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Is Morgan Freeman a victim of typecasting? With that deep, resonant voice and towering stature, he’s been the go-to actor for playing God, presidents, and fonts of wisdom. And yet, he’s been in the business so long and is so respected for his craft that he’s been able to play pretty much every type of role imaginable. He’s done Broadway musicals and police procedurals, sob-inducing melodramas and Jim Carrey comedies.
Unlike many other actors with a legacy as starry and acclaimed as his, Freeman has no plans to retire. When asked about it, he usually says that as long as people call him with offers, he’ll continue to work. So, basically, he’ll be working forever. This is excellent news for two reasons: Freeman is a legend who makes every single movie he’s in better, and he has unfinished business.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times way back in 1993, the actor opened up about the roles he was still hoping to tackle. “I promised myself I’d play Lear on stage,” he said. “On screen, I’d like to play a hot-shot lawyer. Or a detective.” He has done several of these roles in the years since that interview. He played a cynical retired military attorney in the 2002 legal thriller High Crimes and a former mob lawyer in the 2017 comedy Just Getting Started.
Detective roles are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, but Freeman managed to put his own spin on the trope with the character Dr Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist whom he played in 1997’s Kiss the Girls and 2001’s Along Came a Spider. Then, of course, there was his turn as Detective Lieutenant William Somerset in David Fincher’s Seven, one of the grittiest and darkest police procedurals of the past few decades. It’s an unforgettable movie made all the more memorable by Freeman’s performance.
So, he can check those two aspirations off the list, but it’s safe to say that no one would complain if he got to play more lawyers and detectives in the coming years. As for Lear, that is one stone that the actor has left unturned. This is pretty frustrating because he would no doubt provide a fascinating version of the character. Lear is an ageing king who, at the beginning of the play, is proud, vain, and powerful. By the end, he is humbled, grief-stricken, and frail. It’s a hell of an arc.
Unfortunately, Freeman is unlikely to portray the character on stage any time soon. “It’s too much work,” he said in reference to theatre acting. “Movies, you do a little work, make a lot of money and move on. I like that. And I think I’ve paid my dues.” He certainly has. But if there was an opportunity to take on the role of Shakespeare’s doomed king, hopefully, he would make an exception. If not, someone needs to get a script together for a film version. He’s said he wants to do it. It’s up to the producers and directors to pick up the baton and get it over the line.
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