Morgan Freeman says that he basically just plays himself these days

Morgan Freeman has some stuff to say, and—hey, good for him—he doesn’t seem to really care what anyone thinks about it. He said this stuff in an interview with London’s The Times while promoting his appearance in Zach Braff’s A Good Person, and while the main takeaway for most of the entertainment press is that he said he’s offended by Black History Month and the term “African-American,” saying that both are “an insult” to Black people. Regarding Black History Month, he rhetorically asks, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” and regarding “African-American,” he points out that it doesn’t make sense and that it implies that Africa is one country and not a whole big continent.

But while it’s not as buzzy, Freeman also offered some candid thoughts on his career—especially lately—that are somewhat surprising to hear. He told The Times that he’s envious of the career Denzel Washington has had, saying he does “what I wanted to do,” but these days he approaches roles differently than he did as a younger man, specifically noting that Driving Miss Daisy and Glory were “different” from what he’s done in the last 10 years.

“Now?” he says, “It’s just… me. The character will adapt itself to you rather than the other way round, so I do what piques my interest. Sometimes it’s just the money alone.” In other words, he’s saying that he basically just plays himself all the time, and he forces the character he’s playing to be more like him. Because of that, he consciously only chooses projects that seem interesting to him, rather than a big challenge or a meaty role he can dig into, but also sometimes the interesting thing to him is just how much money he’s getting.

And if anyone has earned a chance to work like that—and openly admit that he works like that—it’s Morgan Freeman. He’s 85, he has nearly 150 credits on iMDB. What else does he need to give us? He should just keep making Zach Braff movies and getting paid.