“Big mistake”: The Oscar-winning role Morgan Freeman regretted
Before he became the voice of Hollywood, Morgan Freeman was a swashbuckling theatre actor.
A determined craftsman, Freeman spent a long time treading the boards before he was finally cast in Hollywood productions. Though he would take acclaimed roles in movies like Seven and Shawshank Redemption and gained his breakthrough role in 1987’s Street Smart, his first big break would come off the back of his time in the theatre, taking on the role of Hoke Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy.
Freeman had first approached the role when performing Alfred Uhry’s play in an off-Broadway theatre and was then sized-up for the movie production shortly after. Taking his stage portrayal into the screen would be the moment Freeman truly launched into the world of Hollywood.
Directed by Bruce Beresford, who would then go on to direct Double Jeopardy, among other feature films, the 1989 picture would become a cultural touchstone for decades to come after it won big at the 1990 edition of the Academy Awards, taking home ‘Best Picture’ and gaining Freeman his first nomination for ‘Best Actor’. However, for the widely acclaimed actor, the role still feels like a “mistake”.
The movie centres on the relationship between the charmingly belligerent Daisy Wrethan and her affable senior chauffeur, Colburn. Played by Jessica Tandy, Wrethan is forced to hire a driver after crashing into her neighbour’s property, highlighting that age may now be catching up with her. What follows is a deep dive into the interpersonal relationships we foster as we grow older, as well as the attitude towards the ageing process and acknowledging the racial and societal issues we all face.
One of the main criticisms of the movie is that, with an opportunity to explore the latter, more pertinent issues at hand, it rather meekly led its audience into a somewhat comforting resolution. But, for Freeman, the role was a mistake for another reason.
While speaking to Richard Johnson at the British Film Institute and reported by The Guardian in 2000, Freeman was irked by the idea that the movie started a new chapter in his career: “Yeah, I think the big mistake was Driving Miss Daisy, actually”.
Freeman has long been thought of as an almost omnipotent narrator when it comes to Hollywood productions and has, since this role, often found himself holding the position of storyteller as opposed to the leading actor, something exemplified in The Shawshank Redemption and his many documentaries. The actor believes that Driving Miss Daisy may have been the route of that: “Well, the character caught on – this wise, old, dignified, black man,” he explained.
It’s a trope that has left some question marks on Freeman’s appreciation for the role that launched his career. A role that became a launchpad into the upper echelons of Hollywood also had a habit of leaving Freeman without much room to manoeuvre. It would take some time before he got the chance to expand his cinematic vocabulary.
The role would seemingly typecast him to his collaborators and the audience. He continued: “Some characters become sort of bracketed, identifiable – identified – you and him. People come up and say: ‘I just…’ and cry and stuff, and everywhere you go, they’re going to expect some aspect of that character out of you, and if you disappoint them too many times…”
While Freeman admits he has “shaken it off” it would seem that the actor did a lot of work in the following years to be cast in more varied roles than that of Colburn. Seven, the Dark Knight series, Invictus, his Academy Award winning-role in Million Dollar Baby and even his work in the action-packed Red all point towards a performer who actively shook off the shackles of Driving Miss Daisy even if fans still regularly seek him for comforting words.
