mccreary, the producer of morgan's latest film "5 flights up." >> it's about a couple married 40 years. my parents were married 50 years and i love to see that relationship. there are very few films that i see that delve into the latter part of relationships. we see a lot of fill ments about new love. this is the crossroads of a relationship that's been 40 years long and they're deciding whether to keep going strong or settle back into life. >> rose: morgan freeman and lori mccreary for the hour, next. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by: >> rose: additional funding provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: morgan freeman is here. he is an academy award-winning actor. he's starred in mill-dollar baby, shaw shank redemption and victors. here is the trailer for "5 flights up." >> when ruth and i first moved to brooklyn, it was out of fashion but we liked it. it was good. it was all we could afford. it's cool now. full of hipsters. but as much as it's changing, i'm going to miss this place. >> i don't know how you and alex do it. >> when you're trying to sell the shades all have to be up. light is money, remember that. this is a young people's building, you know. the stairs. >> hi, alex. what's that? cinnamon. gives the place a homey feel. >> smells like a who whore house. what does that smile smell like? >> this. i'm writing a book about this. >> what is this? ould you turn up the lights? please don't do that sweetie. >> sorry. you're going to break it. looking to buy? have a dog? eah. she's not out here right now. >> what happened? she's old. you're older than her in dog years. >> does your bedroom have bunk beds? >> all we need is a place for you to stay and an elevator. could be better. >> could be worse. don't even bother. i'm going to miss all this. look at it. >> why are they moving? haven't we built a good life in we can do whatever the hell we want. >> why are you still staying with this old laidy. >> good old lady. answer. two bedrooms, lots of space old world charm. sounds great doesn't it? i think we should be able to get it cheap right? >> you think? eah, why not? we were watching diane keaton. she's like nobody i know. nobody. >> she's lovely. she's just lovely. >> yeah. and she's actually kind of into housing. you know, she has this sort of -- she's a person that buys a house, lives in it, fixes it up and sells it. and then has magazines like architectural digest come and photograph it. >> she knows a little bit about it, yeah. >> rose: she's into that kind of thing. but her personality, her sense of self deprication, everything makes her so intriguing. >> the first time i saw her, i was so floored by her. she's so beautiful she's so good. so -- >> rose: and so many interesting men have fallen in love with her. >> easy to see. >> rose: yeah. easy to see why. >> rose: when you selected this, knowing a you don't need to work b you love to work, c you have lots of options on radio, television, movies, why did you choose this? partly because of her, perhaps? partly because of a script, perhaps? >> because of the script, primarily. but then i said to who -- lori or -- >> the producer whom we meet later. >> yeah. because when we were doing "country girl," she came to the show one night and i said to her, as i am want to do with ladies i like a lot -- >> rose: yes. -- i'd love to work with you. she said oh, i'd love to do that. when this script came along, i said, diane keaton. >> rose: was your name attached to the script when you came along. >> yeah. >> rose: you said diane keaton. >> yeah. >> rose: she said -- yes. >> rose: i thought you would never call right? tell me about alex and ruth in the film. >> well, you know, as a young couple, probably in their 20s they fell in love. he was an artist and she was working her way through school modeling. >> rose: yeah. and they just hit it off and got married. she broke up with her family over it because it was not the time that interracial marriages were accepted. now we come to a point in their life where her niece is saying, you guys need to get out of this walkup, you know. you can do better. >> rose: five flights up. and so this whole weekend is when it takes place. this whole weekend we decided well, if we move out of here where do we go? so we go looking. >> rose: and you end up -- at home. >> rose: at home. yeah. >> rose: so when you think about -- how do you prepare for this kind of movie? >> read the script that's all. unless you're playing someone real -- >> rose: someone historical. yeah. >> rose: like -- mandela. >> rose: mandela. yeah. all of the people that i know of who have played live persons -- seymour hoffman played truman capote, ray charles. >> rose: jamie fox. -- jamie fox and anything meryl streep has done. >> rose: margaret thatcher. margaret thatcher, julia child, it requires a lot of research. >> rose: but do you just look at text and say i bring 50 years of experience and when i see a text, it says something to me and that union of my own life experience and what