Better Actor: Nicolas Cage or Morgan Freeman

I understand the love for Cage in this board but there is no real comparison. At all. Morgan.

Cage, for me.


I have a lot of respect for Freeman.  But he has one performance that destroys all of his others, and that's his early rendition of a rough persona in Street Smart that brings up actors like DeNiro/Oldman/Considine/Winstone and those thuggish type dudes.

The rest of his career does not match the early glimpses of that type of actor/or discerning attribute that he showed in 1987.  He became locked in to that wise negro character and kept playing that again and again.  It's not bad, but he feels less interesting when he's playing inspirational characters.  I'd rather watch Hanks or Smith for inspiration.  Still, I think he's fine in all those movies.... like Shawshank or Se7en or Gone Baby Gone - he was good in all of those and played the character correctly.  And I also think Freeman makes a SUPERB fun sidekick.  He'd be excellent in buddy cop comedies, and it's actually strange how he never really played a sidekick in a police film ala Lethal Weapon or Rush Hour or 48 Hours or stuff of that nature, because I think he really fits that bill well.  

Tho, I think what sets Cage apart is his comedic and dramatic talent.  Freeman is mostly a mentor or that soothing presence, but he doesn't have as much comedic talent, and his dramatic heights aren't strong enough to compensate for a lack of it.  Cage is comedically brilliant in Matchstick Men and Adaptation.   And hits dramatically haunting notes in Leaving Las Vegas and City of Angels.  And as a small time criminal in genre films, he defines that robber with a mustache prototype with Red Rock West and Raising Arizona.

That being said, I really mostly have a positive reaction to Freeman, and always thinks he's a great addition to most films, but I think he trails Cage by a bit, and definitely trails Denzel in terms of comparison to his fellow black actors.  I think Freeman might be better than Samuel L. Jackson though, but SLJ has Jungle Fever which feels like such a strong counterpoint to make argument with.  And maybe Will Smith doesn't have the "adult movie" performances that Freeman has, but never mind that I'd watch Smith over Freeman, I'd watch Smith over Pitt, DiCaprio, and Phoenix easily, all day long.

Now that this whole diatribe is out of the way..... and I don't wanna resurrect the Denzel/bad filmography thing again.  But.... Freeman does NOT have a bad filmography.  He was in modern classics like Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, and Se7en but i RARELY if ever see Freeman thru the lens of those films.  I see Freeman mostly as the wise negro/fun sidekick who's in every film in existence.  Which brings this discussion to a central theme..... does filmography really matter?  Freeman has these classics, but I don't think he's seen as an actor with a historically strong filmography, so this whole "actors needs strong filmography" debate again finds another instance where it kinda contradicts itself.... again.

I think Freeman is probably the slightly better actor, but Cage definitely has the highers highs. I'm giving him the edge an my vote for his recent performance is Mandy, in which he channeled his wild to perfection. I don't think another actor could have done more or better with that role.

This is really no comparison at all. Morgan Freeman is probably in my Top 20 actors of all time, Cage likely outside my top 100. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a good actor, who has given some great performances (Leaving Las Vegas, Snake Eyes), but he's just not in Freeman's league.

Poll has tightened up - one of the good comparisons here is Morgan Freeman I think you believe was the best actor he could be as the way he presented himself and portrayed roles....Cage you maybe believe made some bad choices and maybe you believe could have been an entirely different actor sometimes than he's been.

That's sort of interesting and odd.......when you see Cage in control in Joe for example he's spectacular but then again his whole appeal is when he is not in control at all. It's a unique thing - is he a better actor than he himself allowed himself to actually be

I don't really see the appeal of Freeman beyond the repetitive noble sonorous-voiced elder man role he's played to death. Cage is far more interesting, and challenges himself.

I like Cage in Joe but I'd never call it a spectacular performance, especially next to Gary Poulter. That performance didn't feel like a great self-contained performance in the same way that Poulter's was, it mainly felt to me like an absence of those out of control tendencies--I remember it not for what Cage was doing but for what he wasn't doing, which is Cage's curse.

ftr I did like Joe quite a lot and this was one of my first forays into David Gordon Green's serious stuff (still haven't seen some of those early 2000s projects but will soon!), but I always rank Cage behind Poulter (revelatory) and Sheridan.

I think that Cage has probably hit higher highs and certainly lower lows, but I had to vote for Freeman because he is God. I’m sure he has gave a bad performance, but I’ve never seen it, and he always brightens my day whenever he pops up on screen.

I know I’m not being very objective, but it’s all subjective anyways. So I went with the actor that’s brought me more happiness in my life.

Are you talking about Million Dollar Baby then? That gets a lot of undue hate too even though he's practically the only watchable thing about that movie.

If not, what were you talking about?

Joaquin was 12 in our poll and Cage 41 - wouldn't make sense or be close at all tbh  from the original poll.....but you can do that poll if you like though
**********************************************************************************

This is the last of my movie matchups that is a "sub-poll" of our larger 2018 GOAT polls (that absolute legend Johnny_Hellzapoppin did heroically- give credit to the man again ).......all those "sub-polls" will be up through end of the month iirc and we had some good ones.

But none have been this diverse or potentially more fun - Cage (41 in our poll) vs. Freeman (tied for 44) - one actor known for how big and OTT he can go at times.............. the other an often underplaying master of control.