by Neil Daniels
Next up on the small screen, he was cast as Mike in the two-series sitcom Hardware, which aired between 2003 and 2004 and ran for a full twelve episodes.
‘There are people who wonder why I did it, and it’s hard not to sound chippy, but it made me laugh,’ Freeman explained to The Guardian’s Stephanie Merritt in 2004. ‘People might think that there’s something boring about it because it’s a much more traditional ITV studio sitcom, but for me it was pure affection for the show – I can say I know why I did it and that’s what matters. There’s this misunderstanding, too – because it didn’t get as much attention – but far more people watch Hardware than ever saw The Office, just by dint of it being on ITV.’
The series also starred Peter Serafinowicz, Ken Morley, Ryan Cartwright, Susan Earl and Ella Kenion. It was written and created by Simon Nye, the man behind the hugely popular sitcom Men Behaving Badly. The programme is set in Harnway’s Hardware Store in London, where Mike works with Steve (Ryan Cartwright) and Kenny (Peter Serafinowicz) for shop owner Rex. Next door but one there is a café called Nice Day Café, where Mike’s girlfriend Anne (Susan Earl) works with Julie (Ella Kenion). The series basically revolves around the staff of the hardware store as they make fun of the DIY fanatics that frequent the premises. The role bagged Freeman the Best Male Comedy Performance award at the 2004 European Rose d’Or awards.
‘You think, how do I get out of this? and the answer is I can’t,’ he said to Alice Wignall of The Guardian when talking about choosing projects. ‘Even if I think I don’t want to do comedy for ages, if I read a script and it’s really good, I want to do it.’
However, Freeman quit the series to pursue serious acting roles, wanting to turn his back on comedy. Hardware was a critical failure but it pulled in around four million viewers. If his heart’s not really in it, Freeman finds it difficult to enjoy the work. He was concerned by the notion that he may be seen as a sitcom actor when his talents extend far beyond half-an-hour weekly episodes of British TV.
‘He wants to turn his back on comedy to avoid typecasting,’ a source told the Sun at the time of the series, in 2004. ‘ITV comedy chiefs are now looking to cast another actor or comedian in his role [in Hardware].’
Freeman later spoke to ShortList about Hardware: ‘… y’know I stopped doing it after two series – I didn’t want to do it anymore. You’re either hardwired to think in that Fawlty Towers way or you’re not… and I think you can think, “Oh let’s keep going until we get into syndication and make pots of money or whatever” – and of course I like money – but I prefer leaving something behind that people go, “That was the right length.”’
2003 brought some notable roles for Freeman and with it came a certain degree of fame and public acknowledgement. Freeman has often struggled with fame as a concept. He doesn’t especially enjoy the trappings that it brings, preferring instead to focus his energy elsewhere. He criticised reality television and said in 2003 that we have reached the zenith of people becoming famous without talent.
‘You know, apparently when Noël Coward met The Beatles he was very nice to them and said to other people, “They’re completely talentless,”’ Freeman explained to the Observer’s Andrew Anthony in 2014. ‘He was older than I am now but still, you’ve got to be careful about what you write off because you can be so solid in your knowledge. You don’t want to be the person who said the Beatles are talentless.’
He reiterated his opinions on modern-day society’s obsession with celebrity culture and how it is out of control to The Independent’s James Rampton in 2007: ‘These days it’s not enough to be acknowledged as a surgeon – you have to be acknowledged as the cover-star of Grazia magazine. After all, that’s much more valuable to society than saving a child’s life, isn’t it?’
Freeman isn’t interested in the celebrity life at all. He certainly doesn’t want to make a career out of it and tends to wonder, with any celebrity event he goes to – which are few and far between and generally part of the promotional work for something he is acting in – why people make a fuss about him. Usually, he sees celebrity events as a waste of time. He’d rather be at home with his family.
‘I thought actors were dodgy until I hung out with stand-up comedians,’ he admitted to Andrew Duncan of Reader’s Digest. ‘They’re pathologically egotistical and make us seem like selfless wallflowers by comparison. I don’t want to be around people who can’t shut up. I guess they’re insecure, but isn’t everyone – unless you’re mental or boring?’