i see in the text, let's just go to the races then? >> not necessarily, i mean the life experience part because you're only going to play your age for the most part. >> rose: right. if you're really, really, really good, like walter brennan was, at playing older people then you can do that. but most of the time, you're going to get roles that fall within your age bracket. now you may not get a role that is within your life's experience. i did a movie called street smart -- (laughter) but it's all on the page. so you don't really have to do much more than say the words you know, make them your own. >> rose: i mentioned shawshank. is that high up on your list? >> yeah. well, it's classified now as one of the greatest movies ever made, one of the ten best ever. >> rose: and did you think that at the time? >> no! no! i didn't (laughter) you don't ever think anything you're going to do will be that great. the script was fabulous. >> rose: a nice cast. really interesting. almost an ensemble cast. >> yes, it was an ensemble cast. even bob who played the warden. >> rose: yeah. but everybody, it was one of those times when everybody dives in head first to the role. >> rose: yeah. and then all of a sudden -- was there a moment when -- i mean did you goes know on the movie that this was really good? we're looking at really good performances, we have a good script, the narrative is here, there's even a different kind of chemistry between the performances? or do you see it in the editing. >> i don't go to editing. >> rose: don't you at all? no i don't see dailies. >> rose: you give them your performance and they do what they want to with it? >> yeah, because that's what's going to happen anyway. >> rose: when they get on the set. >> yes. it was pretty much precisely like that. a few tense moments when we argue with the director. it's sometimes not a good mix of writer-directors because they wrote all the lines, they played all the parts, and you have to tell them you're wrong. >> rose: do you tell them softly like that or however loud -- >> however loud it demands. (laughter) >> rose: and this film for you? >> this film was just a work of pure pleasure because i'm just dancing with a lady who loves to dance. >> rose: see that's the great thing. what you do and i do as well. you get to hang out with some people, i mean, at a table on a set and occasionally meals and things like that that you really want to meet and admire and have something to say. >> yeah. and diane is just, as we said before, there's nothing -- i don't think there's any other anywhere like her. she's one of a kind kind, and i have been in love with her since the first time i saw her in the movies. >> rose: yeah burks you -- yeah, but you didn't tell her until -- >> i didn't tell her until we were intimate. (laughter) >> rose: and was everything working with her what you imagined? >> and more. >> rose: what's more? you can imagine what it's going to be like when you say okay, boy, i would really like to do charlie rose, i would like to sit down and have a conversation with that man. >> rose: okay. and in your imagination it won't ever come up to what it really is when once you get here. >> rose: it's much better when you get here. >> yeah, it's much better when you get here because it flows -- your conversation flows. it just keeps flowing, you know, and you may ask a question, pose a question, but you commentary. >> rose: yeah, that's true. i don't really know what i'm going to ask. >> which is perfect for me. >> rose: because you don't know what you're going to say. >> exactly. i certainly don't want to say it twice. >> rose: i actually talked about this before, bill nye talked about this, he said the greatest thing about acting is even know you know the script and the line the skill of acting is to say it as if -- >> i'm sorry i'm going to just butt in there. >> rose: no, i want you to. the skill of acting is -- >> listening. >> rose: listening. no matter how well you know the script listening, i think, is primary. >> rose: listening to what comes right before you or -- >> you and i have a prepared script -- >> rose: right. -- and you're talking to me from your lines, i don't want to look and see when you're finished. i want to hear what you've got to say, and then i'll shape my answer. sometimes you ask a question of me and my answer would be yes. another time you will ask the very same question, and my answer will be well... yeah... >> rose: those are different answers. >> yeah. yeah. >> rose: you've got to be able to hear those answers. it's not just -- i will say to people when they talk about the conversations, the dynamic of conversations, you not only have to listen, you have to hear. you have to hear what they're saying, and sometimes you have to hear what they're not saying, because what they're not saying says more than what they are saying. >> takes a good actor to do that. (laughter) i mean to say what they're not saying or not say what they're saying. >> rose: what bill said was you have to say those lines