Lean on Me Behind The Scenes

Morgan Freeman was asked if Joe Clark was a tough role to play, especially since he was a real person? He replied: "Not really, no. If I had any difficulty it was that I had a producer, director and writer there, all with their own very clear ideas about who this man was, when the actual man was right there! I remember having to fight them back. We shot in his school, so I had him to draw from at all times. In that case, once I got Joe, once I got rid of my exterior forces, it was easy. I kind of got a real sense of him from himself, just by sitting and talking. I got to watch him talk with teachers and not pull any punches. I saw him run that school just like a military installation. He wouldn’t ask anybody anything. He’d tell them the way it was. But with kids, he’d stand in the hallway in the morning and direct traffic. He’d call all the kids by name. Little girls would come up and put their arms around him and hug him. That was something else, seeing that."

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