Though it was only a cameo, Freeman was cast as Declan in the zombie film Shaun of the Dead, released on 9 April 2004. The film is the first in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy by actors Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright and inspired by George A. Romero’s revered Dead trilogy. Shaun of the Dead sees Pegg play Shaun, a man who attempts to deal with the issues of his life – namely his girlfriend and his mother and stepfather – while battling an apocalyptic uprising of zombies. The film is filled with pop-culture references, most notably to movies, TV shows and video games. The film is, in many ways, similar to the TV series Spaced, which Pegg, Frost and Wright co-created. Shaun of the Dead was, in actual fact, inspired by the Spaced episode ‘Art’, which sees Pegg’s character Tim hallucinate that he is fighting a zombie invasion under the influence of amphetamines and the PlayStation video game Resident Evil 2. Shaun of the Dead features several actors from Spaced, Black Books and The Office, including Dylan Moran (Black Books), Tamsin Greig (Black Books), Julia Deakin (Spaced) and Reece Shearsmith (Spaced).
Filmed over nine weeks in May and July of 2003, the comedy film received rave reviews from critics and picked up some famous fans along the way, such as Quentin Tarantino, Stephen King and George A. Romero. It was a box-office success and became an instant cult classic.
Empire’s horror-film expert and author Kim Newman said of the film, ‘A surprisingly good TV transfer for the Spaced crew. It may not exactly be Ealing, but it’s funny for long stretches. Even when in danger of self-destructing, it cadges laughs with smart lines, silly observations or blokish inside jokes about zombie movies, video games and pub nibbles.’
2004 also saw Freeman cast as Fleck in the TV film Pride, written by Simon Nye and released on 27 December. The film is about two lion cubs as they grow up and face adult life. Computer-generated imagery was used with digital effects by the esteemed Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. It was shot in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and, aside from Freeman, it features the voices of Kate Winslet (Suki), Sean Bean (Dark), Helen Mirren (Macheeba), Jim Broadbent (Eddie), Robbie Coltrane (James), Rupert Graves (Linus), John Hurt (Harry) and Kwame Kwei-Armah (Lush). It was produced by the BBC and broadcast on the A&E station in the US.
Freeman was next seen as Kevin in the film Call Register. In the film, Kevin wants to get in touch with a girl he met recently named Amanda (Neve McIntosh), so he borrows his best mate Julian’s (James Lance) phone. When he dials Amanda’s number, the phone recognises the number and identifies her by name, which means Julian knows Amanda. Kevin arranges a date with her and learns that she’d once dated Julian and had slept with him, which understandably makes Kevin feel uncomfortable. The film then follows a series of phone calls between the three characters.
Yahoo’s Contributing Network writer Philo Gabriel praised the film, saying, ‘In any case, it’s a winner. If you appreciate this style of humour at all, it’s worth checking out.’
Freeman continued to explore more diverse parts. He played Vila in the 2005 short comedy film Blake’s Junction 7, which follows the cult 1980s science-fiction gang Blake’s 7 as they make a lively late-night stop at Newport Pagnell Services on the M1 motorway.
The actor explained to Empire, ‘It’s not that I don’t love comedy and don’t want to do comedy, but my background isn’t in comedy. If I do comedy for too long, and nothing else, then it’ll just look like I’m trying to validate myself by playing a child killer, or whatever. Whereas, actually, that’s always been quite natu
ral to me, to play straight things.’
Freeman received another big break with his portrayal of hapless protagonist Arthur Dent in the 2005 film The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, released on 28 April of that year. This was his first major Hollywood role. Many actors had been attached to the portrayal of Arthur Dent over the years but it was Freeman who the creative team had in mind. He didn’t fight for the role, because that’s not his style.
‘At first I didn’t think I’d get the part but when I thought about it, I reckoned maybe I was right,’ Freeman told the Daily Mail’s Chris Sullivan in 2008. ‘Arthur had to be believed and I suppose I have that rooted quality, someone you can side with, which isn’t a bad thing.’