as if you have just thought them as they just occurred to you. because whatever i say to you what you're going to respond to is what occurs to you, not what you've written down. >> right. i think we're on the exact same page. >> rose: yeah. if you don't listen, you can't answer as if it's your answer. >> rose: yeah as if it's the first time you ever thought of that idea. >> yeah. >> rose: would you -- if you had the freedom now and perhaps you do to make any movie you wanted to make -- >> i do not. i wish i did. >> rose: you don't. but if you did -- >> mm-hmm. >> rose: -- would it be something many people don't think would be box office or what? >> i don't know what it would be. >> rose: in other words, you're saying you don't have that, but let's assume you do. let's put on the table what you would do. let's test this idea. >> i would make at least a couple of war movies. >> rose: really? yeah. >> rose: and the narrative is, the character is? >> the character is a tank battalion that actually fought in world war ii. the problem -- >> rose: brad pitt just did something like that, as you know. >> i like brad. i like what he does. >> rose: i thought, so too. the characters were really interesting. but go ahead. >> so i would do that, and having seen brad's movie -- i don't know how well it did at the box office. >> rose: i don't know. but it gives me hope that i can get this movie made. >> rose: so you have a script? no, that's the biggest problem, is if i have a script, i'll sell it. i will sell a script. i'm pretty sure. but getting a script is probably the most difficult. >> rose: the hottest commodity you need is a writer. >> is a writer. >> rose: is writing sometimes so difficult it's so hard to find a writer that can do justice to the idea? >> yeah. >> rose: and for those who can write are in high demand? >> very high demand. >> rose: here's the interesting thing to me -- it is that -- you see a lot of movies that a lot of writers have dipped their pen into, and i assume that's because they write different things. somebody can write dialogue, somebody can bring -- >> yeah, a lot. >> rose: somebody can get turn and twist and plot, create surprise, all those things. >> yeah, yeah. but coming up with just the basics -- >> rose: you don't have any urgency in your life. >> no. >> rose: you don't. i mean, if you don't work for the next six months, it's not going to drive you crazy. >> no. >> rose: because you've got a lot of things -- >> yeah. >> rose: so that means you don't have an urgency to do things. >> none whatsoever. the most urnlingsent thing i have to -- urgent thing you have to do is try to lower my golf score. >> rose: good luck on that. yeah. >> rose: well, no, let's have a plan on that. you spend most of your time where? in mississippi. >> yeah. >> rose: there are a lot of good courses down there. >> there are three i can play. >> rose: all right. here's what i recommend you do. >> all right. >> rose: here's the plan. all right. >> rose: i want you to go home to mississippi and say to myself, i am going to have a ritual every day, and the goal is to improve my game and therefore, improve my score and if necessary i will fly in the best instructors there are who work best with me. i'm going to make sure that i -- >> i think i already know who that is, and he's not far away. >> rose: and you've got to do two things -- you've got to hit a lot of balls -- >> mm-hmm! >> rose: this is crazy for me to give this advice because i've thought a lot about this a lot. >> roy mcilroy thinks about this. >> rose: how about jordan at the masters? 18 under! >> something like that comes along once in a life time. he may never do that again in his life, but he's done that. >> rose: you can't write life. he comes to the final hole. he has a putt that's less than 4 feet, and if he hits that in, he breaks tiger's record! he has the lowest four-hole score ever in the u.s. masters! and he doesn't do it. >> he doesn't do it. >> rose: but he ends up tying tiger woods with the fabulous -- he's the second youngest person to ever win the masters and he's now looked at the future of golf, right there jordan spieth and others, rory, and what we might have if we get lucky every time we watch him, it will be like nicholas and palmer for several years there like tiger and mickelson. wouldn't it be great? >> oh, yeah it would be great. arnie. >> rose: arnie was there which is great. my joy is to see the first time they bring gary player, jack nicholas and arnold palmer and get the game started by hitting off the first tee and watch these three men. and players in fabulous shape. >> i met player in china. >> rose: oh! we were at the premiere, the opening of their golf course there, they had a pro am, flew us all in, and i was playing with justin rose and gary player. >> rose: who just won last week. >> yes, bless hit heart. very sweet man. i've known him a number of years. >> rose: can jump on the floor and do 25 pushups without thinking. >> yeah. he really believes in it. he's not a huge guy. >> rose: