The Unexpected Adventures of Martin Freeman

by Neil Daniels

  ‘With Arthur Dent, he serves, I suppose, a similar function to Bilbo, in that he’s the nearest thing to an audience member, in the film,’ Freeman explained to reporters at Comic-Con in 2012. ‘He’s the audience’s way in. And to a certain extent, you could argue that they’re archetypes, in the hands of a much lesser actor. Cue laughter. They’re ciphers, in a way, I suppose you could say.’

  The role would change some significant parts of his life: his bank balance and fame being two primary factors. He’d been famous in London for a decade, where people would chat to him in the street, question him about The Office, ask for photographs and autographs but he’d never had that in Spain or France. So being internationally famous was an entirely different ball game. Freeman had been cast in many independent films with little distribution but The Hobbit was going to be shown all around the world and, as such, his privacy would be compromised. He knew that when he took on the role.

  There was an enormous marketing campaign. The very first trailer was released before The Adventures of Tin Tin, produced by Jackson, in the US on 21 December 2011. Jackson, along with Freeman, McKellen and others, appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2012 to promote the film and a screening of twelve minutes’ footage. Such was the level of euphoria in New Zealand that on 8 October 2012 Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown announced that the New Zealand capital would be renamed ‘Middle of Middle Earth’ for the week of the film’s premiere.

  ‘It’s kind of weird when everywhere you go there are pictures of you,’ said Freeman to the Daily Telegraph’s John Hiscock. ‘It’s certainly unusual for any film I’ve ever done. But it’s a good picture of me and at least I’m happy with it, because if it was a picture I hated I wouldn’t go out.’

  The 2012 Comic-Con was his first experience of such an event. In terms of comic books and movies, the San Diego Comic-Con is the biggest social event on the calendar. Fans meet and greet some of their heroes, buy and sell merchandise, attend Q&As and watch previews of upcoming films. It’s a major event with global publicity.

  Freeman told reporters at the 2012 press conference, ‘So in a way it’s fulfilling my expectations of what I heard about Comic Con, and exceeding them as well. I was struck by just how emotional people were talking about the film, talking about anticipating the film. With each question came a preamble about what the previous films have meant in people’s lives. So all clichés aside, it’s a really nice thing to be part of something that actually touches people, genuinely touches people. It’s quite a lovely thing.’

  Martin joked that people had been annoying him in restaurants in the UK for years but with the imminent release of The Hobbit this attention will be with him all over the world. But that is the price actors pay for fame – for taking on such an iconic role in the first place.

  ‘I’m getting a glimpse of that external reaction to it now, the nearer the film gets to release,’ said the forty-one-year-old Freeman to the New Zealand Herald. ‘I mean that level of fame obviously is something very different to what most people will get to experience, but my life doesn’t feel any different yet.’

  Released on 28 November 2012 in New Zealand and internationally on 13 December, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey grossed over $1 billion at the international box office, which surpassed both The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It was the fourth-highest grossing film of the year and the seventeenth-highest grossing film of all time. Martin Freeman was now box-office gold.

  The movie was such a success that Freeman was worried it would change his life more than he anticipated.

  ‘I remember having those conversations before The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy came out [in 2005] and thinking, fuck, is everything going to change?’ he said to Time Out London’s Nick Aveling. ‘And it didn’t, really. I’m a big believer that life changes as much as you want it to. If you invite in all the madness, it will. If you don’t, if you kind of let the world quietly know, “No thanks, I still want to get on the train and live my own life,” then somehow it doesn’t have to.’

  Empire magazine’s Dan Jolin enthused, ‘His Bilbo does take his predicament seriously, and while this is the jauntiest – at times silliest, at times funniest, certainly the most child-friendly – Middle-earth movie yet, Freeman remains its emotional lodestone.’

  He continued, ‘Jackson holds on Freeman’s face. This isn’t just Tim-from-The Office or Watson in pointy ears, but an actor at the height of his prowess finding every layer to a character it now seems he was born to play.’

  Total Film magazine’s Matthew Leyland wrote: ‘Elijah Wood’s Frodo may have carried an incalculable burden but he was, frankly, a bit of a whinger. Freeman’s Bilbo likes a moan too, but the part gives the Brit licence to show off his sitcom-honed comic touch.’