After the script arrived, Freeman met with the director and producer and did a reading for them. They had told him which scenes to prepare and the reading went well and, from there, he worked with director Garth Jennings on developing the role.
‘People feel a sense of ownership with this story – particularly this person – because he’s the last [surviving] human,’ Freeman told AP Radio. ‘I’m aware of some people thinking I was a really great choice [to play him] and some people thinking I was a terrible choice.’
He reiterated this to Movie Web’s Julian Roman: ‘I knew some people would think I was a great idea and some would think I was a terrible idea. And I know that’s still the case. All I can do is just do what I can do and not be hampered by knowing that some people won’t like it. But some people won’t like everything I do.’
Freeman wasn’t a fan of the series of books, as such, though his family had the novels at home and while he’d read them he was not fanatically enthusiastic. He thought The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a good story and one that was perfect for the big screen. It wasn’t the role he had been waiting decades to play and nor was it something that he was especially destined to act, but he was more than capable of pulling it off. Dent is the main character and the one the audience root for because he is the last man on Earth, so Freeman’s character is the film’s most important role.
When he read the books for research and preparation, Freeman appreciated Adams’s irreverent, dry and sarcastic sense of humour and the fact that Adams never censored himself. The late British author had his ideas and was willing to go where the story took him, even if it meant the other side of the universe. There’s some silly schoolboy humour amongst Adams’s work, which became a trademark of his, but the perceived frivolousness did not mask the story’s inherent intelligence.
Freeman approached the role the only way he knew how, which was not to mimic Simon Jones, who had played Dent in the original 1981 TV series, but rather to look at the script in an objective way and to play the part in the best way he could, using the details of the script.
‘…I just played it as real and as funnily as possible, all the while knowing that you’re in a comedy,’ Martin explained to LatinoReview. ‘You’ve got to kind of know what you’re in. So it’s slightly heightened with humour. The humour is definitely there, but I thought that the stakes had to be genuine because he’s a man whose day starts badly, and within ten minutes of the film, his planet’s gone. So all of his reference points, every single thing that he’s ever known or thought he knew or will ever know has gone.’
The filming process was laborious because it was necessary for Freeman to wear a thick dressing gown throughout the summer, as seen in the film. The days were long and hot. On top of that, Martin was envious of Mos Def’s and Zooey Deschanel’s attire, feeling unglamorous in comparison. The young actor got along really well with Mos Def – they spoke about music the whole time. Freeman also found him very easy to work with and considered Mos to be an all-round ‘top bloke’.
Working on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a different experience for Freeman because it was a much bigger-scale production than anything he had worked on previously. He had a sense that there was a lot of money floating around because of the film sets, and there was a much bigger crew than he was used to and more people around on set. He enjoyed getting lifts in nice cars to and from the location each day and there was more choice on the menu when it was time to eat. Coming from a background in British TV and theatre, this was the sort of service he was unused to. The one thing that he found was a bit of a drag was the boredom that sinks in in-between shoots because organising sets takes longer for films than for TV.
Much of the film’s cast is American, though the books are British and it was filmed in London with a British crew, yet Freeman felt like the only Brit on set at times.
‘I think people’s fear – well certainly British people’s fear – is that it would be completely Hollywoodized or morphed into this thing where the stuff we initially cared about is no longer there,’ he explained to Movie Web’s Julian Roman. ‘I believe and hope people don’t feel that’s happened. Occasionally I would feel like the only Limey in town. I felt it was in good hands. No one was on board to scuttle it. They all wanted to serve the film and make something good happen. We were all on the same side.’
To his ongoing frustration, Freeman is seen as the everyday British man. Dent is not written as a hero or a screen icon in the vein of James Bond. He’s the last surviving human and just an average, flawed bloke. He has a job he isn’t enamoured by and has little luck with women. These are things many men can relate too. Freeman just wanted to be real and funny, that’s all. A great deal was riding on him as the main character and linchpin of the story.