he used to always wear black remember? >> still does. on the golf course if he's playing he's the black knight. >> rose: how hard do you want to do this? i'm interested in whether you have the discipline. >> i do not. (laughter) >> rose: you'd like for it to happen burks you're not driven, obsessed. >> i'm just not driven enough. >> rose: really? yeah. i'll go out to the golf course and put down 25 balls. >> rose: right. and chip from 50 yards 75 yards and 100 yards. if i have enough stamina to do the first 25 at 50 and the second 25 at 75 and the next 25 at 100, i get very, very discouraged because out of 25 balls, i may get three on the green. >> rose: oh, no. confidence is important. >> very, very, very, very important. i find when i know i'm going to hit the ball i hit the ball. >> rose: visualization and confidence. how about acting. can you translate that to confidence, sort of knowing that you own this line? you own this part? you have to have that to take it to the level -- >> i think i was born with that. >> rose: confidence. confidence on stage. only one time do i remember going on stage knowing that i was in the wrong place. >> rose: what role was that? fellow (phonetic). >> rose: really? what's the feeling? >> i have no business being here. i didn't get along with the director. >> rose: this role and my skill don't match. >> not at all. as a matter of fact, the costume i had on, when i walked out on stage, a guy in the back of the theater -- it was open air in dallas, texas -- a guy in the back said sing purple haze! i looked exactly like jimi hendrix, all i was missing was a guitar. >> rose: oh, wow. and that along with my beginning feeling of incompetence just settled it. >> rose: okay. but have you been a hard worker? >> depends on what you mean by hard worker. >> rose: what i mean is -- steady. >> rose: let me put that another way. you obviously have superb talent and skills and you knew that early. >> early. >> rose: so did brando, for example. and marlin was often criticized because they believed he didn't use those talents as often and didn't respect them as much. he and i have had a long conversation with him about this. but you continued to work and get good roles and all that but my sense is, you know, that there is -- you're not driven by anything now because you have all these other interests. >> today, i am not. >> rose: so you take a role, you will give them a hell of a performance, you know, but you're not a guy who says, you know who you are you know what you've done you know where you stand you know -- you know -- >> 50 years ago, i was a desperate soul. >> rose: right. desperate and driven. >> rose: i want to show them. what else am i going to do? how else am i going to manage life? you know, i don't want to do this, i don't want to do that. i would be embarrassed to do anything other than this. >> rose: so did you ever want to go back to any other shakespearean role? >> no. >> rose: that killed it for you? >> no, no. i did -- well, wait a minute. hold on a second. no, i did the taming of the shrew years later with tracy allman and pulled it off. >> rose: where was that? here in new york. >> rose: public theater? yeah. well, we were actually working in the del acourt. >> rose: oh yeah. yeah, that was lovely. i had done julius caesar -- >> rose: all those? yes. >> rose: if someone comes to you and says yes but lear is the big one. would you be willing to work hard and do -- because you could play that role, don't you think? >> if itit was in the cards for me years ago and i was trying to -- i was busy wrapping my mind around the idea of doing lear and my agent at the time said, we could do lear, you should, but let's wait a while longer. i said, fine, we'll do it. >> rose: so you're still waiting? >> not going to do it. >> rose: because you don't have the energy? >> i don't have the energy. >> rose: it's not what you want to do with your life? >> no. >> rose: you mentioned flying and sailing which you learned to do both well. you're now into bee keeping. >> yes. >> rose: you enjoy it. yes, i do. >> rose: why is it that you enjoy bee keeping? >> i have a farm in mississippi it's really not a farm, it's just an estate. >> rose: that's where you're happiest? >> that's where i'm happiest, happiest in the world. and i remember when the bees disappeared. in the spring bees should be -- you could hear them working. then they were gone. there were no more bees. and, so, friends of mine started raising bees and said, do you want some? i said, absolutely, yes, i do. so they brought me about 25 hives. i bought them, actually, you know. and they come from -- i can't remember. arkansas. >> rose: i don't know where bees come from. >> now i have like 35 hives because they really -- if they say healthy and live through the winter -- >> rose: what do you do, harvest the honey? >> yeah, you harvest honey. you have to feed them. i got them in september and they have to be fed over the winter because they haven't been able to go out and store up honey they have