Interview: Martin Freeman

The Hobbit and Sherlock actor talks fame, the future and filthy fan art

published on 4 Feb 2014

‘I’ve been doing interviews for years,’ says Martin Freeman, ‘and in all that time I’ve virtually never read one and gone, “Yep, factually and tonally that’s exactly what happened.” Pretty much never.’

Well, this is awkward. Or at least it would be if the interview hadn’t gone bounding off script. Ostensibly, the 42-year-old is here to promote his starring role in the second Hobbit film,The Desolation of Smaug. And, of course, there’s Sherlock, back for a third series, which hadn’t screened at the time of the interview. But The Hobbit, for all of director Peter Jackson’s intervention, remains a 77-year-old story; and every conceivable explanation behind Sherlock’s death-defying leap at the end of the second series has already been speculated, counter-speculated, and counter-counter-speculated at least twice. So instead we quickly move on to other subjects. Naturally, psycho fans, gay porn and the trouble with interviews are among them.

Your Hobbit character, Bilbo, developed quite a bit during the first film. What can we expect in The Desolation of Smaug?

This is the film where Bilbo becomes totally invaluable to the group – he’s not a mascot or someone to be patronised. In fact, he saves their arses on numerous occasions, so he’s really, really needed. He finds more character, more backbone, than he knew he had.

The last time you spoke with Time Out was just before the release of the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey. Our interviewer at the time suggested that your life was bound to change. Have you yourself had to develop more backbone?

I remember having those conversations before The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy came out [in 2005] and thinking: F**k, is everything going to change? 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 that, ‘No thanks, I still want to get on the train and live my own life,’ then somehow it doesn’t have to.

So celebrities are at fault for their own lack of privacy.

That’s a cruel attitude – if someone’s unhappy, you should leave them alone, even if they wanted attention five minutes ago. But I do think – in a very real, common-sense way – that if you want to be famous, you can be. It’s not a great talent; if you put yourself forward, it will happen to you.

Given the amount of speculation around the last episode the second series of Sherlock, in which Sherlock fakes his own death, are you at all worried the big reveal might be anti-climactic?

[Sherlock writer] Mark Gatiss actually said that himself. There’s something slightly mundane in knowing the truth of a thing. It’s like asking [illusionist] Derren Brown to explain one of the amazing things he does. When he tells you, you’re likely to go, ‘Oh, right, erm…’ I still think it’s going to be satisfying, though. Loads of people have f**king gone to town on how they think it happened and some have been quite close. We have some fun with that in the show.

Both The Hobbit and Sherlock breed cult-grade, Kool-Aid-slurping devotion. Are there any obvious differences between each group of fans?

In the UK, anyway, Sherlock is watched by millions and millions of people: your uncle, my cousin, that teacher, that f**king librarian, that plumber. Normal folks. But the ones who really make themselves known are almost all women between 16 and 21. It’s a very clear demographic. As for Hobbitfans, there are clearly s**tloads of them given how well the film did, but they’ve been a bit more reticent, actually. They’re very polite.

Another, less apparent difference is each group’s approach to X-rated fan art. In fact, there’s an entire online community of Sherlockfans dedicated to drawing pictures of Watson and Sherlock – you and co-star Benedict Cumberbatch – in various states of… entanglement. Does it bother you?

I’ve always seen it as a point of principle not to be offended if people imply you’re gay – so no, I’ve never given a s**t. If I was [offended], I’d kind of think: Well what does that make me? I wouldn’t want a 15-year-old kid thinking I’m ashamed of it. I’m not. If anything, it’s kind of funny to see pictures of me and Ben [Cumberbatch] doing whatever we’re doing to each other – even if they’re far from the truth. The only time I’m sort of bothered is when people get proprietary about it or think there should be a certain kind of reaction, like it needs to be in the National Gallery.

Do you have any favourite pieces?

Ian McKellen [Gandalf in The Hobbit] was emailing me pictures like, ‘Have you seen this, dear?’ and I’m thinking, yeah, I’ve seen stuff much more f**king extreme than that. Some of it’s very well drawn – put it that way – like genuinely good graphic-novel art. But some of it’s a bit, you know, not to my taste.

There’s also a sinister side to that level of fandom. Your longtime partner Amanda Abbington plays Watson’s love interest, Mary Morstan, in the third series of Sherlock– which of course doesn’t bode well for the perceived romance between Watson and Sherlock. Some fans were so distraught they tweeted her death threats.

It’s ridiculous. To me, they’re not fans of the show – they’re fans of a show going on in their heads. Obviously I love Amanda and I want everyone to react positively to her; she plays a fantastic character and brings a hell of a lot to the third series. If people want to imagine John and Sherlock f**king they’re more than welcome to, but it will have no bearing on what we do in the show.

You’ve just signed on to act in Fargo, an American TV series based on the Coen brothers’ Academy Award-winning film. What’s the story there?

It’s in the same universe as the film, there’s a similar tone, but it’s not based on the film in terms of plot. My character’s great; there are similarities between him and William H Macy’s character [from the 1996 film]. Billy Bob Thornton’s in it, too, and his character comes along and teaches mine to take control in ways that aren’t always saintly.

Have you started to work on the accent now, then?

I’m having Skype lessons and, well, pride comes before a fall but I think I’m doing okay. It’s daunting. I don’t want to rip off Bill Macy’s accent, or rip off an accent that’s already passed into comedy, so I’ve been on YouTube to see how real Minnesotans sound. Trouble is, some accents lend themselves to comedy. They just f**king do.’

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is in cinemas from Friday 21. All episodes of Sherlock are available to watch for free on www.youku.com.

Nick Avelinge