The movie Morgan Freeman admits he made for the money: “What if I said paycheque?”
At the end of the day, the movie business is about making money, which is why it’s called a business. That applies to everyone who earns their living in cinema, and Morgan Freeman was all too happy to admit it.
Being a distinguished and illustrious veteran comes with its own unique set of perks, which, as Freeman and his friend Michael Caine have discovered numerous times in their twilight years, extends to popping up in all manner of forgettable genre flicks to dispense wisdom and exposition.
It wouldn’t be fair to say the Academy Award-winning legend has made a habit out of phoning it in, as much as his recent filmography dares to suggest otherwise. However, it also wouldn’t be 100% accurate to say that Freeman has injected every single one of his credits with the same level of gusto that defined his greatest-ever roles.
One such instance came on the risible Stephen King adaptation Dreamcatcher, which was trashed by critics and ignored by audiences despite the author initially calling it “one of the very, very good adaptations of my work.” It was not quite the overriding consensus then, but Freeman’s eyebrows suggested he knew exactly what he was getting himself in for.
In one of his rare villainous turns, Freeman sported a ludicrous pair of bushy brows as military colonel Abraham Curtis, who heads up an elite unit specialising in extra-terrestrial entities. The protagonists of the story stumbled upon the alien invaders, and it’s his job to ensure the potential outbreak doesn’t spread.
There are several different elements in play, ranging from the sci-fi thriller to horror via generational trauma bonding, none of which works to a notable extent. However, when Freeman was quizzed by Black Film as to whether he was Dreamcatcher as an alien movie, a psychological movie, or a friendship movie, he gave an entirely different answer.
“What if I said paycheque?” he responded, instantly explaining how and why he was convinced to take sixth billing behind Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Lee, and Donnie Wahlberg in an uninspired and uninteresting creature feature.
He came right out and said “it’s not a friendship movie,” and completely ignored the otherworldly and psychological aspects of Dreamcatcher, too, so his initial answer hit the nail squarely on the head. For Freeman, he was there for one reason and one reason only, which was to show up on set for a few days and leave with an enhanced bank balance.
Not that he should be judged or derided for such honesty, because it would be difficult for anyone to justify Dreamcatcher as being a serious work of art when the third act,, in particular,, devolves into an unintentionally hilarious schlock. Let’s hope he got to keep the fake eyebrows, at least, because they were almost worth the price of admission alone.
