Morgan Freeman Defies Labels

In the movies, he often personifies the calm in the eye of the storm. But Mike Wallace finds that the off-screen man is, at 68, a dynamic presence from Hollywood to Clarksdale, Mississippi.

From one riveting movie role to another, Morgan Freeman somehow makes us believe that no one else can possibly play it as well he does. So often onscreen, he is the calm in the eye of a storm, the quiet, forceful voice of reason, but correspondent Mike Wallace found a more personal and candid Morgan Freeman of varying moods.

At age 68, Freeman shows no sign of slowing down, off-screen or on. This year, we saw him in four films and heard him narrate two others. He'll appear in four more films next year.

60 Minutes met him first in The Virgin Islands, aboard his boat.

"This boat is a Shannon 43. It's one of the 12 best-built boats in the entire world," explains Freeman.

Freeman goes out sailing by himself, saying he enjoys the challenge.

"If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn't worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it's life or death. There's no quarter," says Freeman.

But he spends most of his time in that make-believe world of acting.

"I like the character roles. Somewhere back there I really came to the conclusion in my mind that the difference between acting and stardom was major. And that if you become a star, people are going to go to see you. If you remain an actor, they're going to go and see the story you're in," says Freeman.

Some of the stories he has played in are among the most memorable in film history, including "The Shawshank Redemption," alongside Clint Eastwood in "Unforgiven," and opposite Jessica Tandy in "Driving Miss Daisy."

All those roles seem to be made for him.

A late bloomer, Freeman began his professional career in theater when he was 27. By age 34, he was the "Easy Reader" on TV's "The Electric Company" kids' show.

Thirty-three years, 41 films and four Oscar nominations later came his first Academy Award win last year, for his performance with Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood in "Million Dollar Baby."

How does he approach a role?

"Yeah, how do you get there? My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it. Those are the ones I say, 'I don't think this is the role for me.' They'll be 'But, oh, no you don't want to…' I know."

Freeman says he was drawn to acting by birth. "I was born to do it."

He says he realized his calling around the age of 12, going to movies and saying to himself, "I can do that."

"I can. Yeah. I had teachers tell me, 'You're magic, you're good. You found your calling,'" Freeman remembers.

Freeman heard that calling in northeastern Mississippi, the birthplace of the blues, but a region that recently escaped the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.

This is where Freeman grew up for the most part and still makes his home, living near his childhood roots and miles from the nearest stoplight, albeit in a movie star's mansion.

He and his wife Myrna share 120 acres with their horses. Down the road in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Freeman co-owns a restaurant and a blues club.

Between his movie shoots, he is a regular in Clarksdale, often cutting up with tourists and cutting the rug with locals in his club.

He and his business partner Bill Luckett have been bankrolling the blues club and the restaurant at a loss for almost five years now. His business interests here are labors of Freeman's love for his native Mississippi Delta.

But Mississippi's history of racial conflict bothers him even to this day. Forgive, he says, but never forget.

For one, he thinks the Mississippi state flag, with its confederate emblem, should be changed.

"That flag has always represented, number one, treason and, number two, a separation of white people from Jews, niggers and homosexuals. And you can't change that. You can't tell me I'm never going to be able to look at that flag and think, 'Ah, it's my heritage, my, you know...' Never," says Freeman.

His social and political views are at times surprising and he pulls no punches.

He says he finds Black History Month "ridiculous."

"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" asks Freeman. "I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history," he says, noting that there are no white or Jewish history months.

How can we get rid of racism?

"Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man," Freeman says to Wallace. "And I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn't say, 'Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.' You know what I'm sayin'?"

Freeman's convictions make for lively dinner conversation with his wife. Myrna and Morgan met 25 years ago when both were struggling in the world of New York theater. Today, few people know him better than she does.

Asked if her husband is a narcissist, Myrna Freeman says he is an egoist.

"Narcissist strikes me as somebody who's in love with themselves. I don't see him as in love with himself. He's more full of himself," she says laughing. "He's self-absorbed."

And criticism doesn't bother him?

"Not that I've ever noticed," she says.

"I don't get criticized. I'm the greatest living American actor," Morgan Freeman interjects, laughing. "Ask anybody."

He is joking, of course, but film critics say his Oscar last year was long overdue. Freeman acknowledges he's happy finally to have one, but he finds the annual Oscar race demeaning to the nominees.

"At the end of this process four of us are going to be losers. I kind of resent it," says Freeman. "Who likes feeling like a loser, you know? That's why, you lost that one, you lost that time. Oh, you think it's finally your time to win one. Win…what are you going to win? I win a doorstop, you know?"

When he's at ease, Freeman is playful, but when it comes to his off-camera pursuits, he's serious.

Take his pursuit of learning to fly, for example. He always wanted to learn to fly and finally decided to do it when he turned 65. Now, he can pilot himself across the country.

One destination he sometimes flies to is The Virgin Islands, to get back to that sailboat.

Asked if he would rather be working or on his sailboat, Freeman says, "All my life, all my life that I can, as far back as I can remember, I saw my first movie when I was six years old. And since then I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a part of that."

He is a man who makes you believe he has got it all.

"But I can say that life is good to me. Has been and is good. So I think my task is to be good to it. So how do you be good to life? You live it," says Freeman.

[Click at right to watch CBSNews.com's exclusive Reporter's Notebook, in which Mike Wallace talks about his interview with Morgan Freeman, and an excerpt from the interview.]