But I’ve never understood some of his career choices. He was fantastic in Lean on Me, and earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Driving Miss Daisy.

After those starring roles, he suddenly switched to a steady stream of sidekicking: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Se7en, The Shawshank Redemption, Nurse Betty. Some of these were great movies (hint: not Nurse Betty) but why no leading man status for Freeman?

Next came a bunch of movies about him and Ashley Judd stopping serial killers. Were there like six of those, or was that just me? Lately there’s the whole narrator kick, with War of the Worlds and March of the Penguins, along with his tiny role in the Batman franchise and popping in as God in Almighty movies.

So I was stoked to see that he will be playing Nelson Mandella in a biopic. Maybe grandpa will get a Best Actor trophy to add to his Best Supporting one, and then stop doing so much supporting.