to have something they can use to make honey. so you feed them. >> rose: what do you feed them? >> you feed them sugar and water. >> rose: is that right? yeah. like two parts sugar to one part water, and you put it in a feeder and shove it into the hives. >> rose: when you last saw me did you have two earrings? >> i probably was pierced but i may not have been wearing two. >> rose: i think -- i don't know whether you were wearing one or not. >> yeah. >> rose: do you like the look? ah... yes, i guess i must because -- >> rose: as long as you do it. yeah. but this started for me when i was a teenager going to seibert lancaster's movies and stuff. all pirates have an ear in them. a lot of sailors have an earring. the reason for the earring is you have enough money to bury yourself in a foreign country because you could take the earring and sell it because it was gold. yeah. i have a little bit of an excuse for my choice. (laughter) >> rose: i remember when edpbradley of "60 minutes" started wearing an earring and don said you're not going to do that and he said, yes, i am, you watch. >> it does something. i don't know what. >> rose: harrison ford wears one. >> now? >> rose: yeah, he does. i haven't seen him since the crash. >> i haven't seen him. >> rose: you're fly brothers. yeah. >> rose: that's a terrible thing to happen, isn't it? >> not if you walk away. (laughter) >> rose: were you surprised? yeah, well, he lost an engine. >> rose: so he was it was superb flymanship for him to be able to do that or not? >> it really was. >> rose: i have been flying with him. >> he's a fantastic pilot. if you've never lost an engine low to the ground, and he was just taking off, it's a matter of keeping your head. so indiana jones in this is real. he's a cool-headed dude. >> rose: are you still flying? no. >> rose: you can't? hm-um. i have planes but i have to have a pilot. >> rose: your hand. that's the reason i'm not flying. >> reporter: you don't have full -- >> fingers don't move. they're just there. >> rose: does it affect your golf? >> apparently not. (laughter) i'm no worse one handed than with two. >> rose: but you had to learn to paint in this movie. >> yes yes. >> rose: did you seriously learn? >> hmm? >> rose: did you seriously learn to paint? >> no, no, no, i just learned how to fake it. >> rose: i would think painting would be natural for you. >> no. >> rose: you don't have any color sense, no interest in it? >> i have no interest in it. i tried art and -- >> rose: what art did you try? i tried drawing. >> rose: oh, really? yeah, when i was a kid. >> rose: did you have skills -- >> no, i have no natural feel for it. when i was a little boy my mother would always get me things like doctor sets, paint sets, water color sets. give me a cat whistle, let me go out in the street. (laughter) >> rose: let me talk about "through the wormhole," that's a labor of love for you. >> mm-hmm. >> rose: because you like science? >> no. sorry. >> rose: why would i think that because you like science because you're the host of -- >> i'm a spokesman for -- >> rose: you don't like science? >> i was never good. >> rose: aren't you intrigued by the things science is doing today? >> i am very intrigued by what they're doing. >> rose: but you don't want to be them. >> no. but i was always fascinated by the cosmos and physics, so there's more fas fascination there. you say, that's science yeah, but only one science. >> rose: here's a clip through the wormhole. here's a look at episodes of one of the new seasons asks the questions, are we all biggots. >> if you think you see everyone as people, you're kidding yourself. we all have biases. and no matter how open-minded we think we are stereotypes color our judgment of others. and can lead us badly astray. we live in a society affected by race, religion even our favorite sports teams. >> going, going, gone! we define ourselves -- we divide ourselves into rival tribes. the divide between us grows deeper with every passing year. when did hate become hard wired into our brain? we live in two different americas. are we all born to discriminate against our fellow humans? are we all all biggots? >> rose: it's a perfect time of raising the question of what's going on in our country. baltimore being an example today. >> yes. what's happening today, i think is the result of the technology. it's not just happening. we're just seeing it. >> rose: oh. the point is it's been happening. >> it's been happening. >> rose: communities and police. >> yeah, yeah. >> rose: seeing color. if you take the police out of the neighborhood -- if the police live in some enclave -- >> rose: the suburbs. -- yeah, and they come into the inner city as "the law," they don't really know who they are lawing for they law to. >> rose: they forget the community they're supposed to be serving. >> precisely yeah. so that's one of the things that -- >> rose: and perhaps don't understand the community. >> no, they can't possibly understand the community. they don't know the people that live in the