![\"Morgan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Morgan-Freeman-Actor-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Nathan Congleton)<\/p>\n
Thu 17 April 2025 1:30, UK <\/p>\n
For obvious reasons, the word \u2018blackmail\u2019 carries negative connotations. Ultimatums are issued, demands are made, and they\u2019re better off being met. However, in a rarity in all walks of life, not just Hollywood, Morgan Freeman<\/a> turned it into a positive.<\/p>\n Having waited patiently for his big break and finally gotten it two decades into his career when a ruthless turn as the pimp Leo \u2018Fast Black\u2019 Smalls in 1987\u2019s Street Smart earned him his first Academy Award nomination and propelled him into the mainstream, Freeman decided the best way to capitalise on his newfound fame was to play the exact opposite types of characters.<\/p>\n It worked a treat, considering his performances in Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption earned him further Oscars recognition, and by the mid-1990s he was already entrenched as one of the industry\u2019s most stately veterans<\/a> and exposition wizards. Still, he wanted to continue testing himself, and the next logical step was to move behind the camera.<\/p>\n Then again, the 1993 adaptation of Percy Mtwa\u2019s play Bopha! remains the one and only time Freeman has directed a feature, so he evidently decided that wielding the megaphone wasn\u2019t for him. Initially, he\u2019d been sought to play the lead role of Michah Mangena, but he wasn\u2019t interested. The producers wanted him involved at any cost, though, so the carrot was dangled in front of him.<\/p>\n \u201cI was approached to play the lead role,\u201d he told Interview<\/a>. \u201cAnd was offered the directorial-ship as a sop. I didn\u2019t want the lead role, but I thought it\u2019d be a good opportunity for me to try directing.\u201d It\u2019s not a word that\u2019s used too often, but \u201csop\u201d is effectively a term to describe something given to someone to keep them happy when their concerns aren\u2019t being assuaged.<\/p>\n In this case, producer Lawrence N Taubman wanted Freeman to be involved with Bopha!, preferably as the main character. When he made it clear that he didn\u2019t want to take the part or be involved as an on-camera participant in any capacity, he was instead offered the chance to make his directorial debut.<\/p>\n If he weren\u2019t directing the picture, then he wouldn\u2019t be involved in Bopha! at all. He\u2019d already rejected a role, so he was led down a path towards the grey area between blackmail and bribery, where it was put to Freeman that either he directed it or he\u2019d be left on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n It was a decent compromise, to a certain extent. \u201cIt was a wonderful experience on all fronts,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe one thing that wasn\u2019t quite so wonderful was having to deal with the studio heads sitting and making decisions thousands of miles away.\u201d He\u2019d knocked back the lead and taken the director\u2019s job as a compromise to get him on board, and it turned out he didn\u2019t want to play politics either<\/a>.<\/p>\n When asked if the studio bosses peering over his shoulder from the other side of the world afforded him much freedom to make Bopha! as he saw fit, Freeman offered an answer that might explain why he\u2019s never felt the need to direct again: \u201cGive me a certain amount of freedom? I took a certain amount of freedom!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n Subscribe To The Far Out Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Nathan Congleton) Thu 17 April 2025 1:30, UK For obvious reasons, the word \u2018blackmail\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,16702,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-27679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-morgan-freeman","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114353650298591631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}