Morgan Freeman – the Hollywood actor who has twice played God – says he was thrown out of a religious area of Israel for using the word “myth”.

The 79-year-old, who was filming a documentary series, The Story of God, in Jerusalem, told the American chat show, The Talk, that he soon realised his mistake.

The Oscar winner said: "There are certain words you can't use in certain places in the world. One of them is myth. You're in somebody's religious place, don't say myth. I said myth. (They said), 'You, out'."

Mr Freeman, who turns 80 this June, has been filming the show, which explores death and the afterlife through different religions, since last year

The actor said he has already begun thinking about the afterlife because of his age.

He told Variety: "I have this curiosity about life, and one of the things that surrounds life is the idea of death, and what comes with the idea of death is what comes after that.

“And all of that is encapsulated in our ideas of God and religion."