community. they don't know them. they don't know anything about it. it's just, like okay, all you people are drug dealers and wellfare claimers and et cetera et cetera, so it's hard to get a break in a situation like that. >> rose: so what do we do? change the police? >> well, yes, let's hire the police in that neighborhood, and you have to stay in that neighborhood. you have to know the people you're supposed to be serving and protecting. that's what all the cars say "to serve and protect," all of the cars, but that really isn't what happens at all in these communities. but now the police, particularly in shootings, you know they're one defense is i fear for my safety. >> rose: hard to think you fear for your safety when someone's running away from you and their back is to you. >> it doesn't hold up when someone sees it. >> rose: so what's changed is video. >> the cell phone everybody carries. >> rose: you mean something like this? >> that changed it all. so i think what will happen now is that there will be some reorganization in terms of policing. there's no real part of the country i think that is in terms of that. but i give my state a lot of credit. >> rose: you give your state credit. >> yes, in the police department. all the state troopers -- >> rose: that you come in contact with? >> mm-hmm, are gentlemen. >> rose: is that because you are a man of dignity and integrity? >> i don't think so. i think that's the way they're trained. i think that's -- >> rose: this is today's headline from the "wall street journal." "obama says baltimore riot part of slow-rolling crisis." it has reached a crisis level hasn't it? >> it's a crisis because we see it. >> rose: yeah. so there. >> yeah. >> rose: let's assume that seeing it brought the reality to our consciousness. then seeing it is a good thing because, without having the reality in our consciousness, we will not deal to it. >> we would not feel so -- >> rose: and you would say as strongly as anyone, it's no excuse for them bombing and destroying your own neighborhood and burning down store fronts and stores that people -- >> part of the thing with mobs is how they get turned into that. what's to be gained? you stop for one split second to think burning and looting doesn't help you in any way. >> rose: in baltimore's case, the police chief is black, the mayor's black, the mayor's a woman. >> yeah, big deal. >> rose: well -- she doesn't have control of the police. >> rose: she had to call in the national guard. >> mm-hmm. >> rose: did you see the picture of the mother forcibly going after her son saying -- >> yes. >> rose: she's a national hero today. she's a national hero. >> that's called parental outrage. >> rose: it's called parenting. >> well, now, the supreme court issued that edict that destroyed everything. >> rose: the riot and what she was doing, she was doing after her son and saying -- >> if you're going to get killed, i'm going to do it. i'll take you out. (laughter) >> rose: yeah, yeah... she was on with my colleagues and i this morning on "cbs this morning" and what she is the power, i think, of someone -- she said, "i lost it." >> i can understand it. >> rose: she said, i lost it because i didn't want to lose my son to the street. a single mother raising children -- >> four girls, one boy. >> rose: yeah. i applaud her along with everybody else but then i think that raising children is fraught with all kinds of stuff. when i grew up, corporal punishment was -- >> rose: allowed. yes. >> rose: i don't know whether it's allowed or not now but it certainly can go too far as adrian peterson found out. >> well yeah. that kid was too young but i was blood idea when i was a kid and say so my mom look what you did! >> rose: yeah shut up. let's see one clip from the movie. clip two. let's look at that. this is where morgan and diane are on a train. >> oh... >> rose: you like this clip? i like the whole movie. >> rose: role tape. he's talking to us as we don't know anything, and we have more real money than all the young hot shots. i just want to know. what do you think of it? >> i like it. really? yeah. put a spin on it. we will have our own place. l. we had a bunch of offers and the real estate agent said they're willing to consider any offer till 3:00! don't look at me like that. it's a beautiful apartment. has a lot of light. >> has light. an elevator and more room. honey... come on... >> sounds like something you really want. >> rose: there you go. what's the next movie? >> alan arkin and we're going to do a remake -- >> rose: of george burns' comedy "going in style." >> exactly. >> rose: how many episodes of "the wormhole" are you making? >> i think we do seven episodes, but don't quote me. >> rose: six episodes somebody said. >> when you talk to lori, you will know. >> rose: great to see you. and you,. >>.