The movie Morgan Freeman wanted to make “as much as I look forward to losing my big toe”
The easiest way to convince Morgan Freeman to sign on for a movie is to wave a sizeable pile of cash in front of his face, with the actor making no bones about the fact he’s a mercenary who works for money.
He’s long since paid his dues, so why can’t he be allowed to take it easy? The Academy Award-winning veteran has been treading the boards since the early 1960s, spent years as part of the cast in a children’s show he slowly grew to despise, and was on the cusp of turning 50 before he became a big deal.
Since then, he’s worked more solidly than most actors of his generation, even if it’s become clear that he’s taken at least one foot, maybe one and a half, off the gas. As mentioned, though, he’s not a kick in the arse away from turning 90 years old, so he’s entitled to spend his twilight years making the most for the least amount of work.
The downside is that it’s hard to remember the last truly great Morgan Freeman performance. Not only that, but when was the last truly great Morgan Freeman film? 2024’s My Dead Friend Zoe got solid reviews, but it’s lost among a sea of shoddy thrillers like Gunner, 57 Seconds, The Ritual Killer, and The Minute You Wake Up Dead.
Unlike his friend and frequent co-star, Michael Caine, the gravitas-laden legend doesn’t have a strict set of rules to dictate what he will and won’t star in. Instead, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s all about the bag, which is why he opted to lend support to Keanu Reeves in 1996’s dismal actioner, Chain Reaction.
Before a single frame had even been shot, Freeman sounded less than enthusiastic at the prospect. With The Fugitive director Andrew Davis’ big-budget genre flick shot in and around the state of Illinois at the height of winter, leading him to confess to Scott Schuldt that he was looking forward to the start of production “as much as I look forward to losing my big toe.”
When subsequently asked why he was making it, despite his misgivings, he responded with a song that everyone knows: “Money, money, money, money.” It was as frank a response as anyone would expect from a performer who’s gleefully accepted more money jobs than most, even if he clarified that the financial rewards weren’t the be-all and end-all.
“I’ll act for free,” he explained. “If you don’t pay me, I’ll do it anyway. Money affords you the time and space to do this passion. I’m happy to have the passion to act instead of for digging ditches.” He may not have been digging ditches, but freezing his bollocks off in Chicago didn’t go too well for him, either.
The cold got to him so badly that, before Chain Reaction was released, he revealed how he ended up “ill and in bed four days at a crack,” pointing out that, “I don’t do cold weather.” Clearly, he does, but only if the producers are willing to cough up.
