Morgan Freeman

No, I didn't. I just never thought about it. And when I think about dying, I think about just not being here. I do things and I fly planes, sailboats and stuff. You work out, you play golf. Yeah. And we get into some situations when you think, well, I guess this is it.

Yeah, but if you're on the ocean, you got a good sailboat. It's very survivable.

That's the worst part of sailing right there. No wind. The ocean, flat calm. And you're pretty much in the doldrums. And the doldrums is that area between the equator and, say, the next 10 degrees north or south. Nothing happens there.

However, there is a current. The current is only going to be about a knot and a half, two knots, but you're moving. Ah.

It just doesn't.

Going 10 degrees of latitude at one and a half knots is very fast. So if you're headed for the Southern Ocean, you're going to go through them. It's a lot of trust. Or if you've got a good engine and enough fuel, you put on your motor. Get the fuck out of the doldrums. Oh, right.

It's freaky. You've been on the ocean, there's waves, there's wind, and then here you are with nothing. You think, you know, I could very well die here.

You know, when I die, I want to be. He's gone. I don't want to be lying down with tubes everywhere. Somebody sitting and waiting and I'll jump out a window. I ain't going through that shit. Well, I'm not.

I've always been, because of these backgrounds, it's kind of self-motivated. You have to do for yourself. Get a job when you're 13, 14 years old. That starts you off on, yeah, I can do this.

When I first got to LA, it was February of 59. I had $175. I got a new garage apartment for $45 a month. But the first month's rent, 45. And then you have to put in that deposit. That's another 45. That was February, and that money ran out in April. I mean, completely out. I remember eating rice. That was it. Were you living around here? I was living in 4905 2nd Avenue, I think. 4509 and a half.

I made a friend who was a friend of the sergeant. His name was Sergeant John Wesley Spalding. And he told me, When you get to L.A., look up this guy. He's a friend of mine from way back. So I did. And the guy befriended me, and his wife was another one of those. Every time I have been in really dire straits, this is a woman who got me out of it. Yeah, yeah.

Reached in and pulled. Anyway, we hooked up, his wife and I. By that, I mean she liked to do stuff that he just didn't care for, going to swimming pools, going bowling, going roller skating. Being social and out there. Yeah. Well, she just enjoyed doing that stuff, and I enjoyed doing it. So she was happy to have somebody to do it with. It was no hanky-panky, although she was gorgeous.

Although it was killing me.

And then one day he said, God damn, man, you eat here more often than I do. That was his subtle way of saying rides over.

So the next time I saw her was on a weekend. And she said, when did you eat last? Tuesday? Wednesday? I ran out of rice.

Yeah, and she worked in the Board of Education, and she was instrumental in getting me a job. So I went to work as a transcript clerk at LACC. I was thinking, okay, so I'm going to try to get into the playhouse. Somebody said, no, you don't want to do that, man. We got a better theater department here at LACC, and you can go take classes for free because you're working there. That's what I did.

Yeah, I was on stage in New York. Go back to Dungeon Theater and then work your way into Off-Off-Broadway and then Off-Broadway and then Broadway. That started at around age 30.

Yeah. In San Francisco. Did I mention San Francisco?

The opera ring. We did Broadway shows and musicals. So I was in West Side Story and Mushroom on the Mattress and Can Can and the Three Penny Opera.

Garment District, New York. And a friend of mine who worked there got me a job as a skip tracer. Oh, that's a guy looking for people out on bail? That's different. I'd call it skip tracer. It's not. I'm tracing clothing. Oh, okay. Can I try the shipment tracer? Okay. Okay. And I was good at that. If you send a truckload of clothes somewhere and it didn't arrive, where is it?

Well, it's with the mafia down the street.

Am I right? Is that where a lot of it was? Not the mafia, but boy, you're in the mix there.

So they were moving me up in the hierarchy. And the guy who was the audit clerk took off. He got his license as a CPA. And they said, do you want to take that desk? You get a $5 a week raise. If I make them from 55, I'm going to go to 60. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I get the job. I'm good at it. Now people are bringing me stuff to do. This was part of your job back there. Really? Yeah.

