Did actor Morgan Freeman make a video criticizing President Joe Biden for talking about ice cream? No, that's not true: This is a deepfake of Freeman. Someone has put on a filter that looks like Freeman's face while also trying to speak like him. The TikTok account that originally posted this video had "Celebrity Impressionist" in the bio.
The claim appeared on Instagram on March 31, 2023, reposted from TikTok. The Instagram caption read, "Yep get Creepy Joe the 🤡 outa there! Follow our backup page @lexitmovement1." The video opened with a voice saying :
It's your old friend, Morgan, and I've had it up to here. You tell me what the hell is going on.
Here is what the Instagram post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Mon Apr 3 18:36:19 2023 UTC)
The speaker calls Biden a "fool," contrasting remarks Biden made about chocolate chip ice cream with a school shooting. Biden made light-hearted remarks about ice cream and also called himself "Dr. Jill Biden's husband" as he began a speech at the Small Business Administration's Women's Business Summit on March 27, 2023. His opening banter with his audience can be found here at the beginning of this White House transcript of the speech. The full video of Biden's remarks on March 27, 2023, can be found here.
A TikTok channel, @themanofmanyvoices, originally posted this TikTok video. The bio of this account read, "Celebrity Impressionist." An archived page of the now-deleted account can be found here.
In the beginning of the video, when the person behind the artificial Morgan Freeman face voices that he's "had it up here," a white hand gestures towards his neck. Evidence of that is below:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Mon Apr 3 19:22:10 2023 UTC)
Photos of Freeman at events show that his hands are not that light, but rather match the color of his face. Evidence of that is below:
(Source: Getty Images screenshot taken on Mon Apr 3 19:41:13 2023 UTC)
Looking at the video closely, users can also see that Freeman's face seems to move incongruously. The space between the hat and the eyebrows wobble in a weird way that does not look natural, and Freeman never blinks.
Despite the numerous clues listed above, users still shared the video with no indication that it is a deepfake. One example can be found here on Twitter.
At the time of writing, Freeman does not have a TikTok account. He does have a verified Instagram account, but the only video posted March 31, 2023, is a trailer of a movie he is in. A Google News search does not produce any reports of Freeman commenting on Biden's remarks about ice cream or his wife.
More deepfake fact checks can be found here.
