Morgan Freeman Finds Redemption in Professionalism

"I hope they're not rewriting this scene," Morgan Freeman said, looking uneasily over at a script conference on the far side of the big set.

You think that's what might be going on?

"It very well might."

Is that the writer with his portable computer over there? What's his name?

"Joe? Chris? Don't know. He's not the writer."

So you're sitting here right now with a total command of this scene as it existed 10 minutes ago...

"As written last night."

And they're about to tell you that you've got to start all over again.

"I wouldn't go that far. They'll say 'we'll just substitute'.... 'this will be just a couple of additions'.... When the dust settles, my part will probably stay as it is."

Freeman is not complaining. He seems entertained. There is the sense that he enjoys the process of movie acting as much as it is possible for any man to enjoy his work, and here he is again, supplying the older, authoritative anchor for a younger star.

In "Shawshank Redemption," he was opposite Tim Robbins. In "Robin Hood," it was Kevin Costner. In "Clean and Sober," Michael Keaton. In "Glory," Matthew Broderick. In "The Power of One," Stephen Dorff. In "Seven," Brad Pitt. And now in the new picture, "Chain Reaction," Keanu Reeves is his co-star. You get the feeling that every month he picks up GQ and sees his co-stars on the cover.

This time he's playing the shadowy head of a foundation that is allegedly dedicated to finding sources for low-cost energy. But as he solemnly tells me that, I think I see something in his eye.

Let me guess, I said. Because free energy would totally upset the applecart, the energy people probably have created a front to sponsor this research so that they can find out who's doing it and kill them. And you're really the bad guy, right?

"I'm not the bad guy. I'm part of this whole deal but I'm not a bad guy. I'm an operative."

So your allegiance might be able to change? You could be the bad guy who has a change of heart?

"My allegiance is stable. My allegiance actually is to the government. It's just that the government is a shadow government, and sometimes, when things have to be done, I'm the one who's called in."

Actors say it's always more fun to play the villain.

"Oh, yeah, villains have more range of emotion. A good guy is kinda like a straight shooter; he's straight ahead. The villain is constantly weaving back and forth across the line, as the need arises, and with this character here that I'm playing, sometimes I'm a very sincere, earnest person. All the time I'm very sincere and earnest but there comes a time when I just shade the eyes, and then you don't know what you're dealing with. I like that. Most actors do."

You were the good guy in "Seven," although there were a lot of dark corners in your character. Were you surprised by how amazingly successful "Seven" was at the box office?

"I'm still surprised. I mean, it's doing extremely well worldwide, and who would have thought it?"

When I saw it, I liked it, but I thought, man, this is dark, and perverted--I wonder if audiences will accept it."

Freeman laughed. "Yeah! I thought it might go down as one of those film noirs that a lot of aficionados might like, but I never imagined it would really go over."

I wonder why it did.

"You never know why. Why did 'Dumb and Dumber' go over bigger than 'The Shawshank Redemption?' Who knows?"

With "Shawshank," it seemed like they pulled it out of theaters for the video release just when it was beginning to broaden out into a wider audience."

"Exactly."

If it had been left to sit in theaters, the word of mouth would have continued to build.

"I get a lot of people saying it's the best they've seen and tops in their choice of movies and stuff. And I'm a little, I don't know, taken aback. That's not the right term, you know, but, boy, the movie's a good film. I hear everybody saying it, you know, Why didn't it do better? I mean, it did well...but the conventional wisdom now is, if it doesn't do $30 million in two weeks, it's not ever going to do it."

And few movies aimed at adult audiences open that strongly, because it's the teenagers who have time on their hands and can drop everything when a movie opens. Grown-ups need a little more time to make their plans...

Morgan Freeman, who is the very embodiment of a grown-up, nodded. We looked around the big bright set, which looked like a command post for a multinational anti-James Bond operation. This is a subterranean bunker, right?

"Yeah," Freeman said. "It's supposed to be outside Chicago, near the Argonne lab."