Hollywood Heavyweights Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman And Kevin Kline Grace The Cover Of AARP The Magazine And Talk About Friendships, Fatherhood, Aging In The Spotlight And More

Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline had never worked together before their upcoming movie Last Vegas, but they still seem like the closest of friends. With a total of six Academy Awards and countless iconic films between them, the quartet speak candidly in the October/November issue of AARP The Magazine about their lives as grown men who still embrace everything life throws at them. “When you get to this stage, you celebrate—period,” said Freeman. And that is definitely what these men are doing.

On the freedom that comes with age

Freeman: “Doesn’t matter if it’s morning or night. Friend hands you a glass, you look him in the eye and say ‘Cheers.'”

On working in Hollywood as a 50+ actor 

Freeman: “You feel like you feel. Age is arbitrary. Some days on the golf course, I feel like I’m 90. Other days, 50.”

Kline: “It’s not how old you are but how you are old, as the saying goes. Actors don’t have ages—we have age ranges. But I have to wear a hearing aid in this movie and let my hair and beard go white, so I felt every bit my age.”

On the passage of time 

Douglas: “You don’t change that much. The kid in you is still there. You’re supposed to get wise and more mature, but you have the same foibles, insecurities, good things, bad things.”

Freeman: “I never thought I would reach this age. Really. I was fairly certain that with my lifestyle, it would have been truncated some time back. I was always the one who dared to jump out the second-story window.”

De Niro: “You know the end is near, not that you think it’s going to happen to you. You read the obits and see somebody passed who shouldn’t have. You feel, “Wow, he was so young.” It’s a bit of luck just being here.

On their on-set chemistry 

Director, Jon Turteltaub: “I was worried about these legends gelling, but one boisterous dinner together was all it took. Michael was instantly team quarterback, Kevin was class clown, Morgan was the lovable troublemaker and Bobby was the cool, aloof one. It was a lot like other friendships between men. The more they got to know each other, the more they insulted each other.”