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Which The Shawshank Redemption Scene Did Morgan Freeman Refuse To Film? Find Out As Movie Turns 30
Morgan Freeman reveals his disagreement with the scripted ending of The Shawshank Redemption as the film celebrates its 30th anniversary, further pointing out its one notable flaw.
The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most memorable releases in cinematic history till now, as the film celebrated 30 years of release. Released in 1994, the film follows the storyline of Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins who navigates his time in prison, despite his claims of being innocent. During his time in prison, Andy meets and befriends Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding, played by Morgan Freeman.
But as the film turned 30, Freeman shocked everyone by revealing that he was against the initial ending scene of the film as planned by director Frank Darabont. Believing the initial script to be too cliche, Freeman expressed his will to keep the ending natural, celebrating the friendly reunion of Andy and Red.
Morgan Freeman revealed he was against ending scene of The Shawshank Redemption
The plot of the film, The Shawshank Redemption, beautifully highlights the close bond between Andy and Red. But towards the end when Freeman’s character finally gets released from prison after serving the sentence of 40 years, he struggles to go back to his normal life. Amid all these struggles, Red decided to follow Andy’s ideal place for settlement in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where he finally met Andy after years of separation. Red found Andy polishing an old boat, and the film ended with two friends finally meeting each other as they shared a heartwarming hug. 
But surprisingly enough this ending scene was not planned to be as such. In an interview with The Daily News, Freeman opened up about Frank Darabont’s initial plan, which depicted Red playing Andy's gifted harmonica during their reunion scene. However, Freeman found the scene to be a little too cliche to go for as he shared the scenes to be pointless. “Frank thought I should be blowing that harmonica that Andy gave me. And I refused…sort of asinine, sort of cliched, sort of unnecessary and overkill,” Freeman stated.
Morgan Freeman highlighted one flaw in The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption continues to be one of the most sensational films even after 30 years of its release. However, the film is not without its flaws and one such flaw was mentioned by Morgan Freeman during his appearance on the Late Night with Seth Meyers show. Freeman said that the movie was inspired by the book titled Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, however, the makers decided to shorten the film title to The Shawshank Redemption.
The omission of Rita Hayworth’s name made little sense to Freeman. He shared that on interrogating the reason behind the omission the only possible answer he received from the makers was the fact that the original book name was too long to title it as the movie name.
He shared, “Terrible title. The original title was Stephen King’s book, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Now don’t choose ‘Shawshank Redemption’ when you’ve got ‘Rita Hayworth. They said when I complained – and I did – that it wouldn’t fit on the marquee. I said, ‘So what?’ Just put Rita Hayworth… You’ve got the one sheet there, it’ll say the rest of it! But they chose not to, and so it took a while to catch on.”
As The Shawshank Redemption continues to provide the viewers with a heartwarming story, Freeman;’s refusal of the scripted ending scene surely paid off, giving an authentic and practical conclusion to the fan-favorite film.
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