Morgan Freeman joins Oscar winners Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank in “Million Dollar Baby,” which is based on a short story from the collection “Rope Burns” by F.X. Toole.
The film is directed by Eastwood and narrated by Freeman. The drama centers around boxing trainer Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) and upcoming fighter Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank). Freeman plays Scraps, the manager of Dunn’s Los Angeles boxing gym.
Freeman, who started his career playing “Easy Rider” in the children’s TV show “The Electric Company,” has had plenty of roles since then, most memorably in “Shawshank Redemption,” which he also narrated. He hasn’t been on the screen with Eastwood since he co-starred with him in “Unforgiven” in 1992.
The 67-year-old Mississippi resident recently sat down to talk about “Million Dollar Baby” and re-teaming with Eastwood.
QUESTION: What was it like working with Clint again? MORGAN FREEMAN: “If I had my druthers, twice a year, I would do a picture with Clint and the rest of the time, just gloat.”
Q: What makes Eastwood such a great filmmaker? MF: “He is so hands-off. He’s directing the picture, he’s not directing you. You’re a collaborator. That’s how he operates the whole thing. That’s his strong suit for everybody. He’s a class act. He’s quiet. He’s in absolute control of the set and he’s quick.”
Q: How do you feel about doing narration? MF: “I love it. You’re kind of the source of the film. You set the emotional tone for it.”
Q: What’s your favorite movie of all time and why? MF: “That’s a hard one. But I’m thinking more and more that it’s ‘Moulin Rouge,’ the one with (director) Baz Luhrmann. Smoke a J and sit down and watch that movie. Everything about it is outstanding. The cutting, the editing. I’ve never seen anything done that well.”
Q: You were athletic growing up? MF: “I was on the sand lot. I was great at football. I was marginal at basketball. I was always the 97-pound weakling growing up. I went to the Air Force when I was 18 years old and I weighed 137 pounds.”
Q: Have you had a lot of films you wish you hadn’t done? MF: “I’ve had a lot of those... these big acting films that don’t have scripts. Those films never succeed. You have to have a script. You can’t be handing out pages every time you go to work in the morning.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 17, 2004. Read the original PDF.