By Jenny Halper in New York City

“Ah, the usual suspects,” Morgan Freeman says. The recent Oscar-winner has just entered an upscale hotel room with a regal-ness usually reserved for the red carpet, and he pats several journalists on the back before sitting down to talk about his latest film, screenwriter/producer Luc Besson’s “Unleashed.”

“Unleashed” stars Jet Li as an orphan raised by bloodthirsty gangster Bart (Bob Hoskins), who trains him to kill on command. When – is presumably murdered, Danny’s adopted by a blind piano tuner (Freeman) and his step-daughter (Kerry Condon). But “Uncle” Bart is very much alive, and he wants Danny back.

A 2003 recipient of the National Board of Review Career Award, Freeman is one of Tinseltown’s most highly regarded actors- and, with five upcoming films, one of their busiest. He recently took time to talk to press about “Unleashed” and other anticipated projects, including this summer’s “Batman Begins.”

Q: How did you get involved in ”Unleashed”?

MORGAN: I met Luc in LA a couple years ago and I think it was last summer, we sat down and had a talk- I’m a big fan of his stuff, and he told me about this project he was working on and he wanted me to be in it. OK…(laughs). I got the script, and I read it, and it was right up Luc’s alley, so there it went.

Q: It was your decision to be blind?

MORGAN: Yeah. They guy was so good, it was hindsight mind you, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, needed to correct something. I kept thinking about what I needed, and it occurred to me that the guy needed to be blind. So I shared that with Luc, and he contemplated it for, I don’t know, two three weeks.

Q: He’d written the script, right?

MORGAN: Uh-huh.

Q: What did it add to your character?

MORGAN: I’m still talking hindsight here, but when I was first thinking about it I didn’t know what the problem was. And now I’ve invented a reason.

Q: Was it an actor’s thing, to make your character more dramatic?

MORGAN: No, I don’t think so. He (Luc) probably came to the same conclusion after having been asked that question and having to come up with an answer. The guy is almost too good.

Q: He’s not real.

MORGAN: Right, you have to give him something unreal. Not unreal, blindness is very real, but it sort of adds a dimension to character that makes you believe the rest of it. That’s why I like it.

Q: Did it present any problems?

MORGAN: No problems at all. For one thing, the easiest part about playing blind is that all you have to do is close your eyes. The second part is, you get a lot of support. Everybody on the set accepts that you’re blind as soon as you close your eyes. You’re supported as a blind person.

Q: Can you talk about your scenes with Jet?

MORGAN: Yeah, but he’s quite an accomplished actor. He’s been doing this for a numerous of years. My Bill Cosby line. He’s been at this for a while, and if you talk to jet he’ll say he learned a lot from working with me, but I don’t think that’s quite right, I think that’s an effort to satisfy the question. What actors do is respond, and we respond well to each other.

Q: Have you seen other Jet Li films?

MORGAN: Yeah, yeah. His first was “Romeo Must Die,” and I saw “Hero.” And ”Cradle 2 the Grave,” yeah.

Q: What was it like to finally win an Oscar?

MORGAN: A lot of people say, “Well, Morgan Freeman’s an Oscar winning actor”…”I didn’t win the Oscar”…”you didn’t?? I thought you won it! You didn’t win it?” I didn’t win the Oscar, no. The truth of the matter is that winning the Oscar was anti-climatic, actually. Winning best actress, best picture, best director- that was a coup. I was very pleased. But just winning the Oscar? I don’t know.

Q: Will it sink in ten years from now as a career milestone?

MORGAN: Yeah, right now it’s like another day in my life, a very special day, of course, but…

Q: People leapt to their feet...

MORGAN: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s seminal…what am I saying? Because so many people were really really thrilled, I knew people who were crying, I was like, “really?” That’s great, you know, and of course all the people in the theater leapt to their feet.

Q: It was one of few standing ovations that night.

MORGAN: That’s good. That’s your feather.

Q: You’ve been called the greatest contemporary actor…

MORGAN: Well…yeah…I…first of all I have to reject that. You cannot be the greatest actor, you just cannot do that. If we all went out by ourselves in front of the public you could do that, but we don’t. We work together. It is an extremely collaborative expert. Walking around with that on your shoulders is not a good idea.

