Morgan Freeman plays a crime boss (aptly named The Boss) who is trying to ruin his biggest rival, The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley). Josh Hartnett stars as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, Bruce Willis is an assassin named Goodkat, and Lucy Liu plays a coroner who loves to solve mysteries.
Morgan Freeman Praises His Lucky Number Slevin Co-Stars: Freeman said working with Sir Ben Kingsley was “great, great, great.” Freeman added, “It was one of the reasons to take a role like this, you get to work that closely with Ben Kingsley. It's like, 'Yeah. I'll do it. I don't care what it is.'”
Freeman also had nothing but good things to say about Bruce Willis. “Bruce is a jolly fellow and enjoys working. You can tell that he's just happy to be there and I'm the same way. So he and I - we've been in the same movie before. We didn't work together. You would say, 'I'd really like to work with that one,' and he was one of them. And I'm one of his. We have the same sort of approach to work. Turn it on. Turn it off. And be sure to give the director and the DP the hardest time possible. And, of course, [director] Paul McGuigan is a Scot with a thick Scottish brogue when he talks so he's just too easy to ride. He would say something and we'd go, 'What did you say?'”
Comparisons to The Usual Suspects: Lucky Number Slevin is being compared to the Bryan Singer film The Usual Suspects and Freeman says he can understand that comparison. “Someone this morning said that people are equating it with Pulp Fiction, so, yes, I agree in that it's sort of a thinking piece. You walk away from The Usual Suspects and it was a thinking piece. They go back and they show you how this all unfolded right there in the office, and The Usual Suspects was this blend of all of these different things happening and you see it in jump cuts, but it's explanatory. I think that this was like that.”
The Make It or Break It Scene in Lucky Number Slevin: Asked if there was one scene in particular he was looking forward to performing in Lucky Number Slevin, Freeman took his time before answering. “Hmm, I'm giving it proper thought here so that my answer is somewhere near right. Yes, I think there was. I was kind of looking forward to the moment between The Boss and The Rabbi. That to me had a lot of potential for going flat. Not really because Ben, Sir Ben, would - he's always a lift. He's always interesting to watch and so you just try and remember your lines.”
Tackling a Multitude of Projects: “We've all got a lot of things ahead of us, but it's like holding sand in your hand when you've got projects in this business because they just don't happen. 'I thought that we were going to be doing so and so in June.' Well, they didn't get the money or the script is not ready or the producer or the studio changed heads,” explained Freeman. “There's all kind of stuff shifts and it's all constantly in flux. Hopefully you've always got a lot of projects ahead of you. Hopefully one or two of them will pan out.
Freeman continued. “Every time that you get a role you're just going to go play with other people in the sandbox and so there is no challenge, real challenge. The challenge, the major challenge is getting the work, finding the sandbox.”
Speaking of Upcoming Projects: Freeman’s not sure of his status in the next Batman film. “See, now you're asking an unanswerable. I don't know. That's up to the writer and the director. Are you going to write Lucius Fox into the next 'Batman' sequels and if you do are you going to hire me to do it? If they hire me to do it I'll not worry about the freshness of it. That's not my job. My job is to take it off of the page, just like I did for the first time.”
Freeman revealed he hasn’t spoken to writer David Goyer or writer/director Christopher Nolan about the possibility of doing another Batman yet.
In the Works – Evan Almighty: One sequel Freeman is definitely a part of is Evan Almighty, the follow-up to Bruce Almighty. Jim Carrey opted not to return for the sequel so this time around the story will revolve around Steve Carell’s newscaster character, Evan Baxter.
Freeman will be back playing the Almighty and admits to being surprised when he learned Carrey wouldn’t be returning. “I was very surprised that we would do it without Jim Carrey, that Jim Carrey wouldn't want to do it. But it might work out better actually. Capital MIGHT. We'll see.”
The idea of doing the sequel without Carrey might have initially been shocking, but the overall idea of doing a sequel came as no surprise whatsoever. “I've been talking with them for just about - well, ever since the movie came out: 'Bruce Almighty.' You know that if makes over a certain amount they're going to say, "Gotta do it again. We have a built in audience.’"
