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tv   Piers Morgan Tonight  CNN  July 15, 2011 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT

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want them to have the best nutrition possible. and certainlyou c't do better than garden veggies. i'm not a master gardener. i wouldn't even say i'm a good gardener. i am an enthusiastic gardener. the seeds do all the work. we provide the seeds. we help you grow them. you eat the food. goodbye hunger! >> fasten your seat belts, america, bill maher is here. >> i'm against building mosques, churches, synagogues anywhere. i'm an atheist and think these perpetuate mass delusion. >> they gave ul this money, no regulation or strings and these guys basically stole it. eveied would modern westernized democracy is a hybrid with elements of socialism in it.
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it's not evil. >> what on earth will bill maher say tonight? >> i want them to think i broke into the studio and made them mad. if i'm not doing that, i'm not doing my job. >> that's his show. this is my show everything from the president to the government going bust. morgan freeman and extraordinary 40 year career and work honoring nelson mandela, a man that hollywood calls the voice of god. i had to ask him to do this. >> this is piers morgan tonight. >> welcome. i feel like you're such an institutional guest for larry before that i -- the first time i had the pleasure of you here. >> great to be back in the time slot. >> i thought about the way we could start this. i think there's probably nothing
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more pertinent, i would say, than the state of america's debt. i want to play you -- >> a sexy topic. >> a sexy topic. probably, everyone talks about everything else at the moment. >> and the drama. >> the key issue, if north america goes bust, that's it. >> it's astounding to me we're actually having an argument over whether america should pay its bills. >> isn't it? i totally agree. >> it shows you where the insanity has gone gone in this country. i don't think people realize it and i don't think they follow and issue like that, especially people pushing to hold the line. so what if the debt ceiling -- i think they think it's money we haven't spent yet, that if we just cut it off, starve the beast, our fiscal house will be fine. this is money already spent. george bush and the republicans, they spent money and ordered a lot of food and got up from the table before the check came. somebody has to pay it. >> the person who has to pay it
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is president obama. if i was a republican, the way the jobless is 9.2% and state of economy, turmoil around the world continuing, the way to probably beat him is to take him on, on the economy. the best way to paralyze him is to continue doing what they're doing. it's not in their interests to do a deal, is it? >> no probably about it. that's exactly what they're doing. ann couture was on our show and she had written a book about "treason" once. >> she actually thinks we're bombing egypt. >> as long as you're going to be the one to invoke treason, are the republicans really doing what's in the best interests of america or the best interests of their party to win the next election. they know the economy has to stay sucky in 2012 for them to win. if the economy is doing a lot better, obama wins going away.
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i don't think they're doing anything. john boehner tweeted to obama the other day, when he was doing his town hall on twitter, you know, after record spending binge, where are the jobs? i don't know. you're in the congress, isn't it the congress's job to presents a jobs bill. >> i like this quote from warren buffet. the way to get rid of the deficit, pass a law any time more than 3% of gdp, all members of congress are ineligible for re-election. i like that. that's how a businessman would run his company. >> that's another fallacy. somehow businessmen are going to be good at running the government. they're not the same thing. you can't fire the congress the way you can fire the board. mitt romney is running on that silly idea, i ran a business, i know how to create jobs. actually what he did was fire people. he knew how to destroy jobs to create profit. >> we will come to the
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candidates in a moment. i think it's quite a clever strategy by him to focus purely on economy and present himself as the guy that understands it. isn't that a clever bit of politics by him? >> clever for a country that doesn't pay attention and where people don't think too much about any issue. the truth is that government is there to do the things that are not supposed to turn a profit. i heard tim pawlenty say the same thing. amtrak. amtrak doesn't make a profit. it's not supposed to make a profit. like saying why doesn't the marine corps make a profit. the difference between government and private enterprise. >> unlike in britain where you have the class system, depending where you went to school and what your parents did and who you were bred into, that is often how you get on in life. in america, i spent four or five years immersing myself in this culture. class system is based on hard work, success and achievement. not surprising to me the people
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governing the country pander to that by this rhetoric everything has to make a profit. that's the way you have a yardstick of success here, isn't it? >> if you're talking about social mobility, that is always defined as the american dream. the ability of one generation to do better than the generation that spawned them. that was something always quintessentially american. we're tenth in the american dream right now, tenth in social mobility compared to other countries around the world which is like sweden coming in 10th in swedish meatballs. it'sjust a shame. >> and donald trump, i know your views on the presidency campaign were strident. i like him. when he was lashing into china, i thought he missed a point. i said it seems to me the trick america should be deploying surely as one of the great producers in the past is to
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produce stuff countries like china need. the reason i say that again to you, a brilliant report this week in china their need and demand for american crops for example corn is absolutely going through the roof. this is the way america should be thinking, identifying what these countries, not emerging countries, china has emerged. what do they need america can provide them and put the foot on the gas. >> or green technology. stem cell research. one of the reasons why america falls behind every year more and more is because we're a superstitious hyper religious intellectually backward people not compared to a lot of countries but leading countries in the world we are. if we could have had stem cell research, there are so many patents but we're falling behind in that area, too. we don't put a premium on science anymore. science is suspect.
