The role Morgan Freeman has dreamed of playing since 1962: “One of the desires I’ve had”
Dream roles are a lot easier to come by when you’re a star or a legend, but even though he’s both, Morgan Freeman hasn’t had much luck in manifesting them.
He always wanted to make a western, and he did at least manage to tick that box when Clint Eastwood handpicked him to lend support in the actor and filmmaker’s seminal Unforgiven, although it’s interesting that particular dream was realised by somebody else pulling the strings.
The Academy Award-winning icon always wanted to star as the legendary lawman Bass Reeves in a movie, a point he reiterated several times over a number of years. Even after he aged out of the part, Freeman tried to set up a miniseries through his production company, only to be beaten to the punch by the Taylor Sheridan-created show with David Oyelowo in the lead role.
Arthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama is the other white whale that he’s always been chasing, with Freeman optioning the rights and trying to get a feature-length adaptation off the ground since the early 2000s, with one eye on playing a major part onscreen, too. Denis Villeneuve is tackling that one now, but he’ll still be involved, albeit tangentially as an executive producer.
For whatever reason, someone of Freeman’s status, standing, and fame has been unable to get their two dream projects up and running, which has got to hurt. There is a third, though, and you can safely bet on that one never happening, either, with that pesky Villeneuve indirectly involved once again.
“One of the desires I’ve had since Dr No is to be one of the supervillains in one of the Bond movies,” the Shawshank favourite revealed. “To be one of those brainiacs who comes very close to outthinking him, outmanoeuvring him.” Morgan Freeman as a James Bond baddie? Sounds fucking fantastic, to be honest, but the chances are slim to none, and that’s being generous.
Famous actors have played Bond villains in the past, with Rami Malek, Christophers Lee and Walken, Sean Bean, Christoph Waltz, and Javier Bardem among them, but unless he’d been afforded that opportunity before the start of the Pierce Brosnan era, you could make the argument that he’d be too famous and too recognisable as 007’s latest nemesis, which would be difficult baggage to shake under those circumstances.
That’s all hypothetical, of course, so being realistic, the fact that Freeman will be at least 90 years old by the time Villeneuve’s incoming reinvention of the franchise gets in front of the cameras would suggest that he’s far too long in the tooth to make a suitable antagonist for cinema’s most famous secret agent.
Once again, it would seem that the ship has sailed, which has unfortunately become a recurring theme for any role or movie that Freeman has publicly outed as one of his ultimate dreams.
