race and the state of his country. >> that's stated policy. publicly stated. is to do whatever it takes to see to it that obama only serves one term. screw the country. we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here. >> and the morgan freeman you really don't know. >> play golf with one hand. >> really? >> yeah. i can drive a ball 180 yards. >> this man can do just about anything. i'll have to ask him to do me a personal favor. >> i'm going to do this one more time. but after this i get paid. right? this is "piers morgan tonight." morgan freeman is a man of great stature, a man of great talent, and as i've come to realize, he's also a great man of his word. a few months ago he promised he'd join me in the studio face to face for a one-on-one interview, and here you are, morgan freeman. >> yay. >> an actor keeping his word. >> yes. >> i'm stunned. >> yeah. we won't talk about how it came about. >> we won't. i know it's got nothing to do with me. everything to do with one of my very attractive booking team. right? >> yes, yes. i must admit. the most stunning woman i've ever met. >> don't say that. it will go to her head. please. please don't say that. i also said when i interviewed you down the line remotely by satellite that you appeared to be remarkably youthful for a man of your, let's be honest, fairly advanced years. and here you are in the flesh and you're even more youthful in the flesh. what is the secret of the morgan freeman age-defying process? >> got to be genes because i don't really do anything else. >> you don't? >> no. it's got to be the genetic structure. >> i have noticed as you've been laughing that you seem to have a new set of gnashers. >> i have a new grill. and -- >> can we have a little -- >> yeah. it's -- >> they're perfect. >> they -- my teeth were moving. they were changing, like, by the week. >> you've never, you know, been under the sculptor's knife or anything -- >> no, no, no, no. i'm afraid of knives and stuff like that. >> you're frowning quite naturally. there's no sign of botox. >> i've had those since i was a teenager. but i work out sometimes. you know, i still try to keep nearly fit. and that's helpful. i'm terrified of losing muscle and bone. and if you don't work out, that's exactly what you're going to lose. you know, you lose muscle and your bones start to shrivel. you get all kinds of things wrong with you. so i work out a little bit just because i'm very vain. >> are you vain? >> yes. >> i remember your ex-wife saying that you weren't a narcissist, but you had a very big ego. >> well, no, i'm not a narcissist. i don't think i have that much of an ego. i really -- i really don't. but i studied dance for a long time. in my 20s. and when i was studying dance, i remember my instructor saying when we were -- when you dance, he said admire yourself. so i learned from that, yes, admire yourself, because if you don't then you don't really care that much how you look. >> and also, if you're in the business where your appearance is part of your business, you have to be vain. you have to have an ego. yeah. >> you have to walk onset and believe you're pretty good. >> yeah. right. zbluf to exude that air, don't you? >> well, i try to. you know. i just did a movie of where -- i was a lady's love interest. and i don't think i've ever done that before. >> you played a lady's love interest finally? >> yeah. >> i didn't think you'd ever play that kind of role. >> me either. >> what made you crumble? >> well, it just -- it came my way. you know, and it would have to wait until i'm at this advanced stage. >> you're 74 years old. i find that incredible to believe. >> well, i was born june 1st in 1937, or so my mother tells me. and i believe her. she's never lied to me. >> let's rewind back to this love interest role. >> yeah. well, it's a movie i did with rob reiner. >> did you like playing a romantic lead finally? >> yes. yes. i didn't think i would. but it was great fun. i was working with just wonderful actors. virginia madsen. and, why, she was just delicious. >> so have you finally performed your first love scene? >> kind of. yeah. >> how is that? you've made movies -- >> it was a big surprise to me is what it was. that's how it was. you know, i didn't know that it was going to be a love scene. >> which is fantastic. talk me through it, morgan. go on. finally at 74, you've made movies that have grossed $3 billion. you've finally succumbed to a love scene. talk me through it. >> well, we have this scene where we're talking together. and she's been off to have this -- trying to get settled with her ex-husband. she has three daughters. and i've been baby-sitting for them while she was off in the city. and, you know, she's supposed to get up and come in give me a kiss on the cheek. and instead she gets up and plants one right on my lips. a good