman in what is surely Hollywood’s most sought after collaboration.
