Morgan Freeman on Old White Men Presidents, Shawshank’s 30th Anniversary & He Narrates a Funny Video

Our first guest tonight is an Oscar winner and an easy reader.

Starting on October 27th, he returns for season two of Lioness on Paramount+.

Please welcome the one and only Morgan Freeman.

It's very good to see you.

How are you?

Very good to see you.

What happened with your hair?

It's gone.

Well, it's a long story there.

You look good with a bald head.

You never know how you're going to look until you're until you're bald, right?

I mean, yeah.

I don't know why I shaved it off at first.

But as soon as some friends saw it, they said, oh, you look younger.

But that was it.

Is the plan to keep it like this?

Or are you thinking maybe one day you'll get that electric company Afro you had in the 70s?

Oh, that one, yeah.

Will we ever see that again?

Wig.

That was a wig?

Of course.

I did not know that.

Wow, you're destroying my childhood dreams.

Oh, it's not.

You, at age 87, do you feel like you get wiser as you get older?

Or does it cap out at a certain age?

I think it just taps out.

It does.

Yeah, right around 80.

Around 80?

Yeah.

OK, all right, that's not bad.

Then you start on a slope like that.

Uh-huh.

For instance.

OK.

Memory.

You forget things?

Shot.

Really?

I'm telling you.

Short-term, long-term, both?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Both of those things.

And are people patient with you, like your family, or when you can't remember things, or no?

Yeah, I think they're pretty patient, pretty patient.

I don't get any of that, you know, right thing.

Mm-hmm.

Does it help you in any way?

My grandfather, for instance, used to not pay for plane tickets.

He would just wander onto the plane, and then pretend he was demented or whatever.

Or something's wrong with him.

And they just let him go.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, no, I don't, I don't, I don't, I, I, I, I confess going in.

And I tell everybody, I'm sorry, I, I have a problem.

I suffer from CRS.

And boom, there you go.

See, there are a few people out there.

Yeah.

And what is CRS?

I think I just figured it out, but.

All right.

You did.

Do you know what it is, Guillermo?

No, no.

Can't remember.

Careful there, now.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

So as a man who has been in this country through the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, all of the decades.

Yeah.

Do you feel like this is a more difficult time than any of those?

Is it better?

Are we, are we just.

No, I think, to tell you the truth, I think we're living in the most dangerous times since we got attacked in 1941.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah, that, so you're feeling on it.

Yeah.

And you don't, you're not a person who, I mean, you look to the future, which I think many people your age don't necessarily, aren't necessarily that interested in because.

I'm terribly interested in it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You support legalization of cannabis.

I know that.

Yeah.

That is something that you are involved with.

Yeah.

You, you narrated Kamala Harris's video at the Democratic National Convention.

Not only did you do that, you narrated Senator Hillary Clinton's video at the Democratic National Convention.

Yes.

You really want a female president, don't you?

I really do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Don't think I'm, you know, racist or anything like that.

I'm not.

Well, maybe to a point.

But I think, you know, it's time we moved on from old white men running the country.

Uh-huh.

That would be nice.

That would be a nice change.

Yeah.

Speaking of old white men, do you remember the first time you voted?

And, um, and who was it for?

Or is this in the CRS category?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, I'm, I, yeah.

You know?

So it must not have been something that were you, that you were really looking forward to.

Were you politically minded as a young man?

No.

No.

No.

No.

When did it hit you?

I think it really started with, uh, I got interested with Bill Clinton.

With Bill Clinton.

Yeah.

And did he personally get you involved or you just saw him and, um, and thought, oh, that's a guy that I feel like.

That's a guy that I think is gonna ride with us a while.

Um, and he's the only, the second president I got to meet up close and personal.

Who was the first?

Um, George.

Washington?

Bush.

You're quick.

You know, H.W.

He was the first president.

Where did you meet him?

At the White House.

At the White House.

Well, I don't know.

Have you since, um, visited all the presidents at the White House?

Uh, yes.

Yes.

All but one.

All but one.

Which one?

Uh.

Hold on.

You know what we'll do?

We're gonna take a break.

Y'all.

Behave.

Behave yourself.

We're gonna take a break.

And during the commercial, we're gonna try to figure out which one Morgan Freeman didn't visit.

Morgan Freeman is with us.

We'll be right back.

It's easy to forget why we're having this conversation.

A congresswoman was kidnapped on American soil.

A family killed at the behest of the Chinese Ministry of State.

Which is why we need a plan in the first place.

Do it.

That is Morgan Freeman.

What it should be like.

That's what poli- That's what I would like to imagine that politics are really like.

I think that really is what they're like.

I don't know.

Uh.

Yeah?

Way behind the scenes.

Way behind the scenes.

Yeah.

You play Secretary of State in the line of this.

Um, you play- My voice really sound like that?

What's that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Huh?

Nicole Kidman is looking on like, I'll do whatever needs to be done.

Yeah, Nicole.

No.

Wow.

You played the- The President of the United States, the head of the CIA, uh, the, um, uh, a Colonel, a General, uh, Secretary of State there.

Have you been in the Situation Room, like, more times than Wolf Blitzer, I think.

You've been- You've done a lot of time in pretend politics, haven't you?

Yes, I have.

I have.

And do you have real politicians approach you and-and mention these roles to you?

No.

You never do?

You're the only one.

I don't think of myself as a politician, but I-I appreciate that.

No.

Um, no, I don't.

No.

But I do want to mention, um, Shawshank Redemption, because they just had the 30th anniversary of that film.

And maybe you're tired of talking about it, I don't know.

But-but it's still-it's such a great movie.

Did you know it was gonna be a great movie when you read the script?

No, you never know.

Uh, you know if you read, uh, an outstanding script, that's as far as it goes.

Mm-hmm.

After that, it has to do with who you're gonna work with, who's gonna be the cinematographer, who's gonna direct it, uh, and how well you handle yourself.

Gee, is it true that it was your idea to cast Tim Robbins in that movie?

Well, yes.

Yeah.

And you shared that with the director, and the director agreed that that was a good idea.

I didn't talk to the-to the director at all then.

I was talking to the producers.

The producers, I see.

And then they told the director, these are the guys you got.

Yeah.

Do you like, um, when you are cast before the director is chosen for a film?

Or is it better to have the director in place first?

Because what if you guys don't get along?

Good-good point.

Thank you.

I-I never thought of it.

I don't-I don't really, I don't, uh, doesn't seem to matter.

Sure.

Do prisoners like that movie?

If you-I'd imagine some people will come up to you and say, I was watching TNT, which really, like, it's-I mean-

Uh, I've been in a lot of prisons for some reason or other.

Uh-huh.

And, uh, I always get a good response from inmates, you know?

They said, yeah, my man, you know?

Speaking of your voice, uh, I know you've narrated so many great things.

Shawshank Redemption was the first time you really narrated something, right?

Uh, yes.

That's what got me started.

We have assembled, uh, some YouTube videos.

Okay.

And, uh, we thought it might be fun to hear you narrate some of these, uh, humorous videos.

Would you be open to that?

Of course.

I'll be open to anything you want me to do, Tammy.

All right, great.

All right, let's go.

Here we go.

Shooting.

All right, in slow motion, a boy swings a boxing glove towards his target.

Small school bus resting on a younger boy's head.

It's a dangerous game these boys play.

But they know that without risk, there is no reward.

With each swing, the glove gets closer.

And while I'd like to tell you that the glove didn't hit a boy in his face from that day, I am sorry to report that I cannot.

Has it been any better than that?

Morgan Freeman, everybody, Lion X.

We'll be back with V.C. Nash Betts.

We'll be back with V.C. Nash Betts.