one. you know? and i was so surprised. me, me. the reaction on my face -- rob says it was priceless. >> and what was going through your mind? you think it's never too late for this kind of thing? were you excited by it? >> i was -- i was stunned. really. i really was. but then it's a really attractive lady. and we were doing fine in the scene. and then that whole movie was just going along -- >> so it was a non-scripted assault on your lips? >> it was a non-scripted assault. and it changed the entire tenor of the movie. >> i hope you did the gentlemanly thing and then responded with equal enthusiasm. >> i did the best i could. because it wasn't like we rehearsed it. you know? she decided -- i'm doing this and got up and followed her muse, whatever it was, at the time. >> where did things end here? where did it go? >> well, we don't know. >> jacuzzi scene? where are we going? >> no. no. we had -- i had a dream sequence. i dreamed of making love to her. >> you never actually got to do it? >> no. >> is it a matter of bitter personal regret now? >> i wouldn't say that. and my whole career, i don't think i've ever had an affair with an actress. >> have you not? >> no. >> that is extraordinary. you've never had an affair with one of your actresses? >> no. >> how have you resisted the trap. not even trap. the pleasure, perhaps, that many of your colleagues have fallen to? >> one of the things i think is i just never need to live the part. if i'm supposed to be with an actress, i don't have to fall in love with her to play it. you know? i just never did it. i don't believe in it. i don't think it's a good idea. >> why? >> well, at the end of the day you're going to break up because you're going to go into another one. you know? so it's just not -- i don't. i don't think it's a good idea. >> because i've always felt with you, morgan, correct me if i'm wrong here, but i've always felt you're a natural ladies' man, in the sense that women really love you. women i know who know you adore you. and you always seem to have a natural affinity around women. would you accept that? >> yes. yes. i absolutely adore women. i just do. you know, i'm a mama's boy. i absolutely love women. but i also have an abiding respect for them. i think that's what comes across more than -- i'm not what you would call a ladies' man. i'm not a real big skirt chaser. >> a small-time skirt chaser? >> there is a secret that i'll tell you after the show. >> go on, what's the secret? >> don't chase women. >> really? >> they'll chase you. >> is that your strategy? >> yeah. >> does it work? >> it works very well. i'm going to get in trouble for saying this because -- >> how do you -- explore this technique for me. what is the technique of letting them chase you? how do you make yourself known as potentially available? >> just don't do it. don't -- you know, you meet a lady, you express to her how wonderful she looks or how you respond to the way she looks or whatever it is and then go on about your business. >> and does it ever -- >> they're curious. they're like horses in a pasture sometimes. you walk into a pasture and the horse sees you, he's coming over to investigate. and if you see a lady and you don't go drooling all over her, she's going to want to know why. >> so basically a lifetime of non-drooling has been a successful strategy? >> yeah. yeah. it works fine. >> any other tips? >> you need to have a large amount of respect for ladies. they respond very well to that. >> how are you dealing with being a single man again after a long time married? >> this has happened before. what happens generally is that sort of like, oh, oh, he's back! so then you're sort of -- you're in a good position. now, ladies. >> let's take a little, i think, much-needed break as we both recover from this. and come back and talk to you about your early life in mississippi. i like this quote you said. it was your goal to always leave mississippi. >> yeah. >> which you achieved. i'm interested in why. >> all right. well, i -- >> after the break. starting my progresso soup for lunch plan, huh. nope, just having some tender chicken and some tasty noodles. let's see...south western vegetables...60 calories. ya' know those jeans look nice. they do? yup. so you were checking me out? yup. [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. at aviva, we wonder why other life insurance companies treat you like a policy, not a person. instead of getting to know you they simply assign you a number. aviva is here to change all that. we're bringing humanity back to insurance and putting people before policies. