UK Press Conference with Director Clint Eastwood and Academy Award Nominees Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman reunites with Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) to bring the true story of how Nelson Mandela used sports to help unite South Africa by getting behind the country’s rugby team and cheering it through to the 1995 World Cup Championship. Freeman, who has long wanted to bring Mandela’s story to the big screen, stars in Invictus as the universally respected leader. Matt Damon co-stars as Francois Pienaar, the captain of the 1995 South African rugby team.

Being in the same room as Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman is pretty exciting, add the legendary Clint Eastwood and it’s almost unbelieveable. We even had the former Springbok captain François Pienaar hiding in the room.. Here’s what they all had to say…

LONDON January 31st 2010, Claridges Hotel

Morgan Freeman, you’ve wanted to play Mandela for many years. How does it feel to finally play your friend on the big screen?
 
It feels terrific, its a situation that was meant to be.

 
Clint Eastwood, you’re at an age where most of us would be taking life a little easier, yet you continue to make challenging movies one after the other, you make some of the best movies that we see in any year. What is the driving force behind this for you?
 
I had planned on not working at this particular time in my life, but no body can plan what they’re going to be doing which they reach my age at 49 (laughs). I just enjoy work now more than I ever have and I’m at an age where I can take on more challenges because I know more and at this age I can forget more but basically I just enjoy it, I enjoy the process, I enjoy making films from behind the camera, equally to that of being in front of the camera all those years. I just enjoy it that’s all. I’m lucky enough to work in a profession that I love and so I figured ill just continue until someone hits me over the head and says ‘get out!’

 
Matt, do you think the other players held back from rucking Matt Damon?
 
Anytime you’re making a movie its all choreography, except this game is tough, its a lot more controlled. We used what you call free play. There was a whole physical challenge to get ready for this role because I am playing someone that everyone knows. If somebody doesn’t believe you for a moment then you have failed at your job and you’re taking them out of the story so you have to try and troubleshoot. Clint helped me out, Francois is a big guy and I’m an average size guy so how were we going to get around this? Clint said well maybe you won’t look 6’4 but people won’t say he’s 5’10 maybe we can jut get people to not ask the question. Little tricks like putting the camera higher, framing me to look larger in the foreground, insoles in my shoe to give me an extra inch of height and obviously a lot of work in the gym and on the accent to try to make things believable.

 
Mr Eastwood, what were the particular challenges in staging the rugby match as appose to regular acting scenes?
 
I didn’t grow up with rugby but I went and talked to a lot of people. They gave me a rundown of the game, I watched the practices. When we got to South Africa we had Chester and Francois who had actually been in the game and we hired actual rugby players to play the most of the acting parts, so we just had a play. Chester was basically our coach, he would tell the players, right lets play proper rugby so our biggest challenge was to stay out of the way!

 
Mr Eastwood, after the great Gran Torino I read that this would be your last time on screen, please tell us that is not true?
 
I said this back on Million Dollar Baby, which turned out to be a success, so I figured maybe this would be a good time to quit on top unlike most people that drift down to the end. Then Gran Torino came along, it seemed an interesting part with a man my age and I figured I wasn’t stretching it that much so I went ahead and gave it a shot. If 10 great roles came up, then great, I don’t know how many roles there are for a guy my age but you just never know! I had always planned that when I reached 70 I would get tired of looking at myself at the screen but every so often something crops up.

 
Mr Eastwood, Has Nelson Mandela seen the film and what did he think?
 
(Clint Eastwood) I don’t know, according to Mr Freeman he has seen it.
 
(Morgan Freeman) He smiled a lot and nodded. When I first came on screen he leaned over and said’ I know this fella’ (laughs). I got the impression he wasn’t embarrassed. I consulted films and takes on him but not him personally. I don’t know him that well but I have met him over the years in various places.

Morgan Freeman, having already played god, the natural progression is to play Nelson Mandela. What was the most challenging part of this?
 
The most challenging was the voice, accent if you will. The rest was easy, I have been watching him for years, once I got the notion that one of these days I would be playing him of screen it became a question of playing close attention to him at every chance I got.

 
Mr Eastwood, you did a fairly long apprenticeship at Universal. Did you learn much from that, except how to survive?
 
I was there twice, I was there in the 50’s when it was owned by different people. I didn’t get to do much, I played about 13 bit parts where I just slide under a table. Yes, I learned a lot there, I went around to lots of sets, watched people and how they worked. The second time I came back under different circumstance and I was playing a lead. I learn a lot every day and even to this day, I always learn something at every picture and as the world changes you change.

 
Matt Damon, Did you meet Mr Mandela?
 
I had about 10 minutes with him and I was asked to bring my kids which was a real thrill. My wife and I brought our three kids and we spent the time watching him bounce our babies on his knee and it was just absolutely wonderful. We have wonderful pictures and it was a big moment for our family and our kids will grow up know who he is so it was really special.