  He continued, ‘He also straddles the tone’s comic/dramatic divide. Just when you worry his self-effacing performance is getting lost in the monster mash, along comes the centrepiece confrontation with Gollum (Andy Serkis, showstopping as ever), a game of riddles where Bilbo’s wit and mettle are shaded with genuine anxiety.’

  Philip French of The Observer wrote, ‘Bilbo (Ian Holm, reprising his role from The Lord of the Rings) is seemingly writing his memoirs, puffing on his churchwarden pipe and blowing out smoke rings as big as haloes and eating regular meals. As he contemplates the past he’s replaced by his equally pacifist younger self, to which part Martin Freeman brings the same decent, commonsensical, very English qualities that informed his excellent Dr Watson on TV.’

  The role of Bilbo Baggins won Freeman acclaim as well as some awards and nominations. He picked up Best Hero at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and Best Actor at the eighteenth Empire Awards as well as Visionary Actor at the Short Awards. Freeman was also nominated for Hottest Actor at the 2012 Total Film Hotlist Awards and Best Actor at the following year’s Saturn Awards as well as Best Scared-as-Shit Performance at the MTV Movie Awards, Best Actor at the SFX Awards, Hero Of The Year at the New Zealand Movie Awards, Best Male Performance In A 2012 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, Or Mini-Series at the Constellation Awards, Best Leading Actor at the Tumblr Movie Awards and Best Ship at the Tumblr Movie Awards.

  ‘I’m geek royalty now,’ he joked with Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Zakarin. ‘That’s the main responsibility. It’s not playing Bilbo, it’s my responsibility as a geek prince.’

  Jon Plowman, the former head of comedy at the BBC and executive producer of The Office knows how well Freeman can act when he’s cast in the right roles. ‘He’s great at playing the everyman, which is why he is so good as Watson and in The Hobbit. He’s got a wonderful ordinariness which you’d think most actors would have but curiously they don’t. That’s not an insult – it’s the absolute opposite – and if you’ve got it as an actor you bloody well hang on to it.’

  Such was the hype surrounding the film that its success was surely going to upset Freeman’s relatively peaceful life. How could he possibly stay relaxed with the inevitability of worldwide fame?

  ‘Until it actually happens it’s all an intellectual exercise,’ he said to John Hiscock of the Daily Telegraph. ‘What if everyone hates it? I try not to count my chickens but yes, it’s clearly a bigger film than I’ve ever made. People are so enthusiastic about this story that if I thought about them hating it or hating my rendition of it I wouldn’t be able to go to work.’

  The Hobbit is one of the productions Freeman is proudest of and it’s probably going to be the one film he will speak fondly of in decades to come.

  Freeman had Arthur Dent, John Watson and Bilbo Baggins to his name: three iconic characters of literature. How did he feel?

  ‘I’m very proud of all of that,’ he expressed to Digital Spy’s Morgan Jeffery. ‘It is a weird thing at the moment to be Bilbo Baggins and John Watson. I can’t deny that it’s quite strange. I never think about it, but when it’s put like that, I think “Christ, that is odd.” They are iconic roles, but
it’s all accidental and it’s all happenstance. I certainly don’t think there’s a casting director somewhere going, “How do we get Martin the iconic roles?”’

  There was never any plan to immerse himself in any of these projects. He didn’t wake up one morning and wonder what adaptation he would tackle next. It all happened by accident and, as the writing was so good, he could not turn any of them down.

  Freeman was not daunted by taking on these iconic roles – not through arrogance or some self-absorbed higher belief in his own talent but rather because being scared would be counter-productive. Also, he was not steeped in the work of Conan Doyle, or Tolkien or Douglas Adams.

  ‘I think it’s this simple thing about, I came to this job, this profession, out of joy and out of play, and I know no one’s going to die, however shit I am, do you know what I mean? It’s okay,’ he admitted to Collider’s Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub. ‘I’d rather not be shit, obviously, I’d rather be good. Genuinely, it’s crushing if people don’t like me, but as with everything, I’m the ultimate judge of my work. I can only say, “Well, I liked it,” or, “I didn’t like it,” and there are some times when I didn’t like it. But no, I’m honestly not, I’m really not. I’m daunted by so many other things in life, work is not one of them. I’m daunted about almost everything else, it’s a constant cause of fucking concern to me. But work is just not one of them at all, yeah. I don’t worry about work. And that’s partly ’cause I’ve been lucky and I’ve always worked.’