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>> china has overtaken america in the production of scientific research. i found that staggering. i know in schools i've seen in europe and so on, which are full of -- especially the private schools of these very smart and very hard working young chinese who come in. i played a game of soccer with my son recently and i managed to score a good goal and doing my dad triumph thing. two of my sons spontaneously said, dad, that was so chinese. i thought that would be racist. this is the new school ground compliment around the world. being chinese is what being america needs to be. >> i've got to have kids to keep up. >> it is how you find out what the future is. these kids use being chinese as a compliment. this is the best compliment they could pay me. that was chinese, dad. i thought it an extraordinary moment. >> that's one of the scariest things i've ever heard in this time slot. >> why is it scary?
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>> shows we're falling behind. >> kids have a way of embracing these new economies now rather than seeing them as a great threat. can america afford to see everything economically and militarily as a threat? >> we would have to reconfiggur all our priorities. what do we spend all our money on debt, paying off the debt and military. while they're talking about budget stuff in washington and dickering over $100 million over there, they just passed and nobody questioned it the new pentagon spending bill, $648 billion, which is more than i think the next 17 countries combined or something like that. you know, we could cut this in half, i think, and still be probably safe in the world. who's the threat that's going to invade us? >> many americans, it seems to me, you say this stuff and i bet you get deluged with people
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calling you unpatriotic, un-american. it's not american to admit that you shouldn't be spending money on the military, that you shouldn't be doing things the old american way. is it time america completely changed its philosophy in these things? >> what's patriotic is wanting your country to succeed. our country is not succeeding right now because our military is too big. by the way, people call it this military, hands off. it's not military. it's defense contractors, welfare for people who make weapons that we don't need. most of our weaponry is ridiculous. it's for fighting the russians in 1978. we don't need that. what would make this country stronger is economics. that's where the future is. that's what makes a country strong. if you're not strong economically, you're not going to be- >> that's where america is increasingly weak by comparison. >> this is one reason. we could solve this debt deficit problem if we do two simple
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things. tax the rich like they were taxed, not a hell of a lot more, just like under clinton. and bring the troops home. not just from iraq and afghanistan but we have a half a million troops on bases. >> how many do chinese have? >> none, i don't think. >> may have hardly anything, they have no imperialistic ambition. >> this is not the way you achieve it in this world. not the 14th century. >> i was in shanghai. this dinism you felt. this young millionaire, 125,000 millionaires in shanghai. he said, i don't want to kill you, i don't want to take over your land, i want to sell you a duvet. he laughed. he said we want to be number one in selling you duvets, i want to sell you everything in your home. i don't want to kill you.
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>> that's how they will be number one. they are building $300 billion of high speed rail. this country trying to get the money to build, i think it's $8 billion. they wanted to lay it between l.a. and las vegas, which i think is funny those are the two cities that have to be connected or maybe l.a. and san francisco. we have none at the moment. >> we'll have a little break. when we come back, i want to ask you, which of these two people do you think has the best chance of putting america back on its feet. sarah palin or michele bachmann. >> well, that's what they call a hobson's choice. [ male announcer ] introducing the ultimate business phone -- t the motorola expert from sprint. its powerful tools help you work faster and smarter so you can get back to playing "angry birds." it lets you access business forms on the go, fire off e-mails with the qwerty keypad, and work securely around the world
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and michele bachmann just because they're both republican women and crazy and know nothings and jesus freaks, who claim to receive messages from god who both get their historical facts all the time and both give off a sound that only animals can hear and make microwaves explode. seriously, stop comparing them. >> that was from your show "realtime with bill maher" on hbo. if you had a choice, with a gun to your head, sarah palin or bachmann? >> i would need a gun to my head. i hope sarah palin gets in so they split the vote. bachmann, at least she's somebody who can read, she has a job, she was a lawyer. she's in congress. she's not someone who just sits there and reads the prayers on her blackberry like sarah palin. we're splitting hairs here.