And this and this. They said, well, he didn't ever have time to do it. And you do. Okay. How much was he making a week? Right. Well, he was making $105 a week. Well, come on. That's like a $35 a week raise just like that. We can't do that. These people who've been here 20 years are just up and leaving now. There's a phone call from a woman I knew from San Francisco. She was in New York.

We were taking dance lessons in San Francisco. I did jazz and tap and jazz. Ballet. Yeah, you were very into dancing. An actor who can move and sing, you've got that much wider possibility. Opportunity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she called me and she said, did you know that Michael Kidd was holding auditions for Dances for the World Fair? The next day, at my lunch hour, I went to the audition.

My kid says, how soon can you start? How soon do you want me? I said, today.

I'm not coming back.

My supervisor, he said, how much does this pay? I said, I'm not coming back. I got a job. I'm dancing. He said, how much is the passes? $92 a week. Okay. He says, okay, how long is that going to last? I don't care how long it lasts.

I had done an off-Broadway play. That I'm not allowed to say the name of, but you can. Yeah. The Nick Lovers with Vivica Linfers. and Stacey Keech. We had a short run, show closed. I auditioned as a replacement for the part of Rudolph the head waiter. And I got it. So I just moved from off-Broadway to Broadway. I was in that show for 11 months.

And a guy came to me and he said, I would like for you to come with me. I'm going to do a little show. We call it the DMZ. Some singing and some skits and stuff. Primarily, we're going to be anti-war. I don't have the kind of money that you're making here, but you'll get press. You joined that.

I guess maybe you can have both. I do have both. But I spend most of my time in Alabama. Do I have to put these on? You don't have to do anything you don't want to do.

There was some empty times between the World's Fair 64. The World's Fair job didn't last long. but a few months, count rehearsal, and the show itself closed in a couple of months. So I was on the street for the most part. But I went to work at Needix. Needix is like early, early, early, early McDonald's.

It's another one of those places where you go and you can get these little hot dogs, you can get donuts, a cup of coffee, you can get scrambled eggs and bacon. Fast food. Yeah. And they paid $49 a week and you worked 44 hours a week. So a dollar an hour, basically. Yeah. And it was a sign shop that says, no tipping.

Heaven forbid.

So I say to the guy in my orientation, I said, no tipping. People are going to sometimes tip you. You give them good service. What do you do? Give it back.

I said, well, no. What if they put it under a napkin and just walk away? Ha, ha, ha. He said, you ring it up as a sale.

So I'm working, and I'm looking around at the other guys working in this place. Hoodlum to the core. Everyone's on the grip. These guys are not working for no $49 a week. So the manager was a black guy, and I cornered him in the dressing room and said, okay, how does this work? Yeah.

A guy comes in and he orders a cup of coffee and a hamburger. So you give him a cup of coffee, the hamburger, you ring up the cup of coffee.

Slashing prices. And then you keep count of how much you've got in the cash register. And when it gets to be like a five or $10, all you have to do is take that $10. Ruffle that $10 up. Never put your hand in your pocket. Just fold it up and then get the coffee holder. Coffee pot. Oh, get the coffee pot. Yeah, because Big Ern is in the bank.

I was bringing home about $100 a week, but they were getting on to this whole thing at some point. Because a guy would come by periodically and just check the cash register. And if there were more money in there than the receipt shows, somebody's going to have to pay for it. I didn't like any part of that. Here I am stealing and this isn't going to last very long. So I quit.

I didn't quit because I had something else to do. I quit because I didn't want to get caught stealing. Yeah.

I didn't. So that was it. Here I am back on the street again. Now it's desperation time. Bendermite calls, says, we're going to go up to Stowe Playhouse and do A Taste of Honey. She's going to direct, and I'm going to star. Would you like to come along and do that? Yeah. Summer stock. Now I got a little job in Stowe for a month, so I'm excited. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And black. Yeah. A guy gives me a boat. Guy comes along and says, you're Morgan Freeman. That's all I've heard since I hit town. Yeah, yeah. So that's when I started sailing with that little boat on our little reservoir in Stowe, Vermont. I was hooked like you wouldn't believe.

I suppose, yeah, but just taking advantage of what life offers me. When there's nothing to do, when I don't have any way of managing, you get depressed. I've had long periods of depression, not knowing when the next anything is going to come along. But in my dotage, I realized that something always did, something always does, something always will. You just keep marching.

