Morgan Freeman Thinks Obama is Too Regular to be President

The actor was the recipient of American Film Institute's Life Achievement award. Director Spike Lee was also honored.

By Thoai Lu Jun 10, 2011

Morgan Freeman, 74, just received American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Honor yesterday. The Oscar-winning actor opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about his work’s history, Clint Eastwood, and Barack Obama, among other things.

Freeman is one of few black actors to have played the president of the United States with his role in "Deep Impact." THR wondered if that opened doors for Barack Obama to be elected:

Freeman: I don’t think so. The public will accept a lot of things in the movies that they won’t accept in real life.

THR: Have you met Obama?

Freeman: I’ve met him on a number of occasions. He’s a very nice guy. He might be just a little bit too regular to be the president of the United States ’cause he’s a young guy, he likes to play basketball, and I’ve noticed that he has a Chicago walk. Watch him when he walks up to the podium. He doesn’t walk up one, two, three, stop. He goes one, two and one, two. He’s got a little bit of a beat to it.

Just last month the actor talked about another popular political topic: Arizona SB 1070’s grueling impact on immigrants. In a CNN interview, T.J. Holmes asked Freeman, Carlos Santana and Ernie Banks for their take on the controversial debate.

Freeman said:

"What would you do with Carlos Santana? Send him back? The legislature here in Georgia.. there in Arizona, that is absolutely un-American, completely.. that’s the kind of discrimination that we now act to, it’s gonna be our next civil rights struggle, is immigration. We are a magnet for people, we want to continue to be that. If you’re not that, then you’re not who you say you are. What does it mean to be an American anymore?"

This week, AFI also conferred Spike Lee with an honorary degree. The prominent director, whose movies have closely examined race relations, was honored with a Doctorate of Fine Arts by AFI trustee Tom Pollock, co-founder of the Montecito Picture Co.