The actor who blew Morgan Freeman away: “He was just born to do this”
It’s not obligatory for an actor to daydream of seeing their name in lights from an early age, and some of the most iconic names in cinema history have fallen into the business almost by accident. Morgan Freeman didn’t grow up with ironclad designs to become a thespian, which did nothing to stop him from becoming one of the greats.
Admittedly, he’d been bitten by the bug during childhood and had acted in plays throughout his school days, but the future Academy Award winner turned down the chance to attend university on a drama scholarship to enlist in the Air Force instead. That lasted four years, and once he decided that life wasn’t for him, he refocused his energies to try and make a name for himself on stage and screen.
It took a while, but he got there in the end. Freeman was pushing 50 when his Oscar-nominated performance in Street Smart finally made him a star after years of persevering through the lean periods that saw him consider quitting several times, and now he’s one of those people anybody in the world can recognise without even having to see their face, thanks to that sonorous voice of his.
The point is that acting doesn’t have to be an obsession from day one. Freeman was miserable making children’s TV shows and considered driving a taxi before he caught his big break, whereas there’s one co-star the veteran is adamant was pre-ordained to end up as one of the most famous folks on the planet.
That sly pun was definitely intended because everyone knows Tom Cruise considered becoming a priest before opting for the performing arts. He and Freeman worked together for the first time on 2013’s middling sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion, a role the latter only played because it gave him the opportunity to collaborate with someone he’d long admired from afar.
It’s OK for Freeman to fanboy over Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood because they’re all within the same age range, but it’s a little weird to hear him do the same for Cruise, who’s a quarter of a century his junior. Still, he didn’t even try to hide his membership in the elite tier of the action hero’s fan club.
“The first time I saw him was Risky Business. He was awesome,” the exposition machine declared to Bullzeye. “When his parents walked out of the house, and he slid into the frame in his Jockeys and did that whole thing, it was like, ‘This kid is awesome’. I don’t know if there is anything that he has done that I haven’t seen and appreciated. I’d seen stuff he’d done even before then. He’d done this fairy tale movie, Legend. He was just born to do this.”
How big of a Tom Cruise fan is Freeman? He even likes Legend, the blockbuster flop that both the actor and director Ridley Scott hated making so much they’ve never returned to the fantasy genre. If that isn’t the most genuine form of unwavering admiration, then nothing is.
