Morgan Freeman compares top Hollywood directors

Having worked with many of Hollywood’s great and good over the course of his 50 year career, Morgan Freeman knows a thing or two about this business they call show.

Among the directors Freeman has collaborated with are Christopher Nolan (‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy), David Fincher (‘Se7en’), Clint Eastwood (‘Unforgiven’) and Steven Spielberg (‘Amistad’), and according to the actor each and every one works differently.

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In a recent interview with Collider, Freeman said: “Great directors are great directors by product, not by process. You work with some great directors that drive you nuts, because they'll shoot 17 or 25 takes.

“There are other great directors who move through a production like s**t through a goose, they just don't stop, they keep moving and they come up with good product. They're under budget and on time, or a little quicker than on time.”

The actor went on to describe some of his experiences on set, revealing that while Nolan works quickly, both Stanley Kubrick (‘The Shining’) and David Lean (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) shot “forever”.

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“Great directors, but not the same kind of approach to the work,” Freeman added, before going on to defend David Fincher’s repetitive shooting style.

“Fincher doesn't do it in 50 takes at all, but if he's troubled, he'll go as far as he needs to go to get untroubled,” said the actor. “I know when we were doing ‘Se7en’ towards the end of the movie we did something close to nine or ten takes on one scene. It was important to him to do that, but during the actual body of the movie he wasn't doing it.”

“Most directors, it’s fine. It’s great. ‘You’re the boss.’  I say that right away. ‘You’re the boss, you tell me what you want from me and I’m providing it,’” the actor continued. “I have worked with a few young first timers who are overwhelming. They are directing. And although I refuse to be, for the most part, negative on set, I have to tell them after the fact. ‘You have to change your ways.’ Some actors love to be directed, that’s what they need, they need guidance. I don’t. I think that the predominance of professional actors don’t for the simple reason that that’s what you do and everything you need to know normally is in the script.”

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Freeman’s latest film, ‘Transcendence’, sees the actor reunite with Batman director of photography Wally Pfister who makes his directorial debut with the movie.

“Having watched one of the best directors work through at least four major pictures, you get a lot of insight about how it’s done, and I think that was Wally’s strength in that,” Freeman said of working with the first-time filmmaker.

“I’ll tell you for sure that he was nervous,” he added. “You have to care about getting it right, because this could be your last shot, your last chance to do it.  If it turns out all wrong then nobody will ever know your name.”

‘Transcendence’ hits UK cinemas on 25 April.