Right now, Freeman is busy preparing to produce and star in The Human Factor, about the 1995 Rugby World Cup.  He will play Nelson Mandela, and Matt Damon will play rugby star Francois Pienaar.  Freeman recruited Clint Eastwood, who directed him in Million Dollar Baby, to direct.  Mandela is a role that will make use of Freeman’s iconic image.  “I don’t feel iconic,” he says, “but it’s fine if others describe me that way.  Part of the trick of survival in this business is to learn which part of you is you and which part of you is image.  I learned that some time back when I was doing The Electric Company (in the early 1970s).  I had one of those moments when you just sit down and try to evaluate yourself — where you are and where you want to go.” Has he gotten there?  “Yes,” he says.

Commenting on his wide variety of roles, Freeman laments one area of his career that is lacking.  “My wife is very upset that I’m not doing any romantic comedies,” he says, “but it’s very hard to find one.  All scripts see me as this heavyweight, this person of wisdom. I’m always a ‘voice of reason.’  That’s my middle name.  But these roles are not thrust upon me.  They’re offered to me, and I take them.”  Is it typecasting?  “I have friends who have accused me of being the ‘voice of reason,’” he adds.  “I try to remain stress-free.”

Freeman has an actor son, Alfonso Freeman, 48, who played his son in the recent The Bucket List. “He looks exactly like me,” Freeman says.  “I think he has quite a lot of talent.  He recently  played ‘Othello’ at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival.”

If you don’t see Freeman on screen, look for him on the golf course. “I just started playing in September,” he says. “I’m working real hard on my game.”

(photo courtesy Universal Pictures)