Q: But it’s nice when people say it.

MORGAN: You can say it all day long, I don’t care. I can go to places where people don’t know me, I’m like, “You don’t know who I am?”

Q: Bob Hoskins told me that Jet taught him moves- did he teach you moves too?

MORGAN: (laughs) No! Have you seen the stuff he does? You think I want to be crippled? (laughs)

Q: “Unleashed” is like two movies…

MORGAN: Yeah, and I had nothing to do with the other movie. I was never on the set, I didn’t see it, I didn’t see the fight scenes or anything, most of my work was jammed together.

Q: What was it like to work with Luc?

MORGAN: Oh, Luc’s a teddy bear.

Q: He’s considered the most powerful producer in France.

MORGAN: He may be, I don’t know. That’s nothing to do with his working, how he functions with people, I just found him terrific to work with and be around.

Q: Was he there a lot?

MORGAN: He came, watched a few scenes. But mostly it was Louis.

Q: I read that you did "Batman Begins" for the money, the paycheck was good.

MORGAN: Yeah. (laughs)

Q: But if you do a big movie for money, it better be something that’s promising.

MORGAN: It does look very promising. I didn’t even know Lucius had anything to do with Batperson. You ever heard of Lucius Fox?

Q: He runs Wayne Enterprises...

MORGAN: He does?

Q: Pretty much…

MORGAN: No, he didn’t own Wayne enterprises, he worked with the owner of Wayne Enterprises till he got demoted by the guy who took over after Bruce Sr. died.

Q: Did you read the comic books?

MORGAN: You know, I didn’t even know about Lucius in the comics. I’d been reading Batman since I was nine years old.

Q: Would you come back for, say, “Batman Begins Again”?

MORGAN: Well, you know you can’t say yes, of course, you can’t say no. so what would be an answer? I don’t know.

Q: How long did you work on it?

MORGAN: I worked on it all day. (Laughs). No, one week.

Q: Your rate must be high! Chris Nolan is a British based director, and (director) Louis Leterrier is French. Is this the international phase of your career?

MORGAN: It probably is, I’m moving more and more towards international, looking at China next (laughs).

Q: Another big movie is coming out this summer; are you a Star Wars fan?

MORGAN: I loved Star Wars one. I didn’t see Star Wars two, I ain’t gonna see Star Wars three and four. The first one was innovative, and the light sabers and all that, and the Millennium Falcon, great, but after that it was just another cowboy picture.

Q: Can you talk a bit about “An Unfinished Life?” It’s you and Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez. Do you like working on small ensemble films?

MORGAN: Of course you like these little small ensemble things, you usually got a pretty good story going, and when you’ve got a really small ensemble cast you work together a lot. And Robert and I have been trying to work together since 1980 when we did “Brubaker.” And we didn’t do “Bagger Vance” like we were supposed to. This is sort of makeup (laughs).

Q: It’s set on a ranch?

MORGAN: Yeah.

Q: A contemporary Western?

MORGAN: Yeah, it’s contemporary. It’s pretty much about he, I, his family, and a bear.

Q: Jennifer Lopez is the bear?

MORGAN: We have no problems with Jennifer. No problems.

Q: What’s happening with the Mandela project?

MORGAN: Good question. Very good question. Right now, as far as I know, we are again, for the third year, scheduling it for the winter.

Q: What holds it up?

MORGAN: Script. Always the script.

Q: Is this for you to direct?

MORGAN: No. It’s for me to play Mandela. We’ve got a South African director.

Q: Have you met Mandela several times?

MORGAN: Oh, yeah, several times.

Q: Did you talk to him?

MORGAN: Yeah, we sit down, talk, hold hands (laughs). If I’m going to play you, I sit down and talk to you like this (hand on shoulder), because I want to know a little more about your energy, how you’re animated.

Q: Mandela’s a great man. Can you fill his greatness?

MORGAN: You know, you can’t play his greatness. You’ve got to play him, and he doesn’t see himself as great. He sees himself as a guy who needs to go to the bathroom, you know…

Q: What do you have to capture?

MORGAN: Ah…rhythm. Just get his rhythm. How long it takes him to consider what he thinks, and how long it takes him to say what’s on his mind.

“Unleashed” opens on May 13th.