There were so many things off in this AMA.

1. "Proof" looks 'shopped.
2. He contradicts Gerard Butler about them meeting each other. While it is possible they never met on set, I'm sure they met during table reads of the script at the very least.
3. He misspelled his idol's name, a person he portrayed in a movie.
4. He said he would like to have been a chauffeur if he wasn't an actor. A little too Driving Miss Daisy, and he has previously answered that question in an interview with The Actor's Studio saying he'd like to have been a writer.
5. He said all roles are easy. No actor would ever say that.
6. He said the best part of acting is the paycheck. Possibly joke, but odd for him in this format.
7. His username was the title for a movie he is in.
8. No outside verification other than Facebook, which is quite obviously not maintained by him.
9. He says he'd like to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. First, that's not an acting award. Second, he has starred in a movie that won Best Picture. Third, he has won an Academy Award for acting before.

I noticed something about the proof photo when looking at it in Gimp. If you change the curves level, you will see a brightly colored blob on the paper that looks like it could be the reflection of a flash bulb. If it is then it may show evidence the proof photo is real.

Here's an album showing what I mean: http://imgur.com/a/n26Cr#0

"Proof" looks 'shopped.

Fair enough.

He contradicts Gerard Butler about them meeting each other. While it is possible they never met on set, I'm sure they met during table reads of the script at the very least.

Butler could be wrong, or he misremembered.

He misspelled his idol's name, a person he portrayed in a movie.

Misspellings and typos occur easily enough, especially on a mobile device (which one of the IAmA mods suggested he could be using). Also, mandella is a real word, while Mandela isn't - possibly autocorrect?

He said he would like to have been a chauffeur if he wasn't an actor. A little too Driving Miss Daisy, and he has previously answered that question in an interview with The Actor's Studio saying he'd like to have been a writer.

He could have had two ambitions aside from acting, or changed his mind. Or maybe he was just making a reference to DMD rather than answering earnestly.

He said all roles are easy. No actor would ever say that.

This proves nothing.

He said the best part of acting is the paycheck. Possibly joke, but odd for him in this format.

This proves nothing. Why is it odd to make a joke?

His username was the title for a movie he is in.

A publicist probably suggested an AMA to him as good marketing for the film and wanted to emphasise the new film. (Obviously they never caught wind of Harrelson-gate.) Maybe an assistant set the account up for him. Doesn't mean he didn't answer his own questions.

No outside verification other than Facebook, which is quite obviously not maintained by him.

Verification by social media is not essential for AMAs. I'd say most fanpages are maintained by publicists or are completely unofficial, but that doesn't mean a one-time outreach like an AMA can't be authentic.

He says he'd like to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. First, that's not an acting award.

He directed one film in the past, and maybe would like to do so again. Second and third points are more valid.

I'm not saying it definitely was or wasn't him, but most arguments for conspiracy can be refuted.

Others are saying the shortness of his replies is suspicious, to which I can only say that many people write very differently to how they speak. When you have a great orator like Freeman, you're probably going to be disappointed with his writing style because you have such high expectations for it. His writing style could also be explained by the possibility he was writing on a phone/tablet, and that he's not too familiar with modern technology - something that younger and more tech-savvy crowds like Reddit might not appreciate.

I hate to be a downer, but I think most people would remember meeting Morgan Freeman. That, for me, is the biggest tip-off that something was not what it appeared to be in Freeman's AMA.

Butler could be wrong, or he misremembered.

"The day [Morgan Freeman] turned up on set, there was such an electricity in the atmosphere, everybody was so excited that God had come upon us."

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ajkso/i_am_gerard_butler_amaa/c8xzub0

Still possibly a fake memory to please redditors, but it is in stark contrast to Freeman saying:

"I did not work with Gerard, we only spoke on the phone"

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1c5zxh/i_am_morgan_freeman_ask_me_anything/c9dd00j

Misspellings and typos occur easily enough, especially on a mobile device

Yes, he could have been using a phone. But that still feels weird. This was set up by admins well in advance, and I don't think Morgan Freeman is beyond owning a laptop or iPad.

He said all roles are easy. No actor would ever say that.

This proves nothing.

The problem here is his lack of humility in the answer, which seems to go against his public personae.

Or maybe he was just making a reference to DMD rather than answering earnestly.

AND

Why is it odd to make a joke? (re: I act for a paycheck only)

Yes, but this is starting to be quite a few responses of not being serious. I know he's old, but he's not dumb. He knows sarcasm doesn't translate well when written. Granted, they could be innocent enough still.

Verification by social media is not essential for AMAs.

It's not a requirement, but it is commonly used as proof. Seeing as Mr. Freeman does not use Twitter, we were pretty limited in what outside proof there could be. My point here is mostly we don't know it was him. But you are correct, it doesn't mean it wasn't him, either.

I'm not saying it definitely was or wasn't him, but most arguments for conspiracy can be refuted.

You're right.

Most conspiracies have a certain number of arguments, many of which can be explained. However, the conspiracy attracts supporters because there are enough oddities which suggest that things aren't as they appear to be.

