The co-star that was awestruck by Morgan Freeman: “He was speechless”
When it comes to acting royalty, few crowns are bigger than one atop the head of Morgan Freeman.
Acclaimed Oscar winners, gritty crime dramas, light-hearted comedies, superhero adventures, and animated kids’ films, Freeman has done it all and is still working today. Not to mention, he has the smoothest voice on this side of Barry White.
Freeman is a bona fide star, one of the biggest in Hollywood today, and he’s worked with everyone under the sun, from old-school legends to some of the fast-rising talent in the business. One of his many, many jobs was playing CIA Director William Cabot in 2002’s The Sum of All Fears. Based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name, the film paired Freeman up with Ben Affleck, who was stepping into the role of hero Jack Ryan. According to the older actor, his young co-star had an interesting reaction to meeting him.
Moments like that underline just how imposing Freeman’s reputation had become by the early 2000s. He wasn’t just another respected actor turning up to set, he was a figure whose presence carried decades of acclaimed performances and cultural weight. For younger stars, even those already established, sharing a scene with him could feel less like collaboration and more like stepping into a masterclass.
At the same time, Freeman’s on-screen authority often translated into an off-screen calm that helped anchor productions. Directors frequently relied on him not just for his performances but for the sense of stability he brought to a set. That combination of gravitas and professionalism is part of what allowed him to move so seamlessly between genres, elevating everything from high-stakes thrillers to more character-driven dramas.
“Ben was a little awestruck by my presence,” the Se7en star told Black Film in 2002. “I am, after all, one of the most admired and well-thought-of actors running around Hollywood today. And when I came to work, he was speechless.” It’s unclear whether Freeman was joking when he said this or if he genuinely thought Affleck saw him as some sort of god, but it’s entirely possible that his colleague got nervous around him.
Affleck was no stranger to the limelight by this point in his career, having already starred in Good Will Hunting, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbour. However, this was Morgan Freeman just a few years removed from the runaway success of The Shawshank Redemption, when he was at his most reliable as a big-name draw. He hadn’t won his Oscar yet – that would come three years later for Million Dollar Baby – but Affleck’s only major award at this point had been for scriptwriting, and he’d yet to establish himself as a worthy investment as an actor.
The Sum of All Fears is the fourth film in the Jack Ryan series, which had previously seen Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford play the title character before Affleck took on the role. The story takes place early in Ryan’s career and sees him go up against an Austrian fascist trying to provoke a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. The film’s production coincided with the September 11th terror attacks, something Freeman also commented on. “The question was, what do we do here?” he pondered. “Do we or should we release these films or should we just wait and see what the psyche of the nation is going to turn out to be?”
The interview also touched on the sheer volume of Freeman’s output. While it might seem big opportunities just fall into actors’ laps, the star made it clear that this wasn’t the case. “I don’t really go from job to job to job. I have to, most of the time I’m looking. I’m on the hunt.” He clarified that, while his days of audition were long over, he still needed to actively search out good projects and make “informed or intelligent decisions”.
Whatever the truth is about Freeman and Affleck’s first meeting, the latter clearly got over his crippling feelings of wonderment towards the former. Affleck would later cast Freeman in his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone in 2007, which was well-received by critics and ticket sales. Freeman played a police captain working to find a missing girl alongside two private detectives, one of whom was played by Affleck’s brother Casey.
