Morgan Freeman - Madam Secretary Interview
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman has played a lot of entities in positions of power, including CEOs, Nelson Mandela, the President of the United States and even God. It should come as no surprise that the actor, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, actually is in a position of power and not only because of his clout as a performer, though that is considerable. Freeman won a Supporting Actor Academy Award for his work in MILLION DOLLAR BABY and was nominated for four other Oscars (lead actor for INVICTUS, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and DRIVING MISS DAISY, supporting for STREET SMART),
Freeman also has a production company, Revelations Entertainment. Sometimes, as with the Nelson Mandela biographical drama INVICTUS, Freeman appears in the company’s projects. In other instances, as with CBS’ new Sunday night series MADAM SECRETARY, executive producer Freeman remains off-camera.
[easyazon_block add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B00NRP306G” cloaking=”default” layout=”right” localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″]MADAM SECRETARY stars Tea Leoni as a CIA analyst who is abruptly thrust into the world of major politics when she is brought in as the U.S. Secretary of State, following the sudden death of her predecessor in the job. Freeman and Leoni acted together in the 1998 asteroid disaster movie DEEP IMPACT, although Freeman says that’s not why he cast the actress as the title role in the series.
“I think it was sort of serendipity,” Freeman says of how he and Leoni came to be working together again. He and Leoni have just participated in a panel CBS held for MADAM SECRETARY for the Television Critics Association, and Freeman is now speaking to a smaller group of reporters. “Whenever you have a situation where you’re [saying], ‘Okay, we’ve got this great script, now who do we get?’, a whole list of names pops out, a whole list of names that show up, but on that list – this is your A list – a lot of them are working already. And Tea was. But we stole her. She just went, ‘That way.’” Freeman indicates himself and his producing partner, Lori McCreary, who’s standing a few feet away.
What about fellow executive producer Barbara Hall’s initial pitch for MADAM SECRETARY appealed to Freeman? Was it just the best story that came across his desk? “That,” Freeman acknowledges, “plus the fact that there are two ways to look at me, either as a ladies’ man or a mama’s boy. I think that we can help a lot of the situations in our world if we actually show people doing what people can do. In this case, we know that we’ve had three female Secretaries of State, but then we sort of take that for granted as a fait accompli. Nobody actually knows what they do. So I think this is very educational. Think of the numbers of young ladies who will say, ‘I can do that.’”
Freeman also believes that MADAM SECRETARY’s serious but non-cynical view of the government may be helpful in getting people to take more of an interest in real-world politics. “Very helpful, I think. That’s one of the things that we do in the show, to show how government could work. Because in all of our writing, we’re not going to be dealing with idiot scandals and dumb factional politics. We’ll just tell stories in using a government that sort of works.”
However, Freeman says he’s not using his status as executive producer to drive the series to discuss any specific issues. “No, not that I can think of at the moment. The fact that we’re dealing with a world situation here in this means that we just go wherever we are landing, so to speak.”
What has Freeman learned so far about producing a series for network television? “That it’s not easy,” he replies with a laugh. “It is not easy. Producing is a lot of dousing fires.”
Most of the dousing, Freeman adds, is done by producing partner McCreary. “Lori does the heavy lifting. It gets her back up.”
So Freeman doesn’t call CBS President and use the voice of God when difficulties arise? “Only in dire emergencies.”
What is the best part about being an executive producer? “Executive pardon. You say ‘producer,’ you look over there,” Freeman indicates McCreary again, “at someone really doing the heavy lifting. I get called on to comment on scripts, on the casting – not the day to day. I don’t have to do the day to day heavy lifting.”
Is Freeman planning to do more producing and less acting, or is he just adding more producing to his already full schedule?
“I’m just adding,” Freeman explains. “It’s not that I had too much time, but I do have time to get involved in other things, and I have always wanted to have a hand in storytelling the American story, so this is how I do that. You want your story told, you better tell it.”
One of Freeman’s earliest acting jobs was as Mark and Easy Reader on the children’s educational show THE ELECTRIC COMPANY from 1971 through 1977. Television has changed a great deal since then. What is his take on the state of the medium today?
“I think we’ve gone through some interesting cycles,” Freeman says, “and as you look at television now, I think we are at an era where we sort of have gotten back into some really topnotch writing. There was some really great writing going on in teleivision. And forget the reality shows and unscripted. With scripted stuff, it’s about writing. It’s always about writing if you do comedies. I’m pretty avidly watching now.”
Can Freeman name some of his recent favorite TV shows? “Oh, heavens, yes. I really, really like WEST WING [created and produced by] Aaron Sorkin. I really like THE GOOD WIFE. Most of the television that I watch in terms of watching television is news, so not a whole lot of scripted stuff. But those I can recommend. And coming up, MADAM SECRETARY.”
Written by Abbie Bernstein
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