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you. what are you doing there? >> oh, i just love a house of pictures, miss daisy. it do make a home. >> i don't want you nosing through my things. >> morgan freeman in "driving miss daisy." the movie took best picture in the academy awards in 1989 and tackled some pretty tough questions about race in america. you were brought up in mississippi and you said, as you said before the break, it was your goal to always leave. why was that? >> well, growing up, the segregation in mississippi just sort of had us all a little upset with the situation. and i thought get out of here because you know, there's no life for you here. >> what did that kind of intense racism teach you? or not even teach you. what did it motivate you to try and achieve in your life? >> your teachers tell you, get an education and go somewhere, be something. don't -- don't succumb to depression, let's say. and i was always ambitious. i always wanted to be more than i was. more than i was. i always wanted to be a movie actor. now, mississippi, there was just no way. and so one of the things was you're never going to do it here. when i graduated from high school, i had two partial scholarships, drama, for drama. and i thought what am i going to do with it here? so out. i had to get out. >> in the sense that in you're a young black man growing up in mississippi at the time your chances of getting on in life are pretty close to zero? >> if you stayed there. >> yeah. >> now, i had a lot of friends, my contemporaries in school, and they're in the mississippi legislature, they're senators, and they're teachers and they went to stuff like that. you know. so the timing was right for us sort of, you know. after 1964 things sort of broke loose. >> well, when barack obama became president, i know you endorsed him and supported him and so on. obviously, it was seen as this pivotal moment for america where we had the first black president. and yet i've seen you many times in interviews stress you don't want to be known as a black actor. >> no. >> you don't think the word "black" should now really be used in any context to -- >> not really. what use is -- what good does it do? you know, what we've almost always done when you label someone, you know, say, for example -- well, he's the best chinese this or he's the best latin that or the best black that. nobody ever says the best white anything. and the reason is that that's where the norm is. well, i'm part of the norm. i don't want to be isolated over here because it diminishes me somehow. >> has obama helped the process of eradicating racism or has it in a strange way made it worse? >> made it worse. maid it worse. look at -- the tea partiers who are controlling the republican party, their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that obama only serves one term. what's -- what underlines that? screw the country. we're going to do whatever we do to get this black man -- we can. we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here. >> but it's not necessarily a racist thing. >> it is a racist thing. >> it's not necessarily -- republicans would have gotten rid of any democratic president. >> no, because they would have gotten rid of bill clinton if they could have. >> well, they tried. >> they tried. but still -- they're not going to get rid of obama either. i think they're shooting themselves in the head. >> does it unnerve you that the tea party are gaining such traction? >> yes. >> why? >> well, it just shows the weak, dark underside of america. we're supposed to be better than that. we really are. that's why all those people were in tears when obama was elected president. look at what we are. look at how -- this is america. you know? and then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced. like stirring up muddy water. >> are you disappointed that obama hasn't been more aggressive in taking them on? >> kind of. kind of. but i so understood that he was trying to hold on to his own promise that he -- he would be president of all the people. he would be -- he was not going to -- he was going to try not to have this -- >> wouldn't most americans now, certainly a majority in my view, love him to just stick a metaphorical bloody nose on his opponents? >> yes. now you do. because now you see how hard he's trying and how hard they have fought against him. yes. that's what we all want to see. and he's going to do it. >> you think so? >> surely. yeah. >> do you think he has it in him? >> of course he does. he's just an honorable man. but yeah. he's strong. he's -- what did they say when he announced we got bin laden? oh, well, now he does have some balls. that's not a surprise. yes. but you know, he's a man of deep honor. >> what advice would you give him now? we're a year away from election. >> i don't have to give him advice. but if we had to sit down and talk, i would say what you just said. you know, we want you to now go the other way. >> get punching. >> yeah. yeah. >> because there is a -- i mean, if you look at his approval rating, there is a genuine risk now that he could be a one-term president and never get to fulfill -- >> there is a genuine risk. but this whole thing about polls and approval ratings, you know, they go up and down like a yo-yo. it just depends on what -- i mean, if the stock market suddenly goes up, so do his poll numbers. >> we'll take a little break. we'll come back and i want to talk to you about movies. i want to know, of all the movies, as i say, they've grossed nearly $3 billion. which is the one you would remake again if you had a month to live? don't answer yet. have a think. 