‘I’m Just Fascinated by It.’ Morgan Freeman Talks About Religion, Faith and ‘The Story of God’

Asay: I think sometimes when you’re watching at home, you think that big television series’ like this are pretty cushy. Staying at five-star hotels and the like. But I gather that’s not always the case. Like, in this latest season, I hear that folks in your crew slept anywhere from airport waiting rooms to a North Korean ‘Government Rest Stop.” It’s not always so comfortable as we’d imagine, is it?

McCreary: We always get Morgan the best room. (Laughter.)

Freeman: You do have to make adjustments in your own mind for what represents comfort. We visited the Hamer people in south Ethiopia  …

McCreary: One-hundred-and-some degrees.

Freeman: And it was quite primitive, really. But it’s an adventure. You have to sort of adjust yourself, too.

Younger: As much as the accommodations can be rough, and while all of us our doing our jobs out there—writing and producing and hosting—the people on the crew … they’re lugging around enormous cases in bare feet through a temple for 12 hours at a time sometimes. It’s just incredibly grueling some days.

McCreary: It’s true. The true heroes are [members of] our crew. They slog [equipment] uphill, downhill, sometimes over cliffs.

I think we’ve had over 200 shooting days in all three seasons, an one of the things that I find extraordinary is that we’ve never not been able to shoot because of weather. We’ve never been rained out. It rained one day in the desert, but what it did was gave us this beautiful rainbow in our shot. We joke around that it’s because we’re doing the Story of God that He’s helping us with the weather.

Asay: Mr. Freeman, I think you’ve mentioned in an episode or two that you’re something of a spiritual seeker. Over the last three seasons, what have you found doing this show?

Freeman: I’m actually not religious at all. But during this period of work, I have discovered that there’s a religion that I relate to. That I resonate with. And that, I have to say, is quite a revelation for me. … Zoroastrianism. The tenants are simple, easy to live by. What all of us as humans strive to live by in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. And that’s good thoughts, good words, good deeds. Simple.

The third season of The Story of God begins March 5 on the National Geographic Channel.