 
Clint, did you spend much time with Nelson Mandela?
 
I met him at the same time as Matt, and I thought he was equally impressive as he was on film. I had seen him on news reels and film presentations over the years. He is an extremely prismatic man, he has that million dollar smile when he walks in the room and everybody else wants to smile with him. I didn’t get a chance to talk with him much, hes 91 and doesn’t get out a lot but just being around him you get a feeling.

 
Clint Eastwood, looking over your career which of your films were the most challenging and which acting films you’re most proud of?
 
When you have done a many films as I have done you just keep going. I never look back too much about them. I have done some work I am proud of, but which is my favorite I don’t know. I have had jumps in my career like Unforgiven and then I try something different like Letters from Iwo Jima. I love to work with both Morgan and Matt and I get a chance to work with people over again that I respect a lot. Once a film is done and its been performed its up to someone else to make a judgement. Maybe you have had a good time filming it or it may have been a headache either way that leaves a lasting mark on your memory.

 
Mr Eastwood, when you chose the subject do you trust in your instincts?
 
Yes I do, this was a story that I liked. I didn’t approach it as a film about rugby. We wanted to make the rugby very good as it was an inspiration to Mr Mandela and utilise this as an avenue to uniting his country. Mr Freeman called me up and said, look I have a good script, I has always admired Mr Mandela, read the book, read the script it seemed so creative. A wonderful way to unite a country, I just thought this is something politicians around the world today could learn a lot from. Creativity and bring people together instead of talking about it and not doing it. He seemed to be a rather unique person. The rugby was fun, but if it has been Texas Hold’em I still would have done it since I admire the man.

Mr Eastwood you grew up with the great depression and yet films like Invictus and Gran Torino take a broader view of the world. Does that suggest that you’re less in love with the American dream as you might have been and does this film have a particular relevance in the age of terror?
 
Yes, I was brought up in the depression, bad years but you only know whats there at the time so if someone is only feeding you beans and water then that’s all you know. Once you have caviar its tough to go back. I learned a lot and I love telling stories about that. I think the American dream is there, for people that want to embrace it. I still think there is a great energy in the country when it wants to have it. It allows for entrepreneurial feelings or whatever a person wants to accomplish in life.

 
Congratulations on your Golden Globe nominations, just how important are these awards and on a personal note what did you think of Ricky Gervais?
 
(Matt Damon) Awards are the reason we make movies. (laughs) I thought Ricky Gervais was great, its the Golden Globes, probably 5% there were sober, no-one was irreverent, it’s supposed to be fun.
 
(Morgan Freeman) Awards are just a pat on the back. The main thing about awards in movies is an economical surge. If your movies is nominated its like, ok go see it again, don’t give up on it.
 
(Clint Eastwood) They have changed it now so its ‘The award goes to…’ they don’t say ‘wins’, because actually they don’t win. Its not like a swimming race where someone actually wins, people vote on it. You always have to remember that when somebody ‘wins’ an award, it could be wrong.

 
In the movie one of the big turning points is when Francois Pienaar visits Robben Island. I wanted to hear from all three of you, what impression did that leave on you?
 
(Matt Damon) I asked Francois exactly what he did, obviously there is a lot in the movie where you match characters together to take some poetic licence just because you only have two hours to tell the story but that sequence according to Francois is as it happened.
 
(Francois) I watched the film at the premiere in LA with my two boys, the scene evolved when Matt walked into the cell. It was almost 100% exactly to how it happened.  The previous day we had just beat Australia who were the favorites to win the world cup and we had a very good night out celebrating the victory. The next day we went to Robben Island and I had never been there before. I was the last guy to file past, I walked into the cell and I just got this enormous emotion that flowed over me. I touched the walls and looked outside through the bars and it dawned over me just how unbelievably generous Nelson Mandela actually is. He sat there for 17 years and came out of that prison he embraced everyone in South Africa. When I watched that scene I started crying and my two boys looked at me and they said ‘daddy are you okay’? That scene brought so many emotions to me. Right after that we walked into the room where all the current prisoners were, they were all coloured prisoners and when the team walked in I just realised how powerful Mandela is and was then when he said to everybody in South Africa that he wanted them to support the Springboks. If it wasn’t for him then we would never have the support of South Africa.
 
(Clint Eastwood) Well, I was looking from a technical point of view, so I was crying for a different reason (laughs). Its very emotional when you go into a call that doesn’t even have a toilet in it. To think that someone spend so long there is overwhelming but to come out as open, forgiving and magnanimous as he did seems almost impossible.

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INVICTUS IS RELEASED IN UK CINEMAS ON 5TH FEBRUARY 2010