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[ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com. you were protecting him from the championship. >> yeah. >> well, now it makes sense. >> what about you, scrap? what did your manager do? you were a hell of a fighter. a lot better than willie. he gets you a title fight or did he just bust you out banging your head against other people's fists until you lost your eye? >> i had my shot. i went out swinging, and no man can say i didn't. >> that's from "million dollar baby," for which you finally, eventually won an academy award for. you must have been thinking, when the hell do i get one of these things? >> what for? >> what was the movie before that where you felt most like this is the one, i'm going to get an oscar for this, and didn't? >> "driving miss daisy." >> yeah. that was scandalous. >> that's what everybody says. really, i did -- but i didn't -- i didn't have an argument when daniel day-lewis got it. because i saw "my left foot." and it was like, wow. you know? >> did you get to a point when you made all these movies and you still haven't won one, you still have to think i'm never going to win an oscar. >> you know, i changed my approach mentally. i decided, okay, let's forget about winning an oscar and let's see how many times you can get nominated. >> because you've been nominated five, six times? how many? >> five. >> five times. >> yeah. >> and there is that kind of always the bridesmaid, never the bride scenario starts to lurk in your head. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. but then after a while, you know, i think there's some value in just being nominated. i used to always say, once you win it, that's it, you're done. but as long as you can get nominated, everyone's going to say, you know, this guy's been up here -- it's like paul newman. how many times are you nominated and you don't win? peter o'toole. he probably got more nominations than anybody in history. never won. >> when you heard the magical words, "winner, morgan freeman," honestly what were you thinking when you heard that? >> you want the truth or you want me to make something up? >> the truth. >> i knew it. >> really? >> yeah. see, to me an academy award is for best actor. best supporting actor is a runner-up prize. >> so it doesn't count really. >> it does because people can still say you won an academy award. >> but to you you still need to win the best actor. >> well, as i say, i'd much prefer to be nominated now for best actor. >> is that one of the things that continues to drive you to work so hard? because you don't need to. >> no. no, no, no. awards you'll get if you're good enough or if you get the public's attention. but no, working is working. it's just that. i always wanted to be in the movies. i'm in the movies. i want to stay -- keep doing it. i enjoy it a lot. >> i want to play you a clip from my favorite morgan freeman movie. it's no great secret because we touched on this earlier. let's watch this. >> there's something inside that they can't get to, that they can't touch. it's yours. >> what are you talking about? >> hope. >> hope. let me tell you something, my friend. hope is a dangerous thing. hope can drive a man insane. it's got no use on your inside. better get used to that idea. >> "shawshank redemption." i mean, a brilliant movie. and we've discussed it. >> written by stephen king. >> that's right. it was. yeah. when you saw the script for "shawshank redemption," do you know instantly now what is a good and bad script? can you tell? >> oh, yeah. it's the same way with reading a book. page 1 sometimes you're hooked. you know that this is going to be great. it's all about writing. you know? what hooks you in writing? just somebody's ability to put words together and create imagery. >> and when you see red saying hope is a dangerous thing, is that morgan freeman about the oscar for best actor? could you relate to him? >> actually, no. you know. but you could say that if you had a real quirky twist of your mind. >> i heard the filming on "shawshank redemption" was quite edgy, that it wasn't easy. why is that? >> well, you have different reasons for that. if you have issues with the direction, it's going to get edgy. >> and you did? >> yeah. >> why? >>