The role Morgan Freeman took “a lot of shit” for playing: “It never was shit I acknowledged”
In Hollywood history, certain actors have become stars thanks to roles they later developed complicated feelings around. Whether it was because they found themselves typecast afterwards or there was something in the material they personally didn’t care for, it’s always an uncomfortable position for any performer to be in. Morgan Freeman is a perfect example of this, as he finally became a bona fide movie star late in life after playing a part he took a lot of criticism for.
Freeman’s complex journey with the character of Hoke Colburn began in 1987 when he played the kindly Black chauffeur in the off-Broadway production, Driving Miss Daisy. Set over the course of 25 years between 1948 and 1973 in Atlanta, Georgia, the play tells the story of Colburn and Daisy Werthan, an elderly Jewish woman who initially rejects the notion of him being her driver. Eventually, though, they develop a close friendship, and the former educator even teaches Colburn how to read.
In 1988, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which made a Hollywood adaptation only a matter of time. The film arrived a year later, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Jessica Tandy as Werthan. Freeman was the only cast member who reprised his off-Broadway role in the film, and he landed a ‘Best Actor’ Academy Award nomination for his warm, heartfelt performance. Freeman unfortunately didn’t win on the night, but Tandy took home ‘Best Actress’ and the film also won ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay.’
In 2020, Freeman felt only gratitude and fondness for the film, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “It was such a different story, such a different approach. It’s about a relationship between a man and a woman over a long period of time. It kind of reminds me of these French movies about love. It was literally a love story. I maintain it was one of the best jobs I ever had in the movies.”
However, Freeman didn’t always think this way about Driving Miss Daisy. Indeed, even before an enormous controversy exploded surrounding its sweep of the Oscars, he experienced some reservations while performing in the stage version. At that point, a portion of critics attacked the play for presenting a hackneyed, half-hearted approach to race relations, offering audiences kindly, unrealistic platitudes instead of actually interrogating the topic. Some even claimed it romanticised the South in the pre-Civil Rights era, was patronising to Black audiences, and indulged far too much in the ‘White Saviour’ trope.
While Freeman didn’t entirely agree with these detractors, they did get him thinking, especially when white audience members came to see him backstage in tears, saying how much the story of Werthan and Colburn reminded them of their families. “After a while, you start thinking, ‘Am I evoking nostalgia?'” Freeman wondered in ’89. “You know? Because this does evoke a time when everybody was sure who they were and what their place was in life. And now things are a little more complicated.”
By the time the movie came out and was such a success, though, Freeman seemed to have made his peace with Driving Miss Daisy. He admitted to The Guardian that he had “a lot of shit” thrown his way for playing Colburn, not least by Spike Lee, who hated the film’s racial politics, and was irate that his movie Do the Right Thing lost out on Oscar night to Driving Miss Daisy. In 2015, he was still furious, remarking, “Nobody’s talking about motherfuckin’ Driving Miss Daisy. That film is not being taught in film schools all across the world like Do the Right Thing is.”
As for the torrent of “shit” thrown his way, Freeman claimed, “It never was shit that I acknowledged.” He was adamant that he had no time for criticism “from people who had certain expectations and this attitude about ‘Uncle Tom’ and all that, which is a reaction you expect from people who have no idea what they’re talking about.”
If anything, Freeman’s true lasting beef with Driving Miss Daisy had nothing to do with any racial controversy. Instead, he was irritated that Colburn fostered an image of him as “this wise, old, dignified, black man,” which, for a long time, made it harder to land other kinds of roles.