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>> could sarah palin become president? is it possible in the current climate? >> absolutely. yes. people who say this one is a joke or this one is a joke, i remember when i was 12 years old in 1968 and ronald reagan was first considering running for president, i remember what a joke that was, ronald reagan, you mean the "bed-time for bonzo" guy? i think he did become president. absolutely. if she could get the nomination and anything could happen. this republican party is not your father's republican party. somewhere on the line they got on a short bus to crazy town. if someone gets the nomination of one of the two major parties, especially in a bad economy with a black president, yes, she could become president. >> is america more-or-less racist now since obama's been in power? >> that's a great question. i don't know. i think it's more sneakily racist. i actually have more respect for the old school racist like strom
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thurmond and jesse helms who are more up front about it opposed to the rand paul type guys who say things like, i would have marched with dr. king. you don't get points for what you would have done in your imagination. i would have helped jesus escape but i wasn't around. >> are there ever any of the republican candidates so far that have emerged that you would see as potentially not life-threatening? >> hopefully mitt romney. we depend on him to be a giant shape shifter and liar he's always been. there's not an issue, you can go down the line when he was the republican governor of liberal massachusetts, there is not one issue he hasn't done a complete 180 on, from abortion to gun control to campaign finance, whatever it is. i have to think if he got into office, maybe he would be somewhat of a normal president. you don't know because he has to answer to that crazy party. >> has there ever been a president in your life-time who
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has been properly principled in your eyes? >> jimmy carter was an amazingly principled president. did what he said. didn't fire a shot. did not fire a bullet, a missile while he was president. he said, as the world's superpower, we have an an obligation not to attack other countries unless we are attacked. history has not been kind to jimmy carter an that is the fault of history. >> is that part of the problem of being the guy at the white house, there is a -- i was reading george bush's book. >> it attracts criticism? >> not that. there's a kind of expectation from this mass populus you have to do certain things. i read about the aftermath to 9/11, for example, when i actually read george bush's account, i was more understanding, not accepting because i kind of share your view of what went on afterwards but more understanding of why he is a guy from texas felt compelled to do what he did. he felt he had to do something
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for his american people. >> yeah, he did have to do something. he didn't have to do what he did. what he should have done, right after 9/11, when everyone was in the mood to sacrifice, ask the country to sacrifice. he told everybody to go shopping and then attacked the wrong country, from the get go, i go esto avenge his father, whatever the hell the reason was. he should have done something and also should have learned about it. this is the man who said at the point where they were thinking of attacking the country, they told them about sunnis and shiites, he said, i thought they was all muslim. really? we're attacking a country, you're the leader of our country, attacking a muslim country and you don't know about the shiite-sunni thing over there, to me impeachable. >> how do you think obama is doing as president? >> i love him. you can't not. coming in after bush, you have
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him there, a guy you can relate to. he's intelligent, he can speak english. i don't think about george bush at all anymore, which is great. he's like an uncle who molested me and i blocked it out. you can just tell, you'd like to have dinner with obama, anear -- aerodyte guy. >> he's a good figure head around the country? >> he's just terribly disappointing as a negotiator and liberal. it makes me laugh when they say he's a socialist. he's not even a liberal. he's a centrist at best. he's constantly voicing the republican opinion. paul krugman called saying why is obama carrying water for the republican party? why if they're having a giant discussion about the debt and deficit, why is obama saying the stupid things that they say. we have to treat our government like a family does? that's stupid. you don't -- a family doesn't
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run up a deficit, whereas we know a certain deficit is good for a government. this silly kinard about we have to be super kind to the rich because they're the job creators, which is bs also. and that sometimes you have to, even when you have a debt, spend more money, to get the economy going again. >> i agree that on one level the criticism that seems most accurate to me is he can be diffy dent in decision making and hasn't helped america with the economic strife and when you think that, he came out with the stunning strike that came out wrong. >> that's low hanging fruit. doesn't cost anything. everyone wanted to see it done. >> if it had gone wrong and americans gotten killed, it would have cost him the election. >> he has a pair on him, obama. >> audacious. >> the editorial that got the most reaction when i said, it