  ‘So many British people with no prospects say, “I’m going to go to Hollywood and just see what happens,”’ he said to Movie Web’s Julian Roman. ‘And I’m like, “What the fuck do you think is going to happen?” That’s the place where everyone wants to be. And if you’re making The Godfather that’s great. But you can make rubbish at home! Good scripts wherever they come from is what I’m interested in.’

  Hilariously, a spoof video of The Office creator and lead actor Ricky Gervais as Gandalf The Grey went viral. The Office: An Unexpected Journey takes footage from The Hobbit film and superimposes the voices and faces of characters from The Office. Obviously it is a nod to Freeman’s casting in both creations. The video starts with Gervais as The Office manager David Brent dressed as Gandalf delivering one of his more famous lines from the show: ‘People say I’m the best boss, they go, “Oh, you get the best out of us,” and I go, “C’est la vie.” Freeman is obviously Bilbo Baggins and offers some lines from The Office, and there’s a small role from Ewen MacIntosh (Big Keith in The Office) and, even funnier, Mackenzie Crook (Gareth Keenan in The Office) is Gollum. The video was mashed up by UK producers Jonny Lang and Jason Burke. They wrote on YouTube, ‘Like The Office? Then you may well like this unique blend of those two worlds where David Brent (aka Gandalf The Grey) tells us all about his philosophy around running a regional parchment merchants in Middle-earth.’

  The box-office success of The Hobbit has made Freeman a very wealthy man and that meant that he could dress sharply and afford bespoke suits from the revered tailor Mark Powell, who also designs suits for famed cyclist Bradley Wiggins. He’s always had an eye for fashion but didn’t always have the money to be able to afford nice clothes. Freeman is inspired by modernism both stylistically and musically. He likes modernism because it takes elements from everywhere and resists being a uniform. Another follower of this philosophy is Paul Weller, who dresses the same way he did decades ago.

  Freeman loves the pre-mod jazz look of the 1950s to 1970s suedeheads (an offshoot of skinhead subculture). He is an avid fan of 1970s culture, whether it be the clothes, the music of The Jam, the comedy of The Goodies or the American films of Al Pacino. His other style influences would be Jerry Dammers of The Specials, Pete Tosh of The Wailers and, of course, Mr Paul Weller. Another hero of his is Steve McQueen. Martin has likened being a Mod with being a member of a cult in that people who are true Mods are vehemently dedicated to the cause. Being a Mod is about portraying yourself as an individual and not dressing in a uniform or whatever attire is currently in fashion. The cut of people’s jeans, the tautness of the shirts, the hair, the shows – they all mean something to a Mod.

  Paul Weller has had a profound impact on the Mod scene. As one of Britain’s most respected and successful singer-songwriters, he started his career in The Jam, which he left in 1982 to branch out into the more soulful, less rock The Style Council from 1983 to 1989 before venturing into a solo career in 1991. He is often referred to as The Modfather and was a key figure in the revival of the Mod scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He is very much a British icon with his music rooted in British culture. Some of Freeman’s musical influences overlap with Weller’s, such as The Beatles, the Small Faces and various 1960s and 1970s soul artists like Stevie Wonder. Some of Weller’s best known solo albums include Stanley Road, Heavy Soul and Illumination.

  Weller and Freeman’s mutual hero is the late Steve Marriott. He made a name for himself in two key British bands: Small Faces (1965–1969) and Humble Pie (1969–1975, 1980–1981). Marriott became a Mod icon during his tenure in the Small Faces. His influences were R&B, blues and soul singers from across the Atlantic, such as Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly and Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Marriott died in 1991 in an accidental fire at his sixteenth-century home in Essex, thought to have been caused by a cigarette.

  With Fred Perry shirts, Levi jeans and a Small Faces mod-style haircut, Freeman is always seen impeccably dressed, though the same cannot be said of some of his on-screen characters, such as Tim Canterbury and Arthur Dent. Martin is especially a fan of loafers, which have been a fixture in his wardrobe since he saw Terry Hall of The Specials wearing them. He also likes coats, macintoshes, Crombies and Smedleys.

