Goes without saying that it’s even more compelling when read in his voice
Actor and everyone’s favourite narrator Morgan Freeman has revealed the real reason why he always wears those instantly recognisable gold hoop earrings – and there is no chance you know where this is going.
Taking to Instagram, the 85-year-old actor said he often gets questions about his subtle but signature selection of gold jewellery and took inspiration from old-fashioned sailor culture when choosing them.
As he notes in the short but surprising caption, he wears the earrings in case he dies in a “strange place”. Bear with us.
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The Shawshank Redemption and Seven star explained that the hoops themselves are “worth just enough for someone to buy me a coffin” should he die unexpectedly in a random place, adding that this is “why sailors used to wear them” and so he followed suit.
As it turns out, there are whole host or reasons why sailors – or perhaps more accurately, pirates – wore different types of earrings. According to LiveScience, not only would a set of silver or gold earrings be enough to pay for a funeral should they die but they were often given to young sailors to commemorate their first crossing or significant journey.
Moreover, among the many superstitions old sailors, pirates and privateers had, wearing hoop earrings did genuinely have one very practical purpose, as they would often hang pieces of wax from their earrings to use as earplugs when firing cannons, according to Doug Lennox’s Now You Know Big Book of Answers.
Everyday is a school day.
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