You just don't go jumping out of windows or doing something that's going to get you in a slam or just to eat. So now, I am now hooked on this boat. I go into New York for some reason. And while I'm there, I go to a bookstore and I get a book on sailing, not tying. And while I'm there... I go to an audition for an off-Broadway play. This is the one you don't want to say. Yeah, yeah.

And I audition, and the guy says, well, thank you very much. And I go back to the show. A couple of weeks, they call. Would you come and audition again? So I get on Trailways and I go in our audition again. And I said, well, thank you very much. I really appreciate you coming back. And back in the show. A week or so later, I said, would you mind auditioning again?

The director of Slow Playhouse, a guy named Jim Leahy. See that? Remember his shit? It's incredible. Yeah, it's good. You've already listed more names than I currently hold in my head. He says, what? They want you to come in? No, no. Listen, I want you to be here for my fall season. Tell them no. So I told them, no. They said, you got the job. Yeah, yeah, right. You learn these lessons, right?

Right. So here I am now in an off-Broadway play. And we do the play. And the opening night, I meet Jeff Hunter. He says, you're pretty good. Would it be all right with you if I recommended you for certain things, for some jobs or something? Shit, yeah. Never had an agent. Then one of the producers of that play said, I was one of the ones who wouldn't hire you. And you're better than I thought.

I'm going to put you on Broadway.

And he did. Now, this is the way it happened. I got another job off Broadway, Manhattan Theater Club. Nice little play. We got pretty good response. I got great response. So that guy who was producer of that play was going to take this little play to Broadway, which they did, for which I got kudos, playing a wino, a drunk. The play might have lasted a week. That's it. Yeah.

Well, they just produced it right out of existence. It wasn't there on the stage like it was when we had it off Broadway. The only cast member that was the same with me. That lasted about a week, but I got good press. Now I'm on a New York scene. New York Magazine had a little section they used on the town. And there I was on the town. Oh, baby. That's cool. Great.

It almost doesn't get better, right? It gets better.

I like that answer. So now here comes the electric company.

So it's been going forever. Ever. Electric Company was the government would fund experimental television.

That's right. I was given a choice of not. I would not.

What if it didn't end? If it didn't end, you would not go anyplace. It's like actors who I know, really good actors, but they became spokesmen for a commercial. That's it.

Well, it's the only part of the business that, let's call it an imposition. You have to do it. And it gets old.

Yeah, oh yeah.

I think if you keep moving, that's what happens. You step into a hole somewhere and you sink. But instead of giving up right then, you keep pushing. And I always tell youngsters, my kids, if you fall and you just lay there, people will come right past you. But if you fall and you struggle... somebody's going to give you a hand.

Sometimes you just can't get up by yourself. But that doesn't mean lie there saying, okay, this is it. It's not it. Unless you say it's it. Keep pushing, keep trying. You'll always get a hand. Somebody will, something.

In my case.

Driving Miss Daisy. And Lean on Me? Yeah, all of that. Interesting thing for me in this wild ride was Driving Miss Daisy and Street Smart came out same week. Oh, really? Yeah. So in the movies, I'm this pimp. And on stage, I'm this old man. What a range there on display.

Apartment. In New York. Yeah. I had a friend who was in real estate, doing pretty good. Now co-opping becomes possible in my building. So as a tenant, I could buy my six-room apartment for $78,000. Oh, my God. Now I don't have... $78,000, but I am working. I go to a friend and say, I just need a quarter of that ticket loan. He said, in essence, no, it won't be worth it.

Oh, shit. We just turned it off.

So eventually I bought the apartment. Instead of $78,000, I paid $230,000. Oh, bummer. Oh, 3X.

I don't react well to air conditioning. Oh, tell me. Well. It makes you sniffly. It steps up my head. I'm allergic. Specifically, if I get air blowing on me, cool air, and that's it. First of all, my head stops and I sneeze. I do all the things that you do if you're allergic to something. Right. And I know why you're allergic to things. You don't like it. Sure. You don't like it.

Yes!

It doesn't get better. When I was a little boy, if you wanted to give me something for Christmas, give me a cat pistol and a rig. I was so good. I could shoot five guys.

