In her new book, The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvelous Lifetime, Shirley MacLaine is reflecting on her life, career, and that time she asked Morgan Freeman out.
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Wait what? That's right, MacLaine once tried to put the moves on God himself. Freeman wasn't feeling similar vibes with MacLaine and hopefully let the icon down gently. Still, can you imagine? They could have been Hollywood's IT couple.
As MacLaine herself explained, "I propositioned him and he turned me down." She didn't reveal when she asked the actor out. So you can use your imagination on that one. But she did tell People that she liked Freeman right away.
She added, "Oh, I really liked him right away. I thought his acting was brilliant. I barely said anything, and he just shook his head. Isn't that interesting?"
MacLaine also dished on former co-star Jack Nicholson. Sparks never flew between them, but MacLaine admitted that she always very much enjoyed his sense of humor. he definitely knew how to make her laugh both on set and off.
Shirley MacLaine Talks Elvis
"He just made me laugh all the time. He was one of my favorite people," she said. "I don't think he would've been my type to have an affair with anyway. I would laugh too much."
Meanwhile, MacLaine also reflected on Peter Sellers, who she also starred alongside. Unfortunately, she said that she never got to know Sellers personally. He was always method acting.
She said, "Peter Sellers was [always] in his character, so you never really got to meet him."
But perhaps her most famous run-in was with Elvis Presley himself. Presley was struggling with the pressures of Hollywood. He didn't know how to act on set and was afraid that he would make the wrong impression on people.
"His dressing room was two doors down, and he didn't know how to behave as he needed to on the set," MacLaine recalls. "I just told him to be nice to people and kind, because he was a huge star then. But we didn't hang out, I didn't know him that well."