  ‘You could say I’m a mod, but with a small “m”; I don’t wear a parka, but I do question what I wear and what I listen to, which is what it’s all about,’ he admitted to the Daily Mail’s Chris Sullivan.

  He added, ‘Most actors are either a shower of bloody scruffs or think they should dress like Hamlet offstage. There’s a lot of billowy shirtsleeves going on. But there aren’t many Mods. Being a Mod is more of a sensibility than a style. It’s hard explaining something that on the surface is rather silly and inexplicable.’

  Mod-style has become fashionable again as far as the mainstream is concerned because of fans such as Freeman and cyclist Bradley Wiggins.

  ‘I’ve been into what I’ve been into since I was about nine years old,’ Freeman told ShortList.com. ‘I started buying 2 Tone records, and from there went that rude boy sort of skin/mod/soul boy route all my life. And I’ve always loved clothes. Even before I had money, I went charity shopping. So I’ve always had an eye for clothes.’

  Sadly, Martin doesn’t think the Mod subculture travels especially well across the Atlantic, as he told the Metro’s Andrew Williams: ‘In Britain, even if people don’t dress like that, everyone knows what they mean by a Mod and all these other subcultures, but they just don’t know that in America. Given it’s an acquired taste here, at least people know what people mean by it. When I am in America I feel, clothes-wise, like a fish out of water. It’s a human need to fit in and you don’t want people looking at you like you’re a mental case. You feel like popping into Abercrombie & Fitch to buy a T-shirt to fit in. If you’re wearing a flowery shirt over there people think you must either be mental or wanting to be beaten up for being gay. Fortunately, in London that’s not the case. Too many people here wear fucking sports gear but everyone in America wears that, it’s fucking everywhere. You don’t see many pairs of trousers or shoes in America. It doesn’t have much to offer me.’

  Freeman loves the attention to detail that goes into making a tailored suit.

  ‘The long march that we’ve all done towards tracksuit bottoms and hoodies and trainers the entire time?’ Freeman told GQ’s Oliver Franklin. ‘I’m not having it. I like people making an effort for themselves and those around them.’

  As well as tailor Mark P
owell, Martin likes the label Albam, which opened its first shop in Soho in 2006. Freeman’s best piece of advice when it comes to clothing is that anything will suit you so long as it fits. If the sleeve is an inch too long or the waist is an inch too short, the whole piece will fail and it won’t look good. Freeman is rather militant when it comes to precision. He doesn’t have a stylist because he knows about clothes and loves them. He thinks that, if a celebrity wins a Best Dressed award but doesn’t know about clothes, it’s because they have a stylist who does know about clothes and so it should be them that wins the award.

  Asked about his shopping habits, he confessed to the London Evening Standard’s Hannah Nathanson, ‘Albam on Beak Street, a men’s outfitters I use for contemporary clothes with a traditional twist. For suits I go to the tailor Mark Powell who’s been in Soho for about twenty-five years. I’ll wear John Smedley till I die so I love the flagship store on Brook Street. I sometimes pop into Richard James on Savile Row. I devote far too much time and energy to clothes.’

  As with his taste in music, Freeman tries to keep an open mind about fashion but there are some crimes against fashion that he simply cannot forgive.

  ‘I’ve gone on dates with people when I was younger and you see them come over the escalator and you think, “No, this is not going to happen.” You know: cowboy boots. No way, no fucking way,’ he told Esquire’s Michael Holden in 2012.

  Despite Freeman’s growing fame, he remains grounded, incredibly polite (despite a professed love of swearing) and totally comfortable and at ease with himself. He is not an average Joe though – far from it. He is exceedingly witty and considerate with his responses and is aware of his talent. He is not an actor with a gigantic ego. He remains steadfastly British and approachable. His commitment to his profession has led him to some of the most memorable roles in popular culture over the past decade and it is certainly a testament to his talent that he has never been out of work. The scripts keep coming in, the phone is always ringing and there’s no question that he is one of Britain’s greatest actors of the early twenty-first century. Just what will he do next?