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would be a shame if four years of democratic rule came to an end in 2012 without trying democratic policies. that's the problem all progressives have. a democrat gets in and we don't attempt democratic policies. >> what does that mean? crystalize that for me. >> stop talking about the debt and deficit. when dick cheney was in office and they were running up all the debt, you can look this up, there are facts outside of the fox news bubble, actual facts and numbers, most of the debt was run up under bush. dick cheney said, quote, deficits don't matter. why can't obama say that? why is it okay when cheney says it and when president black man says it. i'm not saying it's all race. seems a little weird, suddenly he gets in office and debt and deficit is intolerable. republicans have some nerve. bush came into office, debt was 5.6 trillion, took a surplus and turned it into a 10 trillion
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dollar debt, almost doubled it with stuff they didn't pay for, didn't pay for wars, tax cuts for the rich which should be called tax spending for rich, the prescription drug program all that unpaid for. suddenly, obama comes into office and they act like he's newt gingrich's wife at tiffany's. he didn't spend -- his big spending the stimulus was mostly a republican spending plan. >> how would you describe your policies? are you a socialist? are you a liberal? are you both? >> first of all, every modern government nowadays is a hybrid of socialism. the post office, marine corps, the veterans administration. >> what tag are you proudest of putting yourself to? >> i think i'm just practical. i think i'm just -- i don't think i'm an ideologue. >> your ideology is you hate republicans. >> no, i don't. >> you do. you hate their ideology. >> that's different. i hate stupidity and stuff that
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doesn't work no matter what you call yourself not the fact you're a republican. there are republicans who i respect, mostly there are republicans who are out of office, who are criticizing their own party. david stockman, bruce bartlett, lots of these people saying what has happened to the party that i knew? where are these republicans nowadays? you can't -- >> you're a democrat. >> no. >> you're not a democrat? how would you describe yourself? >> i'm certainly more in line with their thinking. they disappoint me so much. if i was a democrat, i would be resigning every other week. >> do you vote? >> of course.democrat. >> almost always. >> ever voted republican? >> i voted for mccain in the 2000 primary, bob dole in 1996, a sentimental voted, my parent were both in world war ii and the last world war candidate i could vote for. if it was a close election, i would have voted for clinton but it was not.
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>> coming up how bill maher managed to avoid marriage and what he thinks of charlie sheen. [ female announcer ] now you can apply sunblock to your kids' wet skin. new neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®.
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back with my special guest, bill maher. how have you avoided getting married? i say avoided because so many entertainers plunge into pretty awful marriages and go through the inevitable breakdown, expensive divorce and misery. >> aren't you going to get in trouble with your wife for talking about marriage this way? >> she would expect me to ask these questions. >> talking about like you didn't get caught. >> you reserved the right to behave the way you want without getting married. >> i've never been a liar. lots of people don't like me. that's fine. i don't say anything purposely
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to piss people off and i say what i feel and that will piss a lot of people off. they can't say i'm a liar. to me, not getting married was part of that. some people just have a very stronglibido. you just have to deal with it. if i had gotten married any time before now, i couldn't have been faithful. i just lived the life where i could be true to myself and true to other people. >> have you aborted on being a sexaholic. >> first of all, there is no such thing as a sexaholic. that is something dr. drew made up to explain andy dick. there is no such thing. i will say people especially men i can't speak for women, i know men have very different libido levels, some people are just hornier. andrew weiner was at a stage of his life he's very horny. that will subside. i found it subsided a bit after i turned 50 or in my early 50s.
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it was a great relief, like getting a monkey off your back, not that you can't still have a good sex life, not like this constant urging you have to take care of. i had ray on the show recently. i love ray and he says he's taking testosterone. he said, you should take some. i wouldn't do that because i'm not sure what the repercussions were. i said, ray, i just finally got to the point in my life i have not so much testosterone coursing through my veins running my life, i'd like to keep it that way. >> when you look at somebody like charlie sheen, what do you honestly think of his behavioral pattern? >> i know charlie a bit, we socialized a couple of times. i like the charlie i knew then. i don't like the one i've seen lately. that's mostly probably the cocaine talking. i don't like the brag doeshio. i don't like a rich guy born on third base, he was, the good looking son of a movie star sort
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of rubbing it in other people's face that i'm winning. that's what i don't like about this charlie sheen. i also think he should probably. i'm a libertarian when it comes to drugs and stuff like that. at the moment i got him ahead of gadhafi in the dead pool. he really needs to watch out because he could wind up in a body bag. >> are you still attending the playboy mansion on a regular basis? >> first of all. >> is it true you honestly believe you only go there for the food. >> if i said that, it was a joke. first of all, i never ever went to the playboy mansion more than a few times a year. i went when they had parties. they used to have parties- >> i went to the "midsummernight's dream" once, unbelievable, back to other times. >> yes. i've never been in this grotto. doesn't that say something for me? >> i have. >> you went in the grotto?
