The movie Morgan Freeman refused to star in: “He should have said yes”
These days, Morgan Freeman doesn’t turn down many movies. If you have seen The Ritual Killer, Gunner, 57 Seconds, The Minute You Wake Up Dead, or Paradise Highway, you’re in the top 0.01% of Freeman fans. However, back in 2013, Freeman was still fairly choosey when picking the movies he’d work on. He wasn’t opposed to the odd paycheque role – Last Vegas, take a bow – but his name being attached to something still promised quality. This is why it’s so odd that he refused to star in one of the year’s biggest comedy hits – a movie featuring a host of star cameos, no less.
In 2007, a short film amusingly titled Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse was released. It was the work of Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg, and it starred Rogen alongside his Knocked Up mucker Jay Baruchel. Five years later, the short film was extended into an all-star comedy opus called This Is The End, which added a considerable number of buzzy comedy stars – and a bunch of celebrity cameos – into the hilariously profane, gory mix.
Alongside the core cast of Rogen, Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride, the movie also featured the likes of Emma Watson, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart, and Rihanna. The central conceit of a group of famous Hollywood stars having a party when the apocalypse erupts all around them allowed everyone to play heavily exaggerated, fictional versions of themselves that traded on their screen personas and real-life personalities. Of course, it also allowed Channing Tatum to play a version of himself who would willingly become McBride’s gimp mask-wearing sex slave as soon as the world ends.
While Tatum reportedly required very little convincing to take the piss out of himself in the movie, securing a big-name cameo for the film’s pivotal final scene proved much more difficult. Rogen and Goldberg were surprised when their original ending didn’t test well with audiences, so they were tasked with coming up with something that involved the characters ascending to heaven for some angelic hijinks.
This was when they had a bright idea, and got word to Freeman about reprising his Bruce Almighty role as God. They figured it worked perfectly in their scenario because Baruchel worked with Freeman on Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby.
“The whole joke was, he shows up, and he’s like, ‘I’m God,'” Goldberg told Vulture. “And they’re like, ‘You’re God?’ And Jay goes, ‘Wait, so when we were in Million Dollar Baby together, were you God then? I don’t get it.'” At that point, the real God would turn up and tell the newly deceased stars, “We’re just fucking with you. This is Morgan Freeman. We just play this joke on people when they come to heaven now. Do you guys want to get high and play some video games?”
To everyone’s disappointment, though, Freeman mustn’t have been as enamoured with the silly idea as they were. “Morgan Freeman said ‘no,'” chuckled Rogen. “We wanted him to play God. Apparently, he takes his character as God very seriously!” When Goldberg jokingly insisted, “He should have said yes,” Rogen quipped, “I think it’s the biggest mistake Morgan Freeman ever made!”
After Freeman’s refusal, Rogen and Goldberg went back to the drawing board – and they had nothing. They admitted that it took them six long months of throwing different ideas at the wall until they landed on the notion that the actors would ascend to heaven, only to meet…the Backstreet Boys. Then, they would all perform the iconic ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)’ dance among the clouds, before the credits rolled to send nostalgic audiences home happy. Ah, Hollywood.
