Even though his sonorous tones seem tailor-made for soliloquies, Morgan Freeman has never been involved in a movie based on the works of William Shakespeare. He’s done it plenty of times treading the boards, though, even if one above all sticks out as a personal low point.
In the late 1970s, the largely unknown actor played the title role in Coriolanus and lent support as Casca in a production of Julius Caesar before returning to the world of Shakespeare over a decade later for a run of The Taming of the Shrew in 1990 as Petruchio. However, despite the part being ideal for his authoritative presence and renowned gravitas, Freeman was left less than thrilled by headlining Othello.
During an appearance at the Film by the Sea festival (per Flashback Files), Freeman didn’t hesitate when asked if he had a least favourite role from his lengthy and distinguished career: “Yeah. Othello. Played it on stage. Don’t like it.” Refusing to hold back, he even voiced his disdain for the work itself. “Don’t even like the play. I’ve seen it a number of times, but I hate it myself.”
He did name Raul Julia as “the best Othello I ever saw” when praising the actor for how it was “brilliantly done,” but that still didn’t change his mind on its overall merits. In fact, he would tell Beverly Cohn that “it was my worst experience on the stage ever” during his ill-fated stint leading the cast during a 1983 performance in Texas.
Continuing to trash his own work, the Academy Award winner admitted he was never going to win over the audience due to the doubts he had over his own performance: “If you don’t believe it yourself, forget about trying to convince anybody else about your character and I didn’t believe myself once,” he explained. “So if you ever hear of someone looking for an Othello, count me out.”
And yet, that didn’t stop him from entering negotiations with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001 to reprise the role, although it never ended up coming to fruition. While it was never publicly confirmed why talks between the two parties broke down, perhaps Freeman suddenly remembered that he had an active disapproval of both Othello and the way he’d performed it in the past before deciding that he was better off even trying to atone for his self-professed mistakes.
For better or worse, a number of tremendous actors, including Orson Welles, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Patrick Stewart, Laurence Olivier, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne, and Chiwetel Ejiofor have all played Othello at one time or another, but Freeman clearly wouldn’t classify himself as being among them considering the scathing appraisal he bestowed upon his short-lived stint as the character.
