“Morgan Freeman is the biggest diva in the world,” Harry Connick, Jr. laughed sarcastically. He was talking about rumors from the set of “Dolphin Tale.” “Showin’ up late. Cursin’ everybody out. Drunk. Stoned. The guys a mess. A trainwreck. Paging Dr. Drew.”
Freeman, in another room, sighed at the sound of Connick’s name. “Harry,” his famous voice shaking its head. “He’s just singing all the time. You can’t get him to pay attention, running around serenading everybody all the time because he’s Harry Connick Jr.”
Joking aside, the two actors had at least that in common: music. Connick apparently tried to convince Freeman to duet with him, or at least to send himself into a music recording studio. “We might get together one of these days and do something,” Freeman said. But, “I’m not one of those actors who thinks he can do everything. I can only do one thing well. I’ll stick with that.”
Connick actually gets to play music in the film, though not sing or play piano. He actually had to pick up saxophone for the part. Writer/director Charles Martin Smith wrote in a scene for a melancholy song, and on at least one instrument Connick couldn’t play.
The actor/musician has plans for after “Tale” to compose for a Broadway play, a children’s musical, and to maybe put out another jazz album next year.
As for Freeman’s other passions, “Dolphin Tale” struck him in a couple of different ways.
“What scratches an itch for me… is getting a job,” Freeman said of tackling the family film, though giving a run-down on the “lost kid and a damaged dolphin” story.
But the life aquatic of the film also appealed to him in a different way, in its message of conservationism and environmentalism. Freeman is an avid sailor in his down time (when he has it) and feels he sees the problem of pollution first hand. “We’re digging our own graves.”
Check out what more each actor had to say about their co-stars and music.
“Dolphin Tale” is out on Friday (Sept. 23).