Mostly hit. Miss only been a couple of times.

I love the way Clint directs. He knows when he has what he needs and he moves on. And he knows it soon. He does not direct actors. He directs the movie. You come doing your lines and where all the cables are on the floor. Yeah, right. As opposed to somebody like David Fincher.

He has a concept and they want you to be privy to that concept. So if you're privy to that concept and you will do your best to give him whatever it is he wants. That was what I got and my relationship developed with David. I know why you're asking me to do this. It's not like, okay, say it like this. He never said that, but I want light situations. So turn your head just as much.

No, no.

I can't stand it. We say, that was great. Let's do another. You know, just to see what happens. You know, the same thing is going to happen, dude.

Yeah. Younger directors, they'll get into that situation.

To rewrite my script?

Two people I really am nervous about trying to work with, and that's people who write and direct. And I just worked with one who writes and directs that I would jump off a cliff for. It's Taylor Sheridan. In Lioness?

Yeah. Yeah.

He's just like, it's yours. If you can think of anything you want to do, give it to me.

That's right. That's his attitude, you know. It's like, right on, brother. Right on. I'm here. Yes. And then I'm up there with these... Ladies. Some badasses. Yeah, such a terrific cast. Michael Kelly. Yeah, Nicole Kidman. I've always been in love with that woman since I first saw her.

I gloried in the whole experience. I was always on set. Days when I didn't have to work, I hung out with the Wranglers.

Yeah.

I saw this terrific movie. It was called Shemshunk.

They didn't know how to pronounce.

Oh, I just saw you in the Hudsucker production. No, the Hudsucker production. Yeah. Ha, ha, ha.

Oh, my God. Gee, how did you enjoy it?

Oh, okay. And then your mom was also a teacher at some point? A little later, yeah, she started to teach music because she played the pi-nana.

Yeah.

I did a lot of prison movies. I was in Attica. I did the one with Robert Redford. Brubaker. Ah. Brubaker. Good point.

I really enjoyed working with David because I so tuned to what he was after. It gave me a lot of leeway. Did you learn about your powers a little bit in that movie? Just a little bit. I also twisted my ankle so bad running across the field there at the end. Oh, yeah, yeah. John Doe has the upper hand.

Yeah. Tickled the ivory. Yeah.

Yeah, it was not like running on level ground. I sprained my ankle. And then I think we did this shot seven or eight times. Of course. I stretched my tendon so badly. It's not back again. So my foot tends to roll over.

She didn't have the patience to teach me. Either that or I didn't have the patience to learn. I wanted to play the piano. I didn't want to learn how.

No. When did I feel anxious about work? On stage. The only time I had a part that I knew I couldn't do, I tried to do Othello. And I've asked a few actors, did you ever manage to get that? No. That's the one that, yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I've seen one actor play Othello and get it, nail it. And that was Laurence Olivier.

I walk out on stage opening evening. This is outside in Texas, in Dallas, at the Dallas Civic Light Opera. And I walk out on stage in this costume and somebody yells, sing Purple Haze. Oh, jeez. Oh, Jesus. My God.

That was it.

I don't know what it is that makes it impossible. I'm not sat and disgusted with any other actors. Ask Jimmy Jones, because he's done everything. I've done it five times, and I still haven't pulled it off. It's like Moby Dick.

Yeah, I know I can beat this guy. Yeah, I know I have it in me. I know I can.

He's Jack. I met him prior and told him I'd give him my left testicle.

He was asked if he'd do it, and he said, send me the script. I sent him the script, and he said, yeah, let's do it. So there we were, me and Jack Nicholson. Oh, man.

Yep.

I'll tell you, other than Clint, I had another icon, another idol. That was Gregory Peck. Interesting. Why? Well, all the things I'd seen him in, nothing ever came up to Moby Dick. I read Moby Dick some time ago. And that movie was every step in the book. They got it right. And he was awesome. First, I saw him. We were at one of those award things in Hollywood.

I had a seat kind of on the aisle, and he was coming up the aisle from the stage and jumped out and knelt down.

And he said, get up.

Get up.

Get up.

