MORGAN FREEMAN

The Oscar-winning Shawshank Redemption star, 84, hosts Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman (Nov. 9 on History), a new documentary series about famous jailbreaks from the world’s most notorious prisons.

Excluding the one in The Shawshank Redemption, which prison escape is the most memorable?

I would think the one that’s the subject of [the 1963 film] The Great Escape, about U.S. airmen tunneling out of that stalag from the Nazis. That was incredible. Most of them didn’t get away; they were shot. Some got out through incredible amounts of security with clothes, locations, working papers.

Why do we love stories about prison escapes?

The fascination is, how are they going to pull it off? I’ve got to see how this is going to happen. It’s something about human nature. You lock us up, we’re going to try to figure out how to beat this.

Think of [drug kingpin] El Chapo: [Tunnel masterminds] dug a tunnel into the prison to a pinpoint location so he could squeeze through and walk out.

All the documentaries you narrate— like The Story of God, The Story of Us, March of the Penguins and Through the Wormhole— are they a learning experience for you?

Yes. I’ve always been a learner, a reader, an asker of questions. I don’t know if I’m trying to pass on any specific knowledge with this one; it’s just a seat-of-your-pants thriller escape series. But it’s interesting to see to what lengths people will go to figure things out.

Which of your film performances is the most memorable to you?

Playing the president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela [ Invictus, 2009]. Personally, that was one of those moments when you’re able to channel a character pretty well, and I was working with one of my favorite actor-directors, Clint Eastwood. He did a really good job on it.