Clint Eastwood, 94, To Be Given Leadership Award By Morgan Freeman, 87

The Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, 94, is set to be given a major award by his good friend and fellow star Morgan Freeman, 87.

Eastwood To Receive Award From Freeman

On Sunday, Eastwood will be given the inaugural Cultural Leadership Award as part of the 67th annual Monterey Jazz Festival. He has been a longtime Monterey Jazz Festival board member.

Freeman will be presenting the award to Eastwood. This will later be followed by “Eastwood Symphonic,” a musical project led by the actor and director’s son, the American jazz musician and composer Kyle Eastwood.

The show features his quartet along with an orchestral ensemble performing the movie themes from his father’s movies. It includes music from the films Gran Torino, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and Bridges of Madison County.

Eastwood And Freeman Go Way Back!

Eastwood and Freeman have a long history and friendship. Indeed, Eastwood has cast Freeman in many of his movies, beginning with 1992’s Unforgiven, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. Twelve years later, Freeman won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Eastwood’s 2004 drama Million Dollar Baby. This movie also took home the Best Picture Oscar.

Freeman had nothing but praise for the The Man With No Name’s skills behind the camera.

“I think Clint is an actor’s director,” Freeman once told RTE. “He doesn’t direct actors…he directs movies. He hires actors, and it’s your job. And I love that about him that you establish your own character; you play it and do what the scene calls for. [He’ll] have the scene set up.”

“Cameras will be where we want them to be,” Freeman added. “Lights will be where we want them to be. And go for it. “He never says action, and he never says cut. He’s his own person on a movie set. Wonderful.” 

Freeman previously admitted that he “begged” Eastwood to direct the 2009 movie Invictus. In this film, Freeman portrayed the legendary South African leader Nelson Mandela.

“I begged him to direct Invictus,” Freeman explained. “It’s one of the few movies he directed that he wasn’t in.”

The movie was a huge hit, earning Oscar nominations for both Freeman and star Matt Damon. Check out a trailer for Invictus in the video below.

Related: Clint Eastwood Gave This One Powerful Piece Of Advice To His Actor Son Scott

Eastwood’s Final Movie

Though Eastwood is in his mid-90s, he is still as busy as ever. He recently completed what’s set to be his final directorial movie Juror No. 2, which is set to premiere on November 1. The drama stars Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult, Kiefer Sutherland, and Chris Messina.

“You think you’re going to get some tough guy and he is completely gentle and calm and fun and cracking jokes, and a lot of the crew members — [for example], the craft services woman has been with him for 22 years,” Messina told People Magazine of Eastwood back in December of last year.

“He was awesome. I really loved him,” he continued. “93 years old and completely with it, great notes, up on his feet behind the camera — just a badass. It was super inspiring.”

Full Story: Clint Eastwood’s Final Movie ‘Juror No. 2’ Scores Release Date

Eastwood and Freeman are two of the most legendary Hollywood stars alive today. Therefore, Freeman is the perfect person to give Eastwood this award. We hope that they have a great time catching up with one another on Sunday night!