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>> i went in the grotto. >> i wouldn't go in there on a bet. there must have been diseases in there- >> in every cave. >> they had a party on new year's eve. i went to hef's birthday in april. "midsummernight's dream," halloween. they make it sound like i lived there. i didn't go to the playboy mansion that much. bill cosby is there more than i am. >> you are beginning to sound defensive. >> it doesn't ever come up. >> i don't think of you as a lesser guy for going to the playboy mansion all the time. >> of course not. and the fact it obsesses penal that i've gone to the playboy mansion parties. they're just parties. a guy with a nice backyard generous with his liquors and a lot of hot chicks around, i have been to other parties that could be described the same way. >> come back after a break and talk to you about this job, whether you wanted it. >> this job? i have a job.
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back with bill maher. when you took part in larry king's final show, it was quite moving. i've been a huge fan of his as well. i can tell for you it meant quite a lot actually. >> it meant so much he wanted me to be there and meant a lot that he wanted me to be the one he announced he was stepping down
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to. and we have a secret, larry is going to say something. i was on that show so many times, it was almost like my therapy. every couple of months i would show up here and unload and vent for an hour and i felt a lot unburdened when i left. >> is part of the trick of show business knowing when to leave the party? >> yeah. absolutely. >> being able to choose and have your own destiny. >> but i didn't think larry was diminished in any way. i think this is a youth culture, especially in television, especially with high-definition television, they're going to -- they're going to throw everybody out to pasteupasteur -- past your at some point. johnny carson wasn't a diminished performer when he left the stage. >> i heard you were tempted to do it yourself, because you
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hosted it before. >> never. what's that? >> wouldn't that appeal to you, this kind of thing? you used to do a nightly show. >> appealed to me more than working with a leaf blower. i love the job i have. i find the job i have completely unique, completely challenging every week, news changes and guests changes. i am on hbo. i am a person the most who needs to be on hbo, you can say anything, there aren't sponsors. if i was doing a show here -- >> you would be off air every second day. >> overseers. >> may you remain gloriously unsensored. >> you're doing a great job, a noble successor to larry. >> thank you. i appreciate it. coming up, the god himself, morgan freeman and his incredible career and honoring nelson mandela.
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but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. ♪ sometimes when we touch ha ha! millions of hits! [ male announcer ] flick, stack, and move between active apps seamlessly. only on the new hp touchpad with webos. this is no time to celebrate petty revenge. this is the time to build our nation. you elected me your leader.
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let me lead you now. >> morgan freeman. 60 hit films and still going strong. he joins me now. morgan freeman, nelson mandela is an extraordinary man. i had the great pleasure once of interviewing him in london. i don't think i ever met a man with more natural charisma, fire in his belly, a sense of mischief and sense of purpose than nelson mandela. obviously, you met him as well a few times. what do you make of him as a human being? >> gee, what a question that is. what do you make of nelson mandela as a human being? he may be the epitome of human beings. when you talk to him at length about who he is and the conclusions he's come to over
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the years in his life, you realize that he has give often a lot of thought to life itself. he told me one time that 27 years in prison gives a man a lot of time to think. i think it's clear that he was thinking specifically while he was thinking because i think he always knew at some point he was going to be called on to do something spectacular. >> medeiver is the name south africans give him. i was in a township and i don't think i ever had a more inspiring experience walking around the township. you imagine these poverty stricken people would be miserable. the great thing mandela has given all of them is a sense of hope, there is a way out of this. >> exactly. yes. they were some of the most inspiring people i think i ever met in my life.
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>> i first went to johannesburg after he got out of prison, i think it was about a year after he got out, and the tone of all of south africa was like electric. there was so much good tension in the air. i think people were all expecting to launch themselves forward with great purpose. just got that feeling there. it was all bus of him. >> there's no doubt, i think, that south africa still has problems, but in terms of its multi-culture, multi-racial status, nothing better exemplified this than the soccer field cup, you can see how far that country has now come politically and socially and racially since mandela was released. >> heavens, yes. however, the biggest problem they have in south africa is education.
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there are so, so many people there who are denied proper education, the first order of business, was to try and get as many of those kids educated as possible. i think that one of the -- holdovers of that whole problem is when they have elections. i'm going to get into trouble for saying this, but until there was a more educated electorate, they're going to have one party. >> i know that it's a fairly contentious thing to say. i don't think any sensible person would argue with that. monday is nelson mandela day. he turns 93. to celebrate his life. there's this great idea you're involved with. tell me about this. this is how people can actually make a difference on mandela day. >> yes.
