For the director, see Morgan J. Freeman

Freeman continued to accept roles in a diverse range of genres. In 2009, Freeman starred opposite Antonio Banderas in the heist movie Thick as Thieves.[115] Next, he collaborated with Christopher Walken and William H. Macy for the comedy The Maiden Heist. For some time, Freeman expressed a desire to do a film based on Nelson Mandela. Initially, he wanted to adapt Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom into a screenplay, but plans were never finalized.[116] Instead, he purchased the film rights to John Carlin’s book: Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation.[117] The book was adapted into a film which Clint Eastwood directed, Invictus, starring Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar.[118] The biographical drama received positive reviews for Freeman’s performance; Roger Ebert wrote: “Freeman does a splendid job of evoking the man Nelson Mandela … He shows him as genial, confident, calming, over what was clearly a core of tempered steel.”[119] Freeman received Best Actor nominations at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, as well as a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.[120][121][122] The same year he provided the narration for Janet Langhart’s Anne and Emmett, a play featuring an imaginary conversation between Emmett Till and Anne Frank, both killed as young teenagers because of racial persecution.[123]