>> rose: as always. tell you what i'm going to do this summer. i'm going to get on a plane and come to mississippi and we're going to play golf. >> really? >> rose: yes sir. august. you going to be there in august? >> no. i'll be here in august. >> rose: you're making a movie here? >> working on going in style. >> rose: easy. we'll go out there. >> you remember. >> rose: i'll remember, my friend. thank you. >> thank you. >> rose: back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: lori mccreary is here, c.e.o. of revelations entertainment, she foundenned that production company with morguemorgan freeman in 1996. they've produced invick us the and five flights up as well as madam secretary and through the wormhole, also the president of the producers guild of america and i am pleased to to have lori mccreary at the table for the first time. welcome. >> thank you. >> rose: so mr. freeman says you guys are making a movie that, in fact, he and the two of you really could talk and he basically said what do you want to do and you said i want to produce movies and you were off to the races. is that a fair appraisal? >> pretty much a fair appraisal. he directed the very first film i produced, the very first film set, i was a co-producer, and i found myself on every side of creative discussion, financial phis cogs and he would be right at my side. >> rose: you've gone on the do interesting things and victor's was lovely and wonderful. >> thank you. >> rose: you fell in love with south africa in an earlier film. >> i did. the movie he was speaking of, we made it in 1992, an anti-apartheid film act a black policeman in the south africa apartheid. >> rose: tell me about this film, "5 flights up." >> i love "5 flights up." it's about a couple that's been married 40 years. i have parents married 50 years and i love to see that relationship. there are very few films i see that delve into the latter part of relationships. we see a lot of films about the beginnings of new love, and what i love about this is it's a time at the crossroads of a relationship that's been 40 years long and i feel they're likely decided whether to keep going strong or whether they're going to settle back into life. >> rose: and whose idea -- diane keaton, he told me the story of how much he wanted to work with her how they met and they worked together. was it automatic when you thought of who should play -- >> well, morgan was going to play the husband. >> rose: alex. alex. we had a list for ruth and diane keaton's name jumped off. >> rose: yeah. there is such a great difference between their energies that plays out really well on screen. she's vivacious and her hands never stop moving and morgan is very still. so i thought it was a really interesting pairing. >> rose: what's his role in the partnership. >> in revelations? >> rose: yes. morgan is the rock, the touchstone. he looks at everything before we take it on as a project. it has to stir something in his soul before we take it on. it's very hard producing in this world today. he's a great -- he reads scripts and really can tell us what's going on and whether or not we need to work on the script before we go on the screen. he just has a deep knowledge of what's going to work. >> rose: did you start your professional life as a computer science graduate of u.c.l.a.? >> i did. i am a programmer. i wrote code when i was in college and after college. they're very similar professions, oddly enough. for software, you have to think of something think of all the apps you use. somebody has to say hmm, i think it should be easier for people to get a car, then you have to come up with what the audience -- but it's the same way you make a film. it's an idea and you have to figure out if there's an audience and you have to get a large group of people together to build a software or a film and you have to make sure everyone's marching in the same direction. >> rose: i'll tell you an interesting story. a guy named ken leera who's had a lot of success in investments in terms of buzz feed and a strong entrepreneur and venture capitalist. he said among all the ideas he sees the ones that separate themselves out are the ones that have the technology and the science behind them. you know, a lot of people say this is a good idea, we ought to have this, but they don't have the best science and technology behind it. >> i think that's true, and it will be longer lasting if you have the right people behind it. >> rose: do you use that knowledge in your work today? >> i do. the last seven years our industry has gone from film centric to completely digital. i'm a big believer that we need to digitize the entire production pipeline not only to be more efficient and be able to save money making our films but also to help start preventing piracy in the earlier stages to start saving our films. >> rose: do you and morgan produce films he's not involved in? >> we do. >> rose: and he acts in films that the production company is not involved in? >> exactly. how we look at it is if there's a project fully finance and script is finished and just hiring morgan as actor there's no need for us to come on as producer. >> rose: what's amazing i did a "60 minutes" piece on reese witherspoon, how smart their