“I like that, most actors do”: why Morgan Freeman prefers playing the villain
In keeping with his position as someone held in the highest regard for being one of cinema’s favourite kindly sages, Morgan Freeman has never been cast as a villain with any great deal of regularity throughout his career.
That in itself is curious, and not only because he finds it to be much more fun than playing nice. For one thing, he caught his big break on the silver screen playing a viciously antagonistic pimp in 1987’s Street Smart, earning his first Academy Award nomination and star-making performance in the process.
And yet, Freeman never wanted to play anybody like Leo Smalls again. Over the next few years, he became Hollywood’s most popular and in-demand mentor, father figure, and wizened exposition machine, and that persona led to villainous roles becoming fewer and further between.
He signed on to play the bad guy in the action-packed blockbuster Hard Rain, only to have the ending changed so that he didn’t die, and then urged people not to watch it anyway. He was found on nefarious duties once more in Stephen King adaptation Dreamcatcher, and again didn’t make it sound like he was there to explore the depths of what makes a man turn evil.
In fact, he hinted that the only reason he took the job was because it paid well, giving him an interesting relationship with the art of villainy. He ticked the boxes on those aforementioned occasions, only to decide that he didn’t want to do it again, told audiences to avoid the film, and only showed up to collect his paycheque, respectively.
Those are not the actions of a guy who finds more enjoyment lurking on the opposite side of heroism, but he still claimed it would be his preference. “Oh yeah, villains have more range of emotion,” he said to Roger Ebert. “A good guy is kind of like a straight shooter; he’s straight ahead. The villain is constantly weaving back and forth across the line.”
Continuing in the vein established by Freeman’s complicated relationship with villainy, the movie he was promoting at the time was Keanu Reeves’ limp disaster thriller Chain Reaction. He prefers being the bad guy, he’s explained why it’s better being the bad guy, and in the film he’s the head of a shady research team responsible for the misery that befalls the good guys.
Based on Freeman’s own explanation, that would make him the villain of the piece, right? Wrong. “I’m not the bad guy,” he confusingly continued. “I’m part of this whole deal, but I’m not a bad guy. All the time, I’m very sincere and earnest, but there comes a time when I just shade the eyes, and then you don’t know what you’re dealing with. I like that; most actors do.”
It’s a head-scratching way of making a point, but he’s not wrong in saying the majority of actors would rather play the villain because those parts tend to be better written than the heroes. Chain Reaction was terribly scripted from start to finish, though, but Freeman’s stance remains valid.
