New on DVD

© Armando Gallo Retna Ltd. Morgan Freeman

By Sean Axmaker
Special to MSN Movies

He's played a pimp, a president, a Civil War soldier, countless cops and working-class wise men, God, and Easy Reader, the coolest spokesperson for the joy of reading ever seen on TV in "The Electric Company." Morgan Freeman talks about his new DVD "10 Items or Less," the dirty little secret about acting (hint: he really enjoys it) and, of course, what's in his DVD player.

MSN Movies: What's in your DVD player?

Morgan Freeman: Golf lessons. This guy's name is Hank Haney; he was one of Tiger Woods' coaches. It's a DVD on how you can cut your handicap in half. Mine is big.

Is it working?

Not yet. (laughs)

What is your favorite DVD?

Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!" It's my favorite movie.

You play a friendly, easygoing unnamed movie star researching a role in "10 Items or Less." Are you anything like the character in real life?

I think I'm a lot like that, actually. The character is written for an actor. Not any particular actor, just an actor. So it would be hard, I think, to do it and not come off as yourself.

Your character is reluctant to sign onto a small indie feature. What attracted you to "10 Items or Less," both as star and executive producer?

We were launching a new company, Click Star, which was going to be an intro into digital downloads. You could actually access this movie on the Internet three weeks after it opened, so we wanted to have something close to day and date releases of movies. I live in a very rural area and I just thought that was a great idea.

The unnamed actor you play hasn't been in a film for four years. You average about three films a year, and that's not counting narrating jobs. How do you keep up that schedule?

(Laughs) It's not terribly difficult. You know, this isn't like building a building or what you would call real work. A lot of it is very enjoyable. I like what I do, I like the fact that people think I'm good at it, so doing it is not a huge challenge. I don't want to sound too glib about it, but it's really not too big a deal to do it. Does that make sense?

In addition to his regular contributions to MSN Movies, Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment. He is also a contributing writer for GreenCine.com, Turner Classic Movies Online and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications.

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