‘Street Smart’: The most “alien” role of Morgan Freeman’s career
There are many actors who have portrayed characters that couldn’t be further from who they are in real life, with the likes of Robin Williams playing a sociopath in One Hour Photo and Jonathan Groff as a deadly serious detective in Mindhunter. The nature of their real-life personas only adds to the depth of the project when it largely contradicts their very core, creating an eerie and mysterious quality when you see such a sinister performance coming from a comedic actor or Tony award-winning musical theatre performer. And for Morgan Freeman, this was the crux of his character in Street Smart, describing the challenge of playing someone so far from himself.
After beginning his career on the stage, Freeman later became inseparable from his work on screen and became a prolific figure within cinema, starring in some of the greatest films of all time. The actor has been nominated for five Academy Awards, winning for the first time in 2004 through his work with Clint Eastwood on Million Dollar Baby.
However, he had decades of iconic performances under his belt before this win, with Street Smart being one of the key roles at the beginning of his career that launched him to global stardom and led to his first Oscar nomination.
Street Smart follows a New York journalist who lies when his fake story about a pimp describes a real pimp being chased for a murder. Morgan Freeman stars alongside Christopher Reeve, Kathy Baker and Mimi Rogers as Leo Smalls, the hustler on trial for a homicide that Freeman plays in a way that is both charming and menacing, with a quiet threat that runs through his lines. Watching the man who voiced God twice speak in such a sleazy way adds a whole new layer of entertainment, as it feels so detached from his later roles as a man who is the epitome of goodness and defined by their moral character.
When discussing the many challenges in his career, Freeman described the process of taking on the character of Leo Smalls, saying that playing the pimp “…was about as far away from me as I can get, in terms of acting. It was more alien to who I really am”.
Perhaps the distance from his true self is what made the performance so convincing, as you are able to lose yourself in character and commit to somebody who demands every ounce of your attention in fleshing them out, not being able to rely on any aspect of your real identity to bring depth to the character.
When asked if he would take on another role like this, Freeman replied that it wasn’t something he’d attempt again, saying, “If I’m good at something I don’t want to do that again.”
This approach towards his craft may be what has allowed for such a varied career to flourish, as he chooses to challenge himself instead of leaning into something he is good at. Many actors would prefer to choose roles based on the age old saying that if you see gold, you should keep digging, but Freeman has proved that you can achieve equally brilliant performances when digging in many different areas.
