Morgan Freeman drops 'good guy' roles to play villain

LOS ANGELES -- Morgan Freeman is glad to go mad for a change.

"I get all these roles where I'm this very stable and dignified and dependable gravitas leading character, and after a while I feel like I'm boring the world to death," said the 65-year-old actor, who gets a chance to play a villain in the alien-hunter horror film "Dreamcatcher."

In "Dreamcatcher," he plays Col. Abraham Curtis, whose covert mission is to keep America free from a race of parasitic, bowel-bursting eels from another planet. When residents of a small forest town encounter the critters, Curtis unleashes his evil tendencies by ordering their mass murder.

This gore-splashed science fiction is no drive through the sun-dappled countryside with Jessica Tandy.

"Something comes along every now and then that allows you to let your dark side shine through a little bit -- and it's fun," Freeman said, laughing.

His 1989 role opposite Tandy as the gentle chauffeur Hoke in "Driving Miss Daisy" and as the tough-love school principal in "Lean on Me" brought him higher-profile parts, but they have been mostly of the same noble ilk.

Freeman played the outspoken judge in "The Bonfire of the Vanities," the loyal Moor in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and Clint Eastwood's martyred confidante in "Unforgiven." He was a courageous president of the United States in the asteroid movie "Deep Impact" and the abolitionist Theodore Joadson in "Amistad."

Then there were his high-minded detectives in the serial-killer thriller "Seven" and the franchise mysteries "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider."

Even the rare times when Freeman has played criminals, they are of the redemption-seeking variety -- like his prisoner in "The Shawshank Redemption" and philosophical hit man in "Nurse Betty."

"He's become this dignified oracle, like, 'I'm dignity. I'm walking dignity.' It's just a screen image," said actor Tom Sizemore, who co-stars in "Dreamcatcher" as an underling of Freeman's character who begins to doubt his boss' sanity.

"Dreamcatcher" director Lawrence Kasdan, whose credits include "The Big Chill" and "Grand Canyon," said he offered the part to Freeman because he figured the actor would enjoy playing a lunatic. "I thought, 'Any great actor wants to play bad guys,"' he said.

Kasdan said Freeman came up with the oddball look of his character: fluffy white eyebrows and a tall hairstyle reminiscent of Don King with a flattop.

"I never wanted to play him over-the-top, but I did want the fact that he is a bizarre personality to be clear," Freeman said. "When you see him coming, you say, 'Oh my god. What ... the ... heck?"

For most of his career, Freeman was a New York stage actor and during the 1970s played the laid-back literacy enthusiast Easy Reader on PBS's children's show "The Electric Company."

He made his movie breakthrough at age 50 -- playing a villain.

The role of menacing pimp Fast Black from 1987's "Street Smart" earned him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor, but he said his next Oscar bid -- two years later for the lead role in "Driving Miss Daisy" -- changed the way producers were willing to cast him. He'll return to playing morally upright characters in May with the upcoming comedy "Bruce Almighty."