‘I could pretend to be posh, but I didn’t think there was any point really,’ Freeman confessed to Empire. ‘I think, maybe, having the last surviving person from Earth be very upper middle class and probably went to Cambridge wasn’t as accessible as having someone who doesn’t look or sound like they did that stuff. So Sam [Rockwell] probably means it as a compliment because I guess he thinks we hit it more on the head by going for that.’
Freeman did not see any connection between Tim Canterbury and Arthur Dent, though he was asked about it multiple times in interviews. There is a real sense of wonder with Dent at what he is seeing in the universe, which Freeman wonderfully enacts with his facial characteristics and mannerisms. The scene where Slartibartfast takes Dent around the planet factory is especially effective in this regard.
When Martin was asked by the BBC’s Alana Lee if he saw any similarities between Arthur Dent and Tim Canterbury, he responded, ‘I think because I’m doing it people see that. I think if Hugh Bonneville was playing it they wouldn’t say, “He was a bit like Tim from The Office.” But I am using the same vocal cords and the same ears for both parts so I’m not going to be cast as many 70-year-old black women.’
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also stars Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Mos Def as Ford Prefect, Zooey Deschanel as Tricia McMillan/Trillian, Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, Warwick Davis as Marvin the Paranoid Android (voiced by Alan Rickman), Anna Chancellor as Questular Rontok, John Malkovich as Humma Kavula and Kelly Macdonald as Jin Jenz Reporter.
Other cast members also included Jason Schwartzman (uncredited) as Gag Halfrunt, Edgar Wright (uncredited) as Deep Thought Tech and Simon Jones (cameo) as Magrathea Video Recording with the voices of Stephen Fry as Narrator/The Guide, Helen Mirren as Deep Thought, Richard Griffiths as Jeltz, Thomas Lennon as Eddie the Computer, Bill Bailey as The Whale, Mak Wilson as Vogon Interpreter and Garth Jennings (uncredited) as Frankie Mouse.
Producer and long-term Douglas Adams collaborator Robbie Stamp told Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDwire about Freeman’s casting in the movie: ‘He’s perfect, isn’t he? When I saw his audition tape, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. That was it. And I’ll tell you what it was: It was the way he said [the famous line], “This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.” It had this freshly minted quality, as opposed to it feeling like a ka-ching Douglas line.’
He continued, ‘He’s been fabulous, and that’s been a very big issue. In the end, it is this story a
bout this ordinary guy who gets thrown out in the universe and discovers that things are as absurd out in the galaxy as they are on Earth. He’s a character to whom things happen all the time, and that’s quite hard without turning him into a light-saber-wielding hero. And I absolutely think we’ve done it. He is a man in his slippers and his dressing gown, and he’s looking for a cup of tea, and he’s pretty befuddled about what he’s seeing out there. Douglas was working hard on the whole through-story for the film, working on Arthur’s relationship with Trillian [a romantic departure from ‘Hitchhiker’s’ previous incarnations], which I know is something that has some of the fanboys slightly exorcised.’
Sadly, author Douglas, who co-wrote the screenplay, died before production commenced in 2001. He had been trying to get a big-screen adaptation of his creation for decades but to no avail. Adams even moved to the States to get closer to Hollywood executives. It had been stuck in what is referred to as ‘development hell’ for the best part of twenty-six years. It was certainly his tenacity that finally got the film the green light. It’s such a shame he never saw the outcome. The film is dedicated to him.
There was pressure for the creative team to make the production as faithful to the book as possible but Freeman did not let the overzealousness of the fans cause him any stress or sleepless nights. Martin knew that the film wasn’t specifically made to honour the hardcore fans because the book is more of a cult classic with little mainstream attraction so, in essence, the end product had to appeal to mass audiences while also pleasing the fans. There had to be some concessions made though.
‘I don’t particularly go on the Internet, and I don’t particularly go to Forbidden Planet and check out the vibe of the sci-fi world, because that’s not the life that I live,’ he told LatinoReview. ‘But I was aware that there was something there that they’d obviously want it to be done well. I knew that was something that fans obviously cared about and cared about passionately, but we can only do what we can do, the best and the most honest interpretation of the story that we can do.’