 |
"I got my first paycheque as a dancer, not an actor. I was a member of the cabaret union and danced at the 1964 World Fair," recalls Freeman.
Three years later, Freeman got his first acting role in an off-Broadway play.
"We were paid $72 a week. It was wonderful because I wasn't hungry any more and neither was my dog."
Six years earlier, when Freeman arrived in Los Angeles to study acting, he was penniless.
"I stayed with a family for a month. They fed me because I had no money at all. I eventually got a job as a transcript clerk at the Los Angeles City College. It didn't pay much, but it entitled me to a free education."
He took dancing and singing classes, which served him well when he won a role in the all-black Broadway version of Hello, Dolly! starring Pearl Bailey.
Freeman worked a great deal in theatre and won numerous theatre awards, but made very little money. In 1982, he began an 18-month stint on Another World.
"I learned quickly that being a soap opera actor was not what I wanted to do, but I needed a steady job in a desperate way.
"It was only satisfying on the day they handed out the paycheques.
"They were gracious enough to write my character out so I could accept a role in the TV movie The Atlanta Child Murders."
He went back to theatre and in 1986 starred in the stage version of Driving Miss Daisy.
Rave reviews for his performance led to a role in the film Street Smart, for which he received an Oscar nomination. With that, the tide finally turned and Freeman has since become one of Hollywood's leading actors.
"I've had some great roles and worked with some great people in the past 15 years, but I haven't done it all by any means.
"I'd still like to work with Jack Nicholson. He's the best actor working today because there is absolutely no artifice in his performance. I'd love the opportunity to go up against him."
Freeman is currently starring in the edgy comedy Nurse Betty.
He plays an aging hit man who has been assigned to kill a waitress (Renee Zellweger), who witnessed an earlier murder.
Freeman's young apprentice is played by comedian Chris Rock.
"Chris and I got along famously. He's extremely talented. If he wants it desperately enough, he'll have a long, successful career.
"He could also be a brain surgeon if he wanted, too. That's how bright he is."
Of the more than 30 films he has starred in, Freeman's favourite is 1989's Glory, the story of the black soldiers who fought on the side of the Union in the American Civil War.
"Glory shows how potent a tool cinema can be if it's used properly. This was a story that had been hidden from view so long. Nobody knew about it and it certainly wasn't being taught in school.
"As a result of Glory, the black man's important role in the Civil War is now a part of the school curriculum."
Though he acknowledges there are far more African-American movies being produced than ever, Freeman insists it is not a permanent trend.
"Hollywood is not black, white, brown or yellow. It's green. As far as the Hollywood studios are concerned, it has only ever been about money. They'll only fund a black movie it they think it's going to make money."
Freeman and his wife, costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee, celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary this past June.
The actor met Colley-Lee shortly after his divorce from Jeanette Adair. He has two sons from his first marriage and two daughters from his second.
He is about to begin filming the legal thriller High Crimes, which will reunite him with his Kiss the Girls co-star Ashley Judd.
Freeman has already filmed Along Came a Spider, the sequel to Kiss the Girls, but it has been temporarily put on hold.
"Nobody likes the ending. Paramount was warned it wouldn't work, but they insisted.
"Now we have to go back and shoot a new ending. It should be out next spring."
Earlier this year, Freeman teamed up with his Unforgiven co-star Gene Hackman for the psychological thriller Under Suspicion.
"Gene plays a lawyer. I play a cop. It's about an all-night interrogation that reveals one of the guys is not who he pretends to be.
"It's basically a three-character piece. We filmed it like a play, totally in sequence."