Takin' It To The Streets.

Byline: JOHN POWERS Photographed by Bruce Weber.

Set to portray Nelson Mandela in a new Hollywood film, Morgan Freeman first touches down in Miami with Dutch model Lara Stone.

At 71, Morgan Freeman is Hollywood's reigning icon of decency and preternatural calm. Whether he's driving Miss Daisy, serving as the Dark Knight's conscience, or narrating March of the Penguins in that famously sonorous voice, he exudes an unmatched air of cosmic authority. He's the only actor in the world who, when he's slumming, gets cast in the role of God. "With Him," Freeman jokes, "you have to underplay."

Effortlessly dapper in a black jacket and a white polo shirt at breakfast in Beverly Hills, he says that at this point in his storied career, "there aren't many challenges in making movies." Luckily, he's about to embark on one of themgoing to South Africa to produce and star in a big-budget Hollywood film about Nelson Mandela. "If you are playing a living figure who's revered by the world, you've got yourself a major, major undertaking. You've got to do this without embarrassing yourself, your audience, and especially Madiba [Mandela's nickname]. Knowing that, you can be entirely too self-conscious. There are pitfalls, but I am going to be working with Clint."

He's referring, of course, to his good friend Clint Eastwood, who's directing the film at Freeman's request. "Morgan is just right for the role," says the man who helmed Freeman's Oscar-winning turn in Million Dollar Baby. "His stature in the acting world is like Mandela's in his world." (Eastwood's confidence turns out to be well-founded. "Things are going fantastic here," Freeman later tells me by phone from Johannesburg. "Everything has just fallen into place. The thing that's surprised me is how easy it's been to adapt to being Mandela.")

Freeman makes everything seem easy, from his long, loping stride to his work for his pet charity, Plan!t Now. The only sign of strain is the white glove he's wearing on his left hand, injured last August when he drove his car off the road near his farm in Mississippi, a serious accident that sparked one of the twice-married actor's rare appearances in the tabloids. And unlike many Hollywood A-listers, Freeman takes pride in being a great listener"I have a gift of intuitively knowing how to be part of an ensemble." His conversation ranges freely from his love of horses (he keeps five on his farm) to his admiration for our new president, which admits but a single qualification. "The one thing I always want to tell Obama," he says, "is 'You can lose the Chicago strutthat little dipand keep your hands out of your pockets.' "

Freeman knows that his own rise, like Obama's, was wildly improbable. Raised in a Mississippi village during segregation, he recalls being in L.A. half a century ago and not having a car. "There were times when I thought, ...