The career rule Morgan Freeman eventually broke: “It pays better than the first one”
Some actors go through their entire careers without making a single sequel, and that was an approach Morgan Freeman tried diligently to maintain for the first three decades of his professional life.
However, once the dam finally burst and he reprised a role for the first time in his career, the floodgates had well and truly opened. The main reason why he was so against doing the same thing more than once was that he never wanted to repeat himself as a performer, but as plenty of A-list stars will attest, sequels tend to be the easiest way to make the biggest money.
Returning as Alex Cross in 2001’s psychological crime thriller Along Came a Spider, the follow-up to Kiss the Girls, was the first time Freeman had ever returned as a character in a different film. His first taste of the sequel business was clearly one he enjoyed immensely because he’s been racking them up ever since.
The Academy Award winner has gone on to appear in all three instalments of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Bruce Almighty and its successor Evan Almighty, comic book adaptation Red and its second chapter, the Now You See Me heist capers, Ted 2, Coming 2 America, and Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, the latter trio indicating that he doesn’t even have to be in the opener to sign on.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Freeman has never shied away from naming money as a regular deciding factor in his career path. He’s pointed to several films, including Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher, as ones he made solely because they increased his bank balance, and he remained true to form when asked how he was enticed back into the fold for Gerard Butler’s Angel Has Fallen.
“Do you really want me to tell you that?” he asked entirely rhetorically. “Money. It’s the third in a franchise; it pays better than the first one.” His honesty should be commended, and he did at least get the chance to share the screen with the leading man despite the action blockbuster being their third film together.
Even though Freeman was the third-billed name in Olympus and London, his role as an exposition-friendly politician who eventually became the vice president meant that he and Butler never shot a single frame together. He could have lied and said that’s why he was so committed to returning for Angel, but the living legend opted to shoot right from the hip and say the financial incentives on offer were simply too good to turn down.
It might pay more and be more glamorous than the average nine-to-five, but at the end of the day, acting is the same as every other job in the world: it’s about making as much money as possible to enjoy a comfortable existence. Too many actors try to claim otherwise, whereas Freeman openly enjoys being weighed down by a fat wallet.
That blunt honesty is part of what has always made Freeman such a refreshing figure in Hollywood. While many actors try to frame every career decision as an artistic calling, Freeman has never pretended that filmmaking exists outside the realities of business. After decades in the industry, he understood better than most that blockbuster franchises offered stability, massive audiences and, most importantly, financial security that smaller prestige projects rarely could.
At the same time, Freeman’s willingness to chase a pay cheque never seemed to diminish his screen presence. Even in films where he was clearly operating in supporting mode, his commanding voice and calm authority still elevated the material around him.
Whether delivering exposition in a superhero epic or playing the president in an action thriller, Freeman carried the kind of effortless gravitas that made audiences believe every word he said, which is probably why studios kept offering him bigger sequel salaries in the first place.
