Morgan Freeman on the “wonderful” experience of working with Gene Hackman
After flexing his performative muscles in a series of William Shakespeare plays early into his professional life, Morgan Freeman set out to become one of the most acclaimed and memorable stars of the big screen, a dream that he has undoubtedly accomplished considering his wonderful career.
The list of top-quality movies with Freeman’s name on is seemingly endless. From his early turns in Street Smart and Driving Miss Daisy to his remarkable efforts in The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus, Freeman has proven his worth as an actor time and time again, writing himself into the history of American cinema.
While Freeman has indeed captivated the attention and hearts of so many cinema fans throughout his career, that doesn’t mean that the actor can’t occasionally be caught up in his personal respect for his co-stars. Freeman has been fortunate enough to work with one of his acting heroes, Gene Hackman, on two glorious occasions.
The first arrived in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 film Unforgiven, which focuses on an aging outlaw who returns to his former life in order to take on one last job. In an interview with the BBC, Freeman once explained that after they had featured together in Eastwood’s film, both he and Hackman said that they would love to do another movie together.
The result was the 2000 American-French thriller movie Under Suspicion, directed by Stephen Hopkins, with Monica Bellucci and Thomas Jane featuring alongside Hackman and Freeman. According to Freeman, Hackman had been “carting around” the film for 12 years, so Freeman took it from his hands and had his production company help make it.
The film is based on the 1981 French movie Garde a vue and the 1979 British novel Brainwash, and when Freeman saw the original movie, he became very excited by the prospect of him and Hackman being able to take their account on things with an air of simplicity that is often missing in film productions.
“Primarily, these actors are in a stage setting that has nothing else to distract them,” Freeman said. “Just the human integration, and that’s very exciting. Normally, if you’re doing a film with some special effects, you shoot very short segments.” However, with Under Suspicion, Freeman and Hackman were able to perform a whole scene in just one take, enabling a sense of freedom on set.
Most importantly for Freeman, though, was to work with one of his favourite actors. He explained, “Working with Gene was wonderful. I didn’t find it too hard working with an icon I so respected.” In fact, Freeman had already become used to working with the actors whom he most admired early in his career, most notably, the Puerto Rican star Jose Ferrer.
“He was the first chance I had to work with someone I really venerated,” Freeman said. “It was difficult for him too. He had to say ‘Morgan. Get over it!’. Still, the early chance of working with Ferrer prepared Freeman to take his chance when working with Hackman for the first time on Unforgiven, which led to them collaborating closely on Under Suspicion.
Both Freeman and Hackman are true acting legends in their own respective rights, and it’s clear that they both have a mutual respect for one another and a longstanding desire to work alongside one another, even if only on two glorious occasions.