Morgan Freeman’s least favourite kind of acting: “Some actors just love it, I find I don’t”
When Hollywood actors are interviewed about their craft, many speak fondly of a particular aspect of acting. While movies offer one path, other avenues, like television and voice work, can also be creatively and financially rewarding. Yet, there’s one area often regarded as the most artistically thrilling but also the most physically and emotionally demanding: the stage. While many stars relish the unique challenges of live theatre, not everyone shares this enthusiasm. Just ask Morgan Freeman.
When Freeman first began attempting to make it as an actor, he found most of his early success in the world of theatre. In 1966, he worked as an understudy in a tour of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and he was finally called into action one night in Des Moines, Iowa. The experience of acting in front of a live audience was exhilarating to the young man, who gushed, “The feeling of rightness and power that washed over me on the stage that night came as a revelation to me. I said to myself, ‘This is what you do. This is where you really shine.'”
Freeman subsequently moved to New York City to work in Off-Broadway theatre, which later led to roles on Broadway. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Freeman continued to tread the boards in many productions, including Shakespeare plays like Coriolanus and Julius Caesar. He also starred in the original Off-Broadway production of Driving Miss Daisy in 1987 – a role he reprised to such great effect on film in 1989.
However, over the years, that incredible spark Freeman felt on stage was extinguished. These days, he is brutally honest about how much he dislikes theatre acting. In 2023, he told The New York Times, “I really spent 20 years in theatre trying to get into the movies. From childhood, that’s what I wanted to do. Mostly, I don’t want to do stage.”
Fascinatingly, for Freeman, it’s not so much about a love of cinema over theatre. Instead, it’s purely about the amount of painstaking, repetitive graft that goes into stage acting. He mused, “It’s too much work. Movies, you do a little work, make a lot of money and move on. I like that. And I think I’ve paid my dues.”
He revealed that he always reached a point in any production where he experienced burnout, claiming, “I will never set foot on anybody’s live stage again. Two months into performances we would go on stage, look at each other and go, ‘What the fuck are we doing here?'”
It’s true that stage acting can be a more intensive beast than film acting. After all, as Freeman told Good Morning Britain in 2024, there’s nowhere to hide in the theatre, and you only get one shot at every scene. He joked, “In the movies…if you forget your lines, you just say, ‘OK, what was that line again?’ And somebody gives it to you. Or you say cut.”
In truth, this is likely where the root cause of Freeman’s falling out with theatre acting can be found. He revealed that he had a bad experience when he returned to the stage in 2011 for a rendition of David Boies’ 8, which legitimately frightened him. He admitted, “Stage is too hard a challenge for me. Last time I remember being on stage, I forgot my lines, and I can’t tell you how terrifying that is. In the movies, you won’t get that…I’m terrified to go back and try it.”
While it’s disheartening to think of an acting legend like Freeman being afraid to do something, it can’t be argued that – as he said – the man has paid his dues in the theatre. That must be respected if he’s decided he doesn’t enjoy it anymore. As he told Backstage in 2019, “I went back on stage the way all actors will do. Some actors, like Al Pacino, just love it. I find I don’t.”
