In The Bucket List, airing this Saturday, June 12 at 4pm and 10pm ET/PT on Showcase, corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicolson) and working class mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do before they "kick the bucket" and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor. Each adventure adds another check to their list.
Morgan, this film was almost like a two-man show. So what was it like doing The Bucket List with just yourself and Jack Nicholson appearing in most of the film?
MORGAN: What do you want me to say, ‘It sucked?’ (laughs) Look, it was great. I loved every minute of it. Of course, you always like the little, small ensemble movies, because you’ve usually got a pretty good story going on, and when you’ve got a small ensemble cast, you become very familial. And, if you are part of a duo, you almost always become good friends, because you work together a whole lot. And, we did. I have been trying to work with Jack for a long time, because he is a tremendous actor. He’s great. We almost did a couple of things together, but it was just one of those things that they didn’t happen like they were supposed to. So, this film was sort of a make-up for all the movies we didn’t get to do together over the years.
Did either of you discover anything new by making The Bucket List together?
JACK: We both had a lot of awareness of one another. We’ve known one another a long time. A reaffirmation, you know, so it went pretty quick. We worked nice and easy together. We share a lot of the same sensibilities. It makes it easy to move something around when you are comfortable with a person. Things I discovered, I put in the movie, like the line, ‘Where did you get all those freckles?’ (laughs)
How much enjoyment did the two of you have making The Bucket List together?
MORGAN: For myself, tons. This is a dream come true. One of my life dreams was to work with Jack Nicholson. So every day was like a holiday. Every day was perfect. Every day was what I wanted.
JACK: Sometimes, doing a movie is great. This was one of them.
Can either of you relate to the subject of death being funny or something to laugh about?
JACK: Only in a Fellini movie. (laughs) Gallows humor makes us all laugh, so I guess it’s funny.
MORGAN: Well, is it funny in the end? It’s funny now, but if you are lying there and all the juices are leaking out, is it funny then?
JACK: Well, you can bet that the last thing on Earth that you want to do will be the last thing on Earth you actually do.
Since The Bucket List deals with terminally ill patients, do you have a fear of death?
MORGAN: I don’t think I’d like to live forever. I think there is going to be some downturns in the human existence that I don’t want to be here for. But I really would like to live a really, really, really long time. I don’t fear death at all. What I fear is how I die.
JACK: You don’t want to be embarrassed.
MORGAN: I don’t want to be embarrassed. That’s it. I do not want to be embarrassed.
Jack, do you have any fear of death?
JACK: The fear of the unknown motivates people to not live in the now, number one. To live forever, I always mistrusted someone who said they didn’t want to live forever. I trust you now, Morgan. (laughs) And, then one of those things like capital punishment that you actually change your mind about, because the real question is, ‘It becomes ever more possible that, if we can’t live forever, we have more control over how long we live.’ I changed my mind when I thought to myself, ‘Do you want to live forever at the expense of your children, because if suddenly people stopped dying, we’d have a real ecological problem on our hands?’ So, I always thought that was an open and shut question. But, like many of them, I had my mind changed with a little further thought, a few decades or so.
Where would you like your final resting place to be?
MORGAN: The ground. I don’t want to be burned up. I don’t want to be entombed in a mausoleum or crypt somewhere. I want life everlasting. That means going in to the ground, going back to Mother Earth, and she will spit you back out again.
What did you think about the theme of the film?
MORGAN: Death is always a touchy subject, not just in movies but in real life, too. So, you have to be careful how you approach it. In terms of making it humorous, you don’t want to go completely over the top, because it becomes disrespectful. You want to find that middle ground, and I think they did with this script, because it’s healthy to laugh at the things we are scared of, like death. I think it’s an incredibly funny and touching movie.
How difficult is it to find a project for the both of you to do? Is there a character either if you would like to repeat or revisit? And, do you have a wish or bucket list of actors or directors that you’d still like to work with?
JACK: It’s like all those questions about how do you choose. It’s not, it’s a different thing as a professional. In the abstract, you could choose this or that, but you only have so many things that are available to you with the time that you have to and/or want to work. Morgan and I very much wanted to work together. How could I not want to work with Rob Reiner? I was a marine as a result of the last job I did for him (A Few Good Men). So, in this case, I was already in before I even read the script, almost. If it was horrible, I would have so it’s things like that. We’ve all got a bucket list. I can’t work with Marilyn Monroe, so she’s off the list. But there are a lot of people of people I’d like to work with. You can’t make a list about actors that you like, because there are a lot of us.
MORGAN: And they keep coming.
JACK: And that has a lot to do with it. I was thinking about it last night, they are always asking me, ‘Who are the young actors you’d like to work with?’ I’m categorically against making up lists like that, because somebody’s always pissed off or this or that, so I never answer. I thought, ‘No, I’m going to do this different. I’m going to write out some long list of the people, be it Nic Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Roberts, or who is the young people and this and that,’ and just Sean (Penn), who I’ve already done a bunch of things with, and make that, which would be, incidentally, a pretty long list. The directors, I noticed the other day, when they asked me the question, it’s like with writers. I don’t keep track of the names like I did in my thirties and forties, when I was a cinephile. But there are a lot of great ones. But, as I say, I just don’t remember. I don’t keep track of their names.
Morgan, are there certain performances or films of yours that mean the most to you?
MORGAN: Mean the most? Well, yeah, my favorite character was in Street Smart. My favorite movie was Glory, because I think that it’s the most important movie I’ve been in. It’s important because it was a great movie that was historically accurate. And, then there are two movies with Clint (Eastwood) that I liked a lot. Unforgiven, that was a real sort of crowning moment for me, to be in a Western and then to comeback and do another good job with him in Million Dollar Baby.
What would you like people to take from your body of work?
MORGAN: I just don’t want them to ask for their money back. (laughs) That’s all. I don’t have anything I want them take away. You want to know what I want on my tombstone? Is that what you’re asking? Well, I want it to read, ‘No Refunds.’