The one actor Morgan Freeman adores most

Morgan Freeman has worked with several actors and filmmakers on multiple occasions, many of whom are fellow cinema legends. Not all of them, though, but he’ll make exceptions when he’s got a particular soft spot.

He collaborated with Clint Eastwood on Unforgiven, Million Dollar Babyand Invictusteamed with Michael Caine on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Going In Styleand Now You See Meand narrated Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds before starring opposite him in Oblivionall of whom are major names.

The veteran has never been too picky about which roles he plays, which has given rise to a raft of straight-to-video dreck in recent years. He’ll go where the work takes him and sign on if the pitch is enticing enough, but it’s a rarity for him to agree to a movie on the spot.

Obviously, he’d come running if it was Eastwood on the phone, but with the greatest respect, Ashley Judd is not Clint. Whether by accident or design, she and the crime thriller became nigh-on inseparable in the 1990s, when she appeared in Michael Mann’s Heatthe John Grisham adaptation A Time to Killthe nonsensical Double Jeopardy, Normal Life, Eye of the Beholderand Kiss the Girls.

The latter starred Freeman as James Patterson’s most famous literary creation, Alex Cross, and the two struck up a bond that would come in very handy several years later when Judd became attached to High Crimes. Funnily enough, it was also a crime thriller, with Freeman instantly on board at the mere suggestion of being reunited.

“I actually got this from Ashley,” he told Black Film. “She called me and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ I said, ‘Are you in it?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, yeah. No, it isn’t anything on paper. It’s just in the wind; it’s in the cards; that’s just the way it’s going to be. I just feel it’s going to happen.’ That way, the admiration is on the surface; you can see it.”

It was little more than a hypothetical project when she called him up, but the prospect of Judd was more than enough to convince Freeman he wanted to be part of it. “I just adore her,” he giddily exclaimed. “A lot of actresses I dig, but she’s the only one I’ve ever worked with.”

Despite Freeman’s enthusiasm, High Crimes was a letdown. Judd’s lawyer finding out her husband has been accused of war crimes tied to a past she knew nothing about had plenty of potential, especially with her two-time co-star in the mix as a former military attorney willing to operate in the grey areas to ensure the truth wins out in the end.

Instead, it was a formulaic potboiler that didn’t make much of a splash with either critics or crowds, not that Freeman would have been too bothered, thanks to the Judd factor.

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