Which Of His Films Did Morgan Freeman Consider His Pulp Fiction Equivalent? ( Photo Credit – Flickr )
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Morgan Freeman ended up chasing the Pulp Fiction high like half of Hollywood did in the ’90s. Tarantino’s film kicked in the door, and suddenly every indie filmmaker with a leather jacket and a jukebox playlist thought they were the next big deal. Everyone tried to copy his formula, and even Freeman, who seemed more like the calm in the storm, eventually dipped his toes into the same waters.
Why Did Morgan Freeman Choose A Quentin Tarantino-Inspired Role?
Well, let’s be honest. Freeman is definitely not the first one to come to mind when it comes to following a trend. The Hollywood icon usually plays characters with gravitas and rarely curses on screen, and often seems to orbit outside the messy worlds Tarantino loved to create.
However, when Nurse Betty came around, he saw a chance to join a story that flirted with the same kind of energy, even if it was not built from the same parts. “A movie like Nurse Betty is a one-offer,” Freeman told the Dallas Observer of its uniqueness. “It’s very seldom you get a movie that’s this off the beaten path. I was so intrigued.”
Freeman joined the film not out of a burning desire to stretch his artistic limits but because, like many in the business, he keeps one eye on the paycheck and has been honest about it. As we all know, not every gig in this industry is a dream role; sometimes, it is about staying busy and paid. However, that did not completely drive Nurse Betty, and there was something offbeat enough to draw him in.
#NowWatching The 2000 black comdey Nurse Betty staring Morgan Freeman ,Renée Zellweger ,Chris Rock ,Greg Kinnear and Crispin Glover pic.twitter.com/kGQwCOOaPz
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Nurse Betty: The Quirky Film That Attracted Morgan Freeman
The film follows a waitress, played by Renée Zellweger, who spirals into a fantasy after witnessing her husband’s brutal death. She drifts into a soap opera haze while two hitmen, one being Freeman and the other Chris Rock, trail her across the country. The movie veers between strange and surreal. It is not quite Tarantino, but his influence clearly touches it.
Freeman once slammed the director’s first movie as a total misfire, which made this next attempt more surprising. The actor saw something worthwhile, something weird enough to stand out. It was not a copy of Pulp Fiction, but nodded in the same direction with its mix of violence and comedy.
“I am a big fan of Pulp Fiction,” he declared, per Far Out Magazine. “And I thought this was one of those, and the people who did it thought so. That’s what you beat the bushes to find: something that’s rewarding to do. It doesn’t matter if you’re the anchor or just a bit player. You want to have an interesting role.”
The critics welcomed the movie with open arms, and Zellweger even won a Golden Globe for her role. The box office was not kind, though, but that did not matter much in the long run. For Freeman, it was the closest he came to stepping into that post-Tarantino world, where crime and absurdity walked side by side.
No one’s calling Nurse Betty his masterpiece. It does not sit on a shelf next to Pulp Fiction in film history, but for a moment, Morgan Freeman dipped into that world and made it his own way.
