{"id":212382,"date":"2025-10-20T04:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T04:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/212382\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T04:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T04:21:10","slug":"the-one-role-morgan-freeman-will-always-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/212382\/","title":{"rendered":"The one role Morgan Freeman will always regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Morgan<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

Sun 19 October 2025 18:40, UK <\/p>\n

It took a while for him to get there, but when Morgan Freeman<\/a> finally made his big screen breakthrough in his late 40s, he was more determined than ever to ensure he didn\u2019t let it slip through his fingers.<\/p>\n

So many actors have been given a chance to feature in a movie, a proverbial crack in the door letting in the bright lights of Hollywood, only to fumble, grab the handle and slam it shut on themselves. Freeman would do no such thing. He might not have been a film actor, but he had enough experience, in life and professionally, to know when an opportunity was worth grabbing. <\/p>\n

Although he made his debut as a performer in a 1964 production of Hello, Dolly!, he made his first uncredited film appearance in the same year\u2019s drama The Pawnbroker and spent six years and over 700 episodes<\/a> as part of The Electric Company cast in his first-ever TV gig, it wouldn\u2019t be until 1987 that Freeman gained a significant foothold in cinema.<\/p>\n

Ironically, that came when he played a character diametrically opposed to the ones that made him a legend, with his vicious turn as a ruthless pimp in Street Smart netting him his first Academy Award nomination for \u2018Best Supporting Actor\u2019. The effect it had on his career was seismic, though, with Freeman soon established as one of the most in-demand talents in the business.<\/p>\n

Within a decade of Street Smart, he\u2019d earned two more Oscar nods for Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption, lent support in Clint Eastwood\u2019s classic Unforgiven, collaborated with Steven Spielberg on Amistad, and partnered up with Brad Pitt for David Fincher\u2019s Seven, becoming one of the most consistent and reliable presences in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\"Morgan<\/a>Morgan Freeman in \u2018The Shawshank Redemption\u2019. (Credits: Far Out \/ Warner Bros)<\/p>\n

Very rarely does Freeman find himself criticised for a subpar, lacklustre, or phoned-in performance, but he remains completely convinced that some of his worst acting came when channelling William Shakespeare. Like virtually every other stage performer ever, he\u2019s well-acquainted with the work of \u2018The Bard\u2019; just don\u2019t ask him to play the lead.<\/p>\n

At various points in his career, he\u2019s been a cast member in productions of Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and The Taming of the Shrew, but he despises Othello with a passion. Not only has he frequently denigrated of his own abilities at playing the lead<\/a>, but he doesn\u2019t care for the play in general.<\/p>\n

Struggling to find work after The Electric Company had finished its run in 1977, Freeman returned to treading the boards and ended up headlining a 1983 run of Othello in Texas. \u201cI started to think I should look for other options to pay the rent,\u201d he admitted to The Times<\/a>, explaining how he\u2019d have to call up his landlord and let them know \u201cnothing\u2019s coming in\u201d.<\/p>\n

On paper, Othello came along at just the right time, but that\u2019s not how Freeman saw it. \u201cI was awful,\u201d he conceded. \u201cOne of the worst things I\u2019ve ever done, but it was work.\u201d And making sure his resume was continually being filled would become a hallmark of Freeman\u2019s career. It\u2019s not easy to get roles, and Freeman has consistently delivered on them for decades, making his CV one of the fullest in the industry. <\/p>\n

But it also means he is likely to have a flop or two, like Othello. That\u2019s hardly the only time he\u2019s lambasted his efforts as the character, even if he did come close to reprising it in 2001 when reports emerged he\u2019d entered talks to do it all over again in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company.<\/p>\n

It never ended up happening, but based on his own scathing self-assessment, it\u2019s hardly far-fetched to suggest he got cold feet after his experience the first time around.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Universal Pictures) Sun 19 October 2025 18:40, UK It took a while for him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,36297,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-212382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-morgan-freeman","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}