Morgan Freeman said winning an Oscar didn’t change him and revealed he always believed the award was inevitable.
Morgan Freeman knew long before his Oscar win for Million Dollar Baby that the golden statue was in his future and insists the honor didn’t rattle his sense of self.
The 88-year-old Morgan Freeman opened up in a new interview with AARP’s Movies for Grownups, reflecting on his 2005 Academy Award and decades in Hollywood. Despite the prestige that came with the win, Freeman said he always expected it.
“I kind of knew early on that I would eventually get (an Oscar). It didn’t change me,” Freeman said. “I hope it didn’t change me. Because the only change you can expect after you’ve gotten an Oscar is maybe your price goes up a tiny bit and your job prospects go up a bit.”
He added, “That’s the one thing or two things, I guess, you could look forward to. Other than that, don’t let your ego get the best of you.”
Freeman took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Eddie “Scrap Iron” Dupris in the 2004 boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, starring alongside Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood. The role solidified his legacy, but it wasn’t his first brush with the Academy.
Throughout his career, Freeman has earned four other Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actor for Street Smart in 1987, Best Actor for Driving Miss Daisy in 1989, Best Actor for The Shawshank Redemption in 1994 and Best Actor for Invictus in 2009.
When asked which films best define his six-decade run in Hollywood, Freeman pointed to two titles in particular.
“Driving Miss Daisy sits way up there,” he said. “And so does Invictus. Actually, I like a lot of them.”
Freeman’s most recent appearance on the big screen came with Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, which debuted on November 14. He previously starred in the original Now You See Me in 2013 and its sequel in 2016.
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