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mandela day, when he heard or got wind of the fact a big to-do would be made for his birthday, he stated that he didn't want that to be, and i'll paraphrase, an excuse, to get off from work. so we came up with the idea that he'd spent 67 years in public service, so in order to celebrate his life, to celebrate his birthday, his life, we asked anyone interested in that celebration, to do so by donating 67 minutes of their time to some community service, decide what that is that you want to do, and do at least six or 7 minutes of it just as a tribute to him. >> it's a very laudable cry. i would think i would certainly
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in my view take part in this and know how important he is. we will take a short break and when we come back, i want to talk to you about your career, dazzling successful. and might i say at 74, you look damn good. >> well, thank you, sir. introducing the schwab mobile app. it's schwab at your fingertips wherever, whenever you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done. open an account today and put schwab mobile to work for you. about how older people are becoming more and more antisocial, so i was really aggressive with my parents about joining facebook. my parents are up to 19 friends now?
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right now my guest morgan freeman. morgan i said before the break you look remarkably youthful for a man of 74. what is the secret of your age-defying presence today? >> stress. i think i am stress-free at this time in my life. i have no -- nothing to worry about at all. i'm well taken care of, and i take good care of myself. so, you know, life is going along quite nicely. >> you've made over 60 movies. they've grossed $3 billion worldwide. you've had five oscar nominations and won one for "million dollar baby". is there much left for you to achieve in movies? what's your motivation to keep working now? >> well, it's all i've ever really wanted to do. make movies. i saw my first movie when i was six years old. and i've been fascinated with
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movies ever since. and by the age of 12 or 13, i knew that in my life's work that was how i wanted to spend it. i knew i wanted to make movies. i wanted to be in the movies. i'm a movie freak from way way back. so there's no reason for me to stop until the phone stops ringing. >> well, that's not going to happen. you were recently surprised at the american film institute by a special tribute you from the great betty white. let's take a look at this. ♪ you feel the room swaying and yourself saying is that really betty white with six black men? ♪ ♪ so even though you've made some crap, morgan ♪
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♪ morgan don't ever >> that was absolutely hysterical. >> it was. it was such a highlight that night. and i just love betty so much. she's such a terrific woman. >> let me ask you. obviously on the back of that night, many people, morgan, were sort of speculating about the greatest movie of your career. what would be your personal favorite? >> i think the best movie i made was "glory". the reason being that i think movies like that are the reason to make movies. i grew up i learned a lot of history, right or wrong, by going to the movies. and "glory" was pure history. it was all factual. and i think a big feather in our cap. that is all of us involved in the making of it. >> and many people revere you as
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one of the great actors of this generation. who for you -- who rocks your boat in the acting firm ament? who have been the greatest male and female actors of your lifetime? >> oh, heaven the you've got a long list. i'm going to start with the earlier ones. i mean with the later ones. because one of my big acting heroes is phillip seymour hoffman. there's meryl streep. there is jack nick -- nicholson. clint eastwood. i mean the most fun. yeah. yeah. >> well, what did you and clint get up to that we don't know about? >> that's for me to know and you to find out. isn't it? >> the mind boggles. what do you make of modern
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hollywood? obviously you've been around the block if you don't mind me saying a few decades. what do you make of the modern hollywood scene? >> well, it's interesting. it's interesting to watch fluctuate just what it does. they're always looking for what works best. right now we have a lot of -- i just read about this so i'm repeating it, a lot of harry potter kind of makeovers or attempts. and then eventually we will go back to other stuff. family drama. police drama. western. >> what would be the best piece of advice you would give to an up and coming actor? >> act. work. >> simple as that? >> doesn't matter where you go
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to work, yeah, simple as that. just, yeah, put your mind on doing that and do that. all writers, actors, dancers, painters, you very often have to do something else to put meat on the table and pay the rent. but it doesn't stop you from doing what you really want to do. writers write. they can't help themselves. painters paint. they can't help themselves. actors? we need someone else in order to act. but, you know, you just keep going until you find that someone else who allows that. >> finally, morgan, you've got four children. on a personal level, what advice would you give your children about life. >> >> no doubt it's unfolding as it should. that's what i mostly say. >> morgan freeman, you've certainly been doing your best for a very long time and i'm an unashamed fan. i would love to interview you in the studio. but it's been a real pleasur