Morgan Freeman had to learn how to wrap for an upcoming Super Bowl ad, calling it “a very interesting and painless experience.”
Freeman’s musical tastes are said to run more towards older classics as befitting a distinguished 80-year-old actor, so trying a comparatively contemporary hip-hop song like Missy Elliot’s “Get Your Freak On” was certainly a stretch.
In case you haven’t heard, Freeman performs a rap in the upcoming Mountain Dew Super Bowl ad, battling against Peter Dinklage while he hocks a new flavor of Doritos. Dinklage has his own rap superstar, Busta Rhymes, as his mentor for the upcoming duel, and it’s kinda hard to tell who wins.
The fiery Dinklage is the perfect frontman for Doritos Blaze, yet another spicy flavor to come out of the warped minds at PepsiCo. As he struts with unmistakable intensity through a flaming parlor you get the sense he’s channeling a bit too much of Tyrion Lannister, his Game of Thrones persona. Or maybe that’s just the beard talking.
Meanwhile, Freeman shows up with a far cooler rendition of Missy Elliott’s breakout classic by strutting down the other end of the parlor while shooting ice from his hands. One presumes this is an ability provided more from Missy Elliott’s tutelage than the consumption of a new Mountain Dew flavor.
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Both actors were coached extensively before their lip-sync rap-off, as noted in an earlier teaser video.
“I never tried rapping before,” Freeman admitted to People. “If it came natural to me I think I would have made some money doing it. It didn’t come naturally at all. Talking that fast and trying to be clear is difficult for someone like me who is used to talking slow.”
“I had to do it pretty much all day to get it right,” he added. “You have to rehearse it and rehearse it and rehearse it and then do it for different setups, camera angles etc. So yeah, over and over. By the end of the day you pretty much got the lip sync down.”
“It’s pretty cool, pretty exciting,” Freeman says, adding, “I think it’s going to go over well.”
Super Bowl LII kicks off on February 4th, so mark your calendars.