The movie Morgan Freeman said “dropped in my lap”
Throughout a genuinely remarkable career, Morgan Freeman has established himself as an icon of American cinema. Even just the voice of the Memphis-born actor can bring up emotions that you didn’t know were there; such is Freeman’s cultural pull. During his time in the limelight, he has given some eternally memorable performances.
After coming through on children’s television, Freeman began to showcase his talents on the Shakespearean and Broadway stages, but it was long before the big screen came calling, and he went on to deliver some magnificent turns of acting in the likes of Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Amistad and Invictus, proving not only his ability but his versatility too.
Of course, we know much about Morgan Freeman, the actor, but one might not know that he has also been a director. Back in 1993, Freeman made his directorial debut with the drama film Bopha! Set in apartheid-era South Africa, the film explores the interworkings of a black family caught up in the tides of oppression, with Danny Glover playing a forthright policeman who tries to uphold the law despite the wrongdoing done to his community.
Speaking with The Guardian, Freeman once admitted that his debut experience in the director’s chair simply “dropped in my lap”. He explained, “This guy comes along with a script, and he wants me to star in it and direct it. I looked at the script, and it’s a story set in South Africa, and it’s about a black South African policeman.”
Freeman said of the era of South African history, “It was a horrendous thing,” but said that Bopha! gave him the chance to flex his directorial muscles for the first time, adding, “Riots, it was a great story. And we made a really good movie. It was Danny Glover and some great English actors and some South African actors.”
Bopha! saw Glover’s character Micah be at odds with his son, Zweli, who begins to get more and more involved in the anti-apartheid movement. There’s a real conflict between the two family members, which gives the film its overall tension, drama and quality, highlight the personal significant of political repression.
Freeman said he “enjoyed” his experience directing for the first time, “being captain [and] controlling the ship.” Still, there were issues with the production. Freeman explained, “There are politics involved that I cannot deal with. We were Hollywood going to Africa to shoot a movie, not about black people, about Africans. And we looked at the script, and we looked at South Africa, and we looked at the script again, and all of a sudden, we gotta do this, and we got into trouble. We made the movie, but we got into trouble.”
There was an air of resistance in Freeman in how he wanted to get Bopha! made despite there being some political issues with a portrayal of apartheid South Africa, including the way that the film’s ending went down. Still, Freeman’s first time in the director’s chair was a success, and he again delivered important and emotional storytelling through his talent.
Bopha! might have “fallen into” Freeman’s lap, but when it did, he took the script in both hands and ran with it as far as he could, pushing the boundaries of Hollywood filmmaking and creating a movie of striking importance.
