AUTHORITY FIGURE HIS PEERS HOLD HIM IN HIGH REGARD, BUT MORGAN FREEMAN HOPES OTHERS SEE HIS SOFTER SIDE, TOO.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Morgan Freeman radiates authority and knows it.

The widely admired actor employs his commanding voice, imposing presence and tall, trim frame for maximum control of any room he enters. And he clearly enjoys his power to intimidate, seemingly considering it an adjunct to the respect he's inarguably earned for a long train of excellent performances on stage, television and in such films as ``Street Smart,'' ``Driving Miss Daisy,'' ``Shawshank Redemption,'' ``Seven,'' ``Unforgiven,'' ``Glory,'' ``Amistad'' and ``Lean on Me.''

Yes, Morgan Freeman can be quite a handful. Nice, then, that he's even more of an incorrigible joker.

``Boy, you've gotta be careful with that kind of talk,'' the 63-year-old admonishes in his stern schoolmaster voice when praised for his consistent excellence. ``I might start walking through them and thinking, 'They're going to like me anyway, so I don't have to work too hard here.'

``But you can't take your work for granted,'' he quickly adds with a warm smile and a chuckle, as if anyone could possibly believe he neither likes compliments nor ever intends to coast through his chosen profession. ``You either give it its due or don't do it, it's as simple as that. In a job situation like this, when you've worked and struggled to get where you are, you don't want to pretend it's not important to you.''

Freeman's eager, ongoing engagement with his craft is evident in two current movie releases, ``Nurse Betty'' and ``Under Suspicion.'' The former, controversial director Neil Labute's (``In the Company of Men'') acclaimed dark comedy features Freeman in an uncharacteristically playful mode - as a veteran hit man who falls deeper in love with his delusional target (Renee Zellweger's title soap opera believer) the longer he pursues her.

``Suspicion,'' which Freeman executive produced through his company Revelations, is a taut psychological thriller in which he plays a Puerto Rico police detective relentlessly interrogating a powerful citizen, played by ``Unforgiven'' co-star Gene Hackman, he suspects of a series of schoolgirl sex murders. Taking place in one emotion-charged, constricted night, the mystery is as grimly intense and focused as road picture ``Betty'' is goofily, unpredictably freewheeling.

And that's what Freeman liked about them.

``The only thing that attracts me about any group of roles is their difference,'' he explains. ``The joy, of course, in acting is to be as many different people as you can, and the even greater joy is to be as many different people as you can in the shortest possible time. That's why actors enjoy repertory theater so much. You know, we all want to hide; I don't want to be me in any role at all. The more obfuscation I can find for this Morgan Freeman, the better.''

There are other factors too, of course. While, like any working actor, Freeman has appeared in many projects that weren't exactly worthy of his talents (``Chain Reaction,'' anyone?), the high percentage of quality films on his resume speaks to his shrewd selectivity. Although ``Betty,'' for example, has been criticized for its similarities to both other Tarantino-esque crime comedies and ``Truman Show''-style blendings of TV and reality, the actor instantly perceived what was original about the concept.

``This is one of those cases when you say, 'OK, I've seen this and I've seen this,' but together you have not,'' he says. ``At no time can you be able to predict what's coming next in this movie.

``As for the character himself, he takes this incredibly bizarre path through the picture,'' Freeman adds. ``It's such a sly, slow transformation he has; it was just one of those things where, given the chance to pull it off, you have to see if you can do it.''

``Suspicion'' offered altogether different inducements. The project was actually Hackman's idea; he'd wanted to do an American remake of ``Garde a Vue,'' the French film it's based on, for the better part of two decades. Freeman, whose company's first feature film this is, had the means to get that job done. When the two master actors' schedules permitted, they were thrilled to pick up and really fly from where their few ``Unforgiven'' scenes together left off.

``This was a very intense piece, and much more like a play than a film,'' says Freeman, whose extensive stage credits include the long-running ``Miss Daisy'' and an acclaimed, all African-American ``Hello, Dolly.'' ``But Gene Hackman is just one of those icons of excellence that actors have, so having that to work with was exciting. But the challenge in situations like that is to carry your weight. Gene's at the crux of the emotional impact of this piece; he's the one taking the hard fall, the heavy line. So, the question for me was how successful was I going to be in bringing out the emotional baggage I needed to, because both characters have it.''

While Freeman often speaks of the uncertainty he brings to every new role, that feeling should not be confused with anxiety. Indeed, the tension that's so evident in the movie only struck the San Juan set when director Stephen Hopkins said ``Action.''

``Working with these guys was like swordfighting with Jedi masters,'' notes Thomas Jane, who plays Benezet's hotheaded assistant investigator in ``Suspicion.'' ``But Gene and Morgan are two very different actors in terms of style. Hackman is a real logical guy, into very detailed analysis of the truism that action equals character. And Morgan ... took a lot of naps. That's funny, and I mean that literally, but I also mean that he's very relaxed, a highly intuitive actor. I don't think he ever took a lesson, but he keeps it so simple, it's just beautiful.''

Freeman admits that theory and technique are highly abstract notions to him and play little part in his work.

``I'm a joyous worker,'' he explains. ``I have an awful lot of fun, doing one thing or another. But I don't really know a lot about how it works. Intellectualizing about the choices you make and how you get them in terms of acting is really just a lot of bull. I just find it all, usually, so easy to do that I don't know what the mechanisms are.''

Which is another way of saying that he's got them so down that training long ago became second nature. Freeman, who was raised in Chicago and rural Mississippi (where he still lives near land his family worked for generations, when he's not sailing around the Caribbean from a home base on Grenada), studied acting at Los Angeles City College after a five-year tour of duty with the Air Force. He made his Broadway debut in 1968 and, as Easy Reader on television's ``The Electric Company,'' helped a generation of '70s tykes learn their ABCs.

Although a wide range of heroic, villainous and compelling characters have come out of the movie career that took off in the mid-1980s, Freeman's role on the educational program was an apt one. As noted earlier, there is something of the stern but committed teacher embedded in his personality, buttressed by a warmth the child in everyone can relate to.

For example, asked how he feels about the remarkable, recent mainstream success of African-American cinema and his own current run of racially neutral roles, Freeman corrects, then enlightens.

``This is where we are and you've got to stop talking about it,'' he says, then smiles. ``Really, this is our society, and we can just go on now and do this. When I read (the novel) 'Hawaii,' it said the Chinese had this term for America, called it the Golden Mountain. And I look now at a lot of young people, and the thing that distinguishes them as Americans is this kind of golden color, from all of the races coming together. We have a kind of golden youth from this Golden Mountain.''

There's a reason, obviously, why Morgan Freeman is regarded with great seriousness. Lighthearted as he'd like to be, in this time of disposable cinema, he also realizes that his palpable thoughtfulness is more of a gift than a burden.

``In Europe, they keep using the term gravitas; 'You're an actor whose work always has dignity and gravitas,' '' he says. ``Oh-kaay, I've got that, now how do I get out of that?

``I'm concerned about being bracketed. But I also realize that all of these roles are ones that I chose to do, so I have to take the responsibility for these choices. Yeah, I like roles that make statements about American life and history, and I always wanted to have that kind of impact. I'm drawn to these kinds of things, and I admit it. But still, I don't want to be shut out of other kinds of roles that don't have quite the ... gravitas.''

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