The 1989 movie Morgan Freeman would have made for nothing: “They could’ve got me for free”
Every actor wants to be paid handsomely for their work, and many of them have played roles strictly for the money, but few have been as open and honest about it as Morgan Freeman.
While he’s always taken his craft seriously and he’s put in the hard yards to get to reach his current status of a largely beloved legend and respected veteran, the Academy Award winner has never been shy in acknowledging that the number of zeroes being added to his bank account is a major factor.
Fortunately, when you’re Morgan Freeman, and you have a body of work that spans decades and includes billion-dollar blockbusters, ‘Best Picture’ winners, modern classics, and a string of big-earning box office hits, there are usually going to be a few zeroes on there to begin with, even before the bonuses kick in.
It’s made him a very rich man, which makes it unusual for someone who’ll tell anyone willing to listen that a substantial amount of his roles were only played because the people making them reversed a dump truck full of cash to his front door to suggest that, on one occasion, he’d have worked for free.
This was back in the late 1980s, right enough, shortly after Freeman had finally broken through to the big time at the age of 50 when he notched his first Oscar nomination for Street Smart, and before he became a bankable enough name in his own right to demand millions to dispense nuggets of gravitas-infused wisdom, so he was still motivated more by the creative rewards than the financial ones.
It also happened to be for a film that he’s called his personal favourite ever since, with the story having been close to his heart long before it made its way to the silver screen. When he heard that Ed Zwick was directing Glory, the story of an African-American regiment in the Civil War, he was in, no questions asked.
“After I read the script, I immediately told my agent, ‘Call ’em,'” Freeman revealed at the time. “I was so enthusiastic that I bet they knew if they pushed it, they could’ve got me for free.” Even when he met with Zwick, he didn’t want to negotiate or haggle; he simply informed the filmmaker that he’d do it.
“He just walked in and said, ‘You got me,'” Zwick recalled. “Morgan’s work has so distinguished itself that when it came time to cast a part that needed a sense of command, he was the obvious choice.” Had they lowballed him, he’d have been even cheaper to recruit, but that’s the sort of information any actor would keep to themselves.
Denzel Washington might have taken most of the performative plaudits with a ‘Best Supporting Actor’-winning performance, but Freeman is every bit as accomplished as Glory‘s John Rawlins, and he’d have been just as good in the part if he wasn’t being paid.