Yes, he's in his 70s. Modern technology may escape him. But the internet as we know it has been around roughly two decades. So it's likely he's familiar with how to use a computer.

So maybe he was on his cell phone. Again, quite possible, but why use a cell phone when this was setup well in advance (meaning he had time to find a desktop, laptop, or iPad)? Regardless if it was him or not, PR people did set this AMA up. So why didn't one of them find him a desktop or laptop?

So Occam's Razor comes into play. Is it more likely that Morgan Freeman did an AMA and responded in unexpected ways, or that a PR person was pretending to be Mr. Freeman? There's no smoking gun at the moment, so for the time being neither side is more right than the other. However, I feel there are too many suspicious points for me to believe that it was Morgan Freeman.

And besides, we're talking about a reddit AMA, not a second gunman on a grassy knoll. The burden of proof for the conspiracy theorists is going to be held to a much lower standard.

Others are saying the shortness of his replies is suspicious

I'm actually okay with this. Shorter replies are quicker to write, meaning you can get to more questions. It's a decision the AMAer has to ask themselves. Would I rather answer more questions, or answer with more details?

I think these celebrities' assistants are very busy these days with the increasing popularity of social media. Chris Cornell's AMA appeared to have been answered by his non-English-speaking gardener.

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It's not reality, it's "show business".

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He's such a cool dude! What a hip guy

lol

Didn't read that one (not after that pop album he put out) but your comment gave me a chuckle.

Meta data on the picture was wiped clean, foto-forensics looks like a shop.

Morgan Freeman is a very eloquent speaker, and a very philosophical guy who I feel would give much better answers than what we're seeing in this AMA. Usually the admins encourage users to ask for proof, but we're supposed to take their word for it in this case. Even Obama tweeted and posted a picture during his AMA.

Obama tweeted a photo of him...sitting in front of a laptop. Without the screen visible. I feel like that's something you could find on stockimages.com - search "president sitting in front of laptop." Then a PR rep could host the whole AMA, with just that pic as proof.

I like the rules 4chan has for these sort of things: (1) Timestamp; (2) Sharpie in pooper.

Bare with me here, but I have a strong feeling Tom Cruise, and his alien witchraft allies had something to do with this..

One of the first things my brother use to try to show me to get in to reddit was AMAs. If there's anything I've learned from the internet, mainly 4chan, is that you can't believe anything anyone's saying. I use to tell him that all the time: "How do you even know it's them....?" " Why would someone lie about that?" He would say - and HE was supposed to be the older one....

Many moons ago, I presented how easy it is to manufacture a conspiracy.

I simply said "Prove I wrote this comment."

But what would constitute "proof" that I had written in? There are so many ways for someone else to have hacked into my account or computer or whatever and wrote the comment. People could say that my sentence structure isn't mine, or I made a spelling error. Even if there was video of me making the comment, it's easy to say that it wasn't really me, it was CGI or an actor. Even if I say I wrote it, what proof is there that it's me saying it, or that I'm not under duress to say that I said it.

Something as simple as a comment online has now been turned into a conspiracy that is VERY tough to prove, but also shows how someone who doesn't accept my comment can convince themselves that it's not mine.

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An Oscar and other award winning phony. It's like he's just reading other people's words and getting credit for it...

I simply said "Prove I wrote this comment."

So you admit it!

And all I had to do was watch and wait.

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Theory: He was supposed to do it himself. He was drunk. Somebody tried to do it for him, maybe prodding him for barely muttered answers.

Again, just a theory. But the evidence:
1. They posted a heretofore unseen photo of Morgan Freeman passed out as verification. While the photo may have been shopped, the Morgan Freeman passed out part wasn't. It seems like a really strange thing for an aging actor to deliberately portray himself as worn out like that.
2. If it was a planned fake as some have suggested, I'd expect that the answers would be better. This has the air of something thrown together at the last minute.
3. The answers seem a bit cranky. Like the kind I'd imagine I'd give if I were doing an AMA while transitioning between drunk and hungover.

IS this seriously conspiracy worthy....

No... No it's not

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Rather than speculate, why don't you just ask Morgan Freeman if he did an AMA on Reddit? If he doesn't know anything about it, then you have your answer.

I looked and the best case scenario for this was a PR rep with Morgan on SMS/phone, worst case is just a PR rep with a thumbs up from Morgan.

The man behind Morgan Freeman's AMA is none other than Woody Harrelson's PR agent trying to woo reddit!!! (Since they are in the same movie together) YOU HAVEN'T FOOLED ME!!!

Not shocking. Reddit is popular and publicists using it as a tool to promote stars would not be uncommon.

Remember Obama doing an IAmA? Many believe it was his staff answering and not him.

Just an FYI: all those Twitter accounts are blatantly fake.

The picture of him sleeping with the Reddit thing is photo shopped.

The last celebrity to actually do his own AMA was Woody Harrelson. The rest have been PR flacks, promoters, assistants or interns.

woody harrelson's seemed like a PR guys AMA too...