Morgan Freeman’s Political Talk Frightens Time Warner Shareholders

Morgan Freeman is no stranger to political attacks against groups he finds repulsive, for example you may recall that during his promotion of Dolphin Tale in 2011 he called the Tea Party racist during a Piers Morgan Tonight appearance. Now a group of shareholders are complaining to Time Warner about Freeman’s very public political voice.

Speaking at the company’s shareholders meeting this week a representative for shareholder David Ridenour brought up the Tea Party incident and claimed that moviegoers are less like to see movies if they disagree with them politically.

The representative then noted:

“What specific steps will Time Warner take to ensure that Mr. Freeman avoids such divisive and insulting words while promoting his next Warner Bros film, The Dark Knight Rises?”

He then claimed that Dolphin Tale didn’t do well at the box office, which could have something to do with its reviews including one reviewer who wrote “One wonders why the filmmakers felt the need to turn a fascinating true story into a cliche-ridden, formulaic family film.” The rep also failed to point out that Freeman’s political comments have surfaced for years yet other movies he has appeared in have made hundreds of millions including Bruce Almighty in which he played god and the low budget film The Bucket List which has brought in just shy of $100 million.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes’ response to the conservative think tanks question was simple:

“What can we do about it? Is that the question? Not much. It doesn’t usually have a significant commercial effect on the success of the film.”

Mel Gibson rants about his hatred for Jewish people and yet his movies still bring in millions of dollars, in this case it appears that the conservative group was simply attacking Morgan Freeman because he doesn’t agree with their own political ideology.

Notice how the group failed to point out all the positive work Morgan Freeman has completed, including hosting duties on various well respected documentary series and movies including Through the Wormhole and his work to bring further attention to Alzheimer’s care and prevention.