And then later on, I got a call from, I'm doing this library reader. I get, you know, actors to come and read short stories. Would you do that for you? Hell, jump out of an airplane. I'll read a phone book out loud for you. Whatever. So we got conversational.

Oh, when I was a toddler. No, I'm sorry.

No, when we were working, we were working. I work. But then I go home and I go, Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah, yeah. Jack Nicholson.

A lot of people, I get that kind of response from them. If I'm working with somebody that I hold that high up, to me, it's a ride along. We ride together. You take your run. I'm in it. I get it. So here comes mine. I just want to compliment what you're doing.

Strong males aren't doing anything but acting.

That's the pull quote.

God, that's so true.

Every now and then, you have to lift something heavy. Stop.

Yeah. Presidents, gotta say, use the plural there.

Not many folks can say that yet.

And here's Secretary of State. I've been head of the CIA. Interesting story there. Tom Clancy heard that I was going to do part as a deputy assistant to the CIA. And he said, oh, if it's that guy, make him the head.

You're so close.

I can't imagine. I'm almost certain he has a lot of stuff on the shelf, stuff that he has written, because he's one of those guys.

who write that's what he does i don't care if he was washing dishes to make a living he was writing and this stuff is on his shelf a lot of it he is so prolific yeah so he had yellowstone then he had two spinoffs 1823 and 1914 1921 i think or something like that 1883 and 1923

Okay. I'm free.

I'm free. Right.

So... He said the right thing. He wooed you and off to Mallorca to work.

Yeah, man.

Was it?

Wrong place, wrong time.

I really could not tell you why. And when they did my blood workup, they said, well, you didn't have a lot of alcohol. So it wasn't that. What happens was I think I just passed out. They put a pacemaker in me after that.

My long-term memory, most I think, is pretty much intact. It's like five minutes ago.

Up here, yeah. And so there's a plate in it, and there's a pin in my elbow. It's nerve damage. I have no tissue.

Oh, wow.

No nerves. And you have fibromyalgia now? It isn't fibromyalgia. I looked that up. It's more neuro, like neuralgia.

Yeah. The last time I was on my boat, I couldn't park it. I had a 43-foot catch. Went out with friends one day, and I couldn't get my boat back into the slip. That's a humbling experience. It is very humbling.

I don't like that. That's sad.

No, it's not much different. There's a camera, there are lights, there's script and actors. I think so.

Yeah, and it's phenomenal, right? Yeah, it's hard to go to the movies for someone with a high profile.

Yeah. There are restaurants around where I live. They'll just make way for me to make room. They'll put me in a special place.

No. Very quickly get used to the fact that you're back home. And they're respectful of that? Very respectful of that. You can't go into Charleston and say, where does Morgan Freeman live and be told. Oh, that's nice. So what's happening in season two? You've got the emotional thing that the lioness has to go through. I think that's the heart of these episodes. These women who...

They go into a situation where they've befriended somebody, some other, some woman, a wife, girlfriend, sister, something. Get to be close enough that she's in on what's going on, and then you have to betray that.

I'm not made that decision. I'm done. I haven't even decided. I'm thinking about it. You know, it's like, I don't want to keep going. And the answer, of course, is yeah. Can you get out of bed? Yeah, I can get out of bed and go to work. All right. Well, I have one last.

I think I sort of got it because when I was doing the electric company, it got more developed. I'm listening to myself now in earphones, and you can do stuff with it. Now, when I was in school... L-A-C-C. That's how my voice got put in place. Once it's in place, you know how to help it out.

Thank you.

Good to talk to you. Yeah, you too. Oh, should I say listen? Well, you can say whatever.

Well, be well and good luck. And you too, man. Be well, both of you, Monica. And what is that over there? That's a rob. That's a rob.

There are moments in your childhood that are just clear. I have moments when I remember something when I was four or five.

I was a little boy during the war. How old was I when it ended? I think eight, maybe? 37 you were born, ended in 45. Good math.

That's very vulnerable.

Right on, because mine sucks. Always has. How were you as a student? I was very good as a student. I just wasn't good in math. I read a lot. That set me up with English teachers. Everybody else except math instructor. But he was kind to me because I was a star.

