CAIRO: The intense tension felt in advance of a meeting with Morgan Freeman, one of Hollywood's most prominent personalities, turned out to be for naught. The academy award-winning actor is anything but intimidating. Freeman is easy to talk to; he is funny and his familiar deep voice, mixed with his side jokes, gives off a feeling of comfort. Noting his general attitude, it is difficult to imagine that he is 68-yearsold, and his youngest child is 34.When asked about his experience in the limelight, he answered, in a Broadway musical fashion,"The limelight is what I sought all my life. Look at me.Watch me. See what I can do. Look at this. Even on the business side, Freeman is struggling as much as anybody, searching for funding for dream projects and planning potential ones with Middle Eastern filmmakers. He doesn't hide his admiration of his counterparts and goes as far as reflecting on their experiences and how they have affected him. Although it is only his second visit to the Middle East (he attended the Dubai International Film Festival last year and expanded the visit this time to include the Cairo International Film Festival), Freeman may be considered Hollywood's ambassador to the region. "I don't think of myself as an ambassador. I probably do function in that capacity on some level or other. But, I have. my own agenda, Freeman said. "I'm trying to buy films. I'm trying to get to know filmmakers. I'm trying to set up a business relationship. There are films, good films and great stories being told outside.of Hollywood. He pointed out, however, that "if the government [of Dubai and possibly other countries in the region] isn't taking part then. [the project will be] too difficult,way too difficult. The possibility of collaboration is not limited to distribution, which is currently the focus of the company Freeman is a partner in. "We are open to co-productions if we could find good stories, Freeman said, adding that the region is rich with interesting stories covering different issues. His interest in stories, however, is not limited to the Middle East. In the United States, he is buying the rights of different books in the hope of collecting enough money one day to turn them into movies. "I have to do a lot of what I call gun-to-the-head reading. So I don't really get a lot of pleasure reading time. I'm always reading things looking for work, he said. He had already bought the rights to "Rendezvous with Rama and "Blue Lonesome. His favorite remains Moby Dick. Judging from his work, he has a passion for untold stories. He described Glory as the most important film he made - the movie is the story of the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company. His current project, which he is serving on as a producer not an actor, is a World War II drama about the 761st Tank Battalion, the first black armored unit to see combat in the war. Freeman states that the two movies are different, but are held together by the fact that they both are "untold stories. Putting together his dream projects is not an easy route; he described his experience as a producer as "very difficult. Half the time we come up with a nice script, good story, a very good story. [We have] a hard time raising money to get it done. Freeman pointed to Clint Eastwood's attempts to make two quality films that were turned down by major industry player Warner Brothers. The two films turned out to be the award winning Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. "Even though they [major studios] are not going to spend a lot of money on the little movies, they are certainly not going to make a lot of money [out of] them, Freeman explained." If I went to them with a movie that has enough mayhem, sex, car chases and it costs $120 million; you get it like that. But if the film includes a human-interest story and costs no more than $12 million, it is usually rejected. Noting that no one knows what potential Oscar material is, artistic films require more effort. "You are shooting yourself in the foot if you are trying to make a movie and you are thinking about a topic like that [being Oscar material or not]. You can't go out there [and say] that it's Oscar material, because it could turn out that nobody even mentions you on Oscar night. Freeman recalled the making of The Shawshank Redemption, which received seven Oscar nods,when no one thought, including cast and crew, that it was a great film in the making - the film didn't last more than three weeks in movie theaters. He said having a gut feeling about the quality of the film doesn't translate into success. With that in mind, he explained this year's slump in American box office returns. "We've been making terrible movies, recycling old stuff, and not well, he said. Even artistic films do not generate more profit. Million Dollar Baby failed to enter the top 10 charts of box office returns except after receiving an Oscar nomination. The film earned Freeman his first Oscar for best Supporting Actor and marked his second collaboration with Clint Eastwood, whom Freeman enjoys working with and regards as one of the best directors. "What I've always said about Clint is that he doesn't direct actors. He directs the movie. He has the overall picture. He is very fast. So he doesn't spend a lot of time coming on set telling you 'give me a little bit more of this,' 'make it a little more that' 'let's try another one see if we can get that.' He says anytime you are ready . I think he leaves it up for the actors to act. "A lot of directors who never acted have no idea what the hell they are talking about. And particularly if they are writer/directors, because they think if they wrote the script they know all the characters. That might be so if you don't hire anybody else to do it. But [when] you hire someone else to act it, you got to let it go. Characters write themselves. Earlier in a press conference, while drawing on his experience in Glory, Freeman said "we had a script that was sketchy in character but we had a wonderful story and the director Ed Zwick allowed us to fill in the blanks in our characters as we saw them.We did improvisations in order to rank out what we needed for character development. Freeman, with one credit on his filmography as a director (Bopha), describes himself as a Clint Eastwood type of director. "I've never acted and directed the same movie. I've watched people do it. Clint does it very well. I've been in two movies with him that he was acting and directing and he handled it extremely well.I also was in one with Paul Newman. I thought he handled it very well. I haven't had the experience that many times,but if you can do it, you can do it. He said he might repeat the experience but "I don't know why [and I] don't know when
