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NEW YORK — Morgan Freeman has seemingly done all an actor can do, as evidenced by the sheer number of lifetime achievement awards he's received (four that are of note, including a Kennedy Center honor).
But there's still one box left for him to check. And he could do so mere blocks away from where he's currently sitting, in a swanky hotel near Central Park.
Freeman sits next to his "Now You See Me: Now You Don't" costar, Woody Harrelson, who has already accomplished this feat that Freeman hasn't. Actually, Harrelson has accomplished it five times.
"Oh, I'd love it if he hosted," Harrelson, 64, says. Freeman replies, "Host what?"
"Saturday Night Live."
"I wouldn't mind hosting it at all," Freeman, 88, says. "As a matter of fact, it would be a feather in the ol' cap, you know?"
The two laugh and Harrelson hopes that "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels sees this.
"It's been a long haul," Freeman says of his career, which has spanned over five decades. He believes that if getting the call to host hasn't happened by now, it probably isn't "in the works."
Not so fast, Mr. Freeman. The oldest ever host on "SNL" was Betty White. She, too, was 88 years young when she hosted in 2010.
Morgan Freeman was the ultimate unifier on the 'Now You See Me 3' set
The third installment in the magician-driven thriller franchise, "Now You See Me: Now You Don't" (in theaters now) sees Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco and Harrelson all reprise their roles as the Four Horsemen, an elite group of magicians. They join forces with a new set of Horsemen (Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt) to curb an evil jeweler (Rosamund Pike) from selling the world's largest diamond to a nefarious actor for the purposes of money laundering.
Eisenberg and Fisher recall the early days on set, when the original Horsemen and the new group weren't exactly on the same page. The two groups hung out in separate cliques until it was time to film.
"They used unusual words like 'rizz' and 'slay,'" Fisher, 49, jokes. "There were things we couldn't connect with given our elderly (age)."
Eisenberg, 42, remembers when the tides turned as Freeman – who plays a former magician-turned-truth teller and the Grandmaster of The Eye, a society of magicians – came to set. Eisenberg says that when the Oscar winner arrived, "there was somebody from the different generation entirely."
"That was like the day we all joined forces together," Sessa, 23, says. "We're all nervous."
"We're all on our best behavior," Greenblatt, 18, adds. "We all knew our lines. We all were on our marks. We all were on time."
Eisenberg says that wasn't always the case.
"Let's just say the original Horsemen got to set first," he dishes. "But by the end we were a single unit."
As for Freeman, he never expected to play the role of unifier on set.
"I'm always thrown for a loop when it turns out or seems that I am as popular as I seem to be," the actor admits. "You don't want to become self-conscious, you know, walk into a room and expect everybody to jump or clap or do something. You always want to be surprised if people like you, otherwise you become a kind of a – what do you call people who are so full of themselves that you can't stand them?"
"Arrogant. Narcissistic," Harrelson responds, before revealing the piece of advice he gives to young actors who are on the rise. "You know what? If people are telling you you're great, nothing wrong with that. In fact, fantastic. But the moment you start believing it, that's a problem."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Morgan Freeman wants to host 'Saturday Night Live.' Ex-host Woody Harrelson has his back
Reporting by Ralphie Aversa, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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