That grandma was my paternal grandma. Died at age six and a half. While you were there. Oh, yeah. I remember I'm a junior, so my name was Junior. There were two or three ladies sitting with her while she was dying. And then finally, say, you think she's dead? Well, call Junior and have him call her. If she doesn't answer, she's gone. You were the test.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Shook her, called her name, and she wasn't there anymore.

That's what I was sort of wondering.

Mm-hmm.

Did you enjoy living with her? The little boy. Yeah, I was the apple of her eye. Both grandmothers were worthy.

Mm-hmm.

I always wanted to be in the movies. I didn't see stage plays. Right, right. I was living in the movies. So that was where my passions lay and lie.

Those Saturday Westerns, Lash LaRue and Buck Rogers. That was a Western in space, right? Yeah. Ken Maynard. Later on, John Wayne was coming along.

Yeah.

He was on Rawhide, Rowdy Yates. That's when I first noticed him. And then, you know, he disappeared for a while. And then he was the man with no name. He could shoot five guys just like that.

You know, skinny, bookish. The only thing I had going for me was I wouldn't give up. I would not show up.

Chicago, Southside.

I got there at age six. First time I was ever slapped real hard. Oh. Because it was a December in Chicago. And that cold, I'd never experienced that before.

Yeah.

And at the time, the Illinois Central Railroad was the connection. So I got off the train with my biological father. Because he came down after my grandmother died, his mother. He had to come and get me and my sister. You have two older sisters? Two older brothers, a younger sister, and a younger brother.

Quintessential.

Yeah. Every time I change schools, what it seems to me, All the time. It had to be initiated into some other little gang.

And I wasn't a fighter. You could jump by four or five boys. All right, all right, all right. Jesus, quit.

We didn't grow up together. Not until I was 11 years old. Because two kids were with my mother, ultimately. And two were with her mother, my maternal grandmother.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My stepdad was it. He was my dad.

Yeah. Well, it wasn't early. It was late. He had his own issues. Sure. Who doesn't? But it was good to me and my mom.

Yeah, it was three years, eight months, and ten days in the United States Air Force.

Yeah, I got into trouble there. Want to hear one of my stories? I would love to, yes. I'd come out of high school, been able to just murder an Underwood typewriter. You were a quick typist. Yeah. And the Air Force made me a radar mechanic, and that hit my stick, you know, really.

Well... Closer. Yeah. And he hated math. The kid who was the clerk in the maintenance office was arrested for child molestation. In other words, he had a little girlfriend. He was 19 and she was 13. Oh, boy. No good. No bueno. Yeah. So I volunteered to take his place in there because dexterous with the typewriter. I could even compose a reasonable letter and all that kind of stuff.

Now, I'm working there for a few months, and a new sergeant comes to take over the maintenance department. Tech sergeant, black guy, tall, had an eyebrow that could reach his hairline. My captain, who thought I was a gift from heaven. Because of the typing speed and the composition. Yeah. I want you to meet one of my best men, he says to the sergeant. I go in.

He says, Sergeant Spaulding, this is Airman Freeman, one of my best. I said, Sergeant, it's nice to meet you. Keep your nose clean. I'm sure we're going to get along.

Oh, my God.

That eyebrow shot up too quick. Hey, look down. That was a big box next to him. You want to take this box up to the sixth tower? No. He's blank. Uh-huh. This is Captain in this fight. Captain is sitting down there with his head down. I let him stew for half a minute, I guess. And I said, Sergeant, if you want me to take this box up to the sixth tower, just tell me to do it. And it's gone.

But you asked me if I wanted to. Oh, wow.

But you know, the guy became my best friend. Oh, he did? Yeah, absolutely. He'd stand around and wait for me to pull that shit. Yeah. How did you end up in the Air Force? I needed to get out of Mississippi. I'm never going to be in the movies in Mississippi. I got to leave. I wanted to fly a jet. I wanted to be a pilot.

Yeah, you know a lot about me. I'm trying.

Thank you.

That's a sad part of that, because my grandmother, who was life savior for me, died alone. All of us, we left home. And she said to me, if you stay here and go to school, I had two partial scholarships. For drama, right? Yeah. And no, I got to go.

Yeah. I'll buy you a car if you stay home.

Gene always said, I don't think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work. So I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you'll be remembered for that and for so much more. Rest in peace, my friend.