production company is and how smart they are about buying books. while was a book they bought, gone girl was a book they bought, and somebody told me a hugely popular book they won the bidding rights on. >> that's fantastic. >> rose: are we seeing more women producing? >> the producers guild has 7,000 members and over half are women. >> rose: in the producers guild. >> on the producing team that belong to our guild. >> rose: as television gets older and becomes a more attractive place is that going to lead to programs we haven't seen before? this movie could have been a television series. >> sure. >> rose: are we going to see that more? what's going to be the impact on television and film of a large generation like the post-war generation? the baby boomers? >> i'm hoping we'll get back to great storytelling that's the preponderance of television programming. >> rose: because it's not the preponderance of movies. >> no. but i'm looking forward to this next generation. i think they'll have great stories to tell. >> rose: has he told you about a dream to make a movie about a tank commander? >> yes, the 71st tank battalion. >> rose: why can't we get this done? >> it's interesting. the process of making a film, morgan and i basically don't take something on in the production company unless we're able to work on it seven years if it doesn't get made. takes a long time to get a project made. >> rose: how long have you been working on this one? >> we have been talking about the 761st for about ten years. >> rose: i don't understand what the problem is. i mean, you have morgan freeman who can attracted other actors and work. >> absolutely. >> rose: that's a magnet. what we need is a script. invickties was -- invictus was something. we had been working on a nelson mandela story for a long time. it wasn't until we got the book that we found the end to tell the story of mandelia in two hours. we need to figure out 761st 761st what the heart and soul is and need a writer to crack that. >> rose: tell me what you do as president of the producer's guild. >> it's a trade organization, we're not a union. we do a lot of education. we're keen on making sure the producer's team has health benefits. we have something in june in los angeles and new york in october where we cather thousands of producers together that help teach each other what's going on because there's no real school to go to to find out how you get films financed and how you get television made and work in this new media, so we come together as a community. it's a really great place to come to and belong as a producer. >> rose: here's a clip. we mentioned madam secretary and "5 flights up." here's a clip of through the wormhole which asks the question are we here for a reason. >> what is the meaning of life? don't you believe there is a reason for us being here? >> join the community! we are after all such sophisticated creatures, the result of billions of years of evolution. surely life is about more than just our biological needs. more than the daily rat race. is all the knowledge we've gained over the generations aiming toward some final goal? are we attached to our own fate or is life just a series of random accidents? is our existence just a fluke of nature? or are we here for a reason? space, time, life itself. the secrets of the cosmos lie through the wormhole. >> rose: here's where you can really apply your aptitude for since, in this series. >> absolutely. i love this series. for me we're looking at people that are doing such amazing research in areas i don't think i would ever hear about and i'm not sure the general public would ever hear about and here we are with morgan's voice and ability to distill to it be able to shine a light on people doing likely important research in our world today. >> rose: thank you for stopping. >> thank you. >> rose: lori mccreary thank you for joining us, see you next time. more more about this episodes and earlier programs visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. >> rose: on the next charlie rose, a trip through the universe with the hayden planetarium. >> the el minutes on the periodic table we might remember from chemistry class the origin to thermonuclear fusion in the stars? these particular stars happen to explode and scatter the enrichment across the galaxy and carbon, nitrogen, oxygen silicon, all these elements scatter into gas clouds that then collapse and form next-generation star systems one of which was ours. so the very ingredients that comprise life are traceable to stars. they gave their lives billions of years before we arrived. >> rose: so we are stars? we are not only figuratively but quite literally star dust. >> rose: ♪ must have soup! >> the pancake -- is to die for! >> it was a gut-bomb, but i liked it. >> i actually fantasize in private moments about the food i had. >> i didn't like it. >> you didn't like it? >> dining here makes me feel rich. >> and what about dessert? pecan pie? sweet potato pie?

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