The Unexpected Adventures of Martin Freeman (18 page)

‘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 Powell, 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?

S
ince
The Office
, Freeman appeared on several panel shows, such as as
Shooting Stars
and
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
, as well as popular talk shows like
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Parkinson, The New Paul O’Grady Show, This Morning, The Justin Lee Collins Show, The Five O’Clock Show
and
The Graham Norton Show.
He also appeared twice on the
Late Show with David Letterman,
one of the most popular late-night talk shows in America. Though he tried to shun the spotlight, there was no way around it.

Consequently, Freeman may be worth a staggering $10 million and have a shrewd business eye for finances but his long-term life partner is not quite as financially secure.

In March 2013 Abbie Abbington was declared bankrupt by London’s High Court after failing to pay a huge tax bill but she refused to let her millionaire partner pay off her debts.

She confessed to the
Radio Times
in May, ‘It was just me not managing my finances properly. I was putting some money away [to pay tax], but not all of it. I was working one year and not working another year. So I was using the money I’d saved… It will be annulled in a couple of months.’

She said that she is an only child (born in north London to Patsy and John Abbington) and is more than capable of looking after herself and does not want to rely on her partner and be seen in the eyes of the public as ‘Freeman’s girlfriend’.

‘I know she copped it and it hurt,’ Freeman explained to
The Independent
’s Emma Jones in 2013. ‘It’s been said before so it’s a cliché, but it happens to be true: you can stand anything for yourself, but when they turn on the people you love, it’s excruciating and it’s invasive, no question about it. I do think we have a right to privacy. My job as an actor is for you, so why should my private life be for you too? That’s not fair. Fortunately, apart from this, I am not that fascinating for the tabloids. I don’t need their approval. There are about twenty people in my life that I want to love me, and none of them are the
Daily Mail
.’

There were speculations in the press that the pair had already married. It’s never been publicly confirmed but they have alluded to it in interviews. Freeman spoke to the
London Evening Standard
’s Hannah Nathanson in 2010 for a piece on social life called ‘My London’. When asked where he has had his favourite meal in the capital, he responded, ‘My wife Amanda and I celebrated our wedding anniversary at Claridge’s. It’s quiet, not very showbiz and people do things properly there. I like being called Mr Freeman occasionally.’ (Note that he refers to Abbington as his wife, though they have
never publicly announced their marriage. It remains a cause of interest among the tabloid journalists as to whether or not they are actually married.)

Another piece of news was that she’d had a benign lump removed from her breast while Freeman was filming
The Hobbit
in New Zealand. Martin was desperate to travel the 11,000 miles back home to be with Abbington while she underwent surgery but she insisted he stay in New Zealand.

She told Rob Bleaney of the
Daily Mirror
, ‘I said I’d be fine, but he was desperately worried. It was horrible for him. I found the lump after dropping the kids at school. I was sent to a specialist breast unit. They said they needed to get it out quickly because they didn’t know if it was malignant. I burst into tears and thought, “Oh no. I’m going to die. I won’t see my children grow up.”’

There was an agonising two-week wait for the biopsy results, during which time Freeman sent her a bracelet and ring with a little note saying he hoped it would cheer her up. She thought it was a beautiful sentiment. When the results came back, she burst into tears as it was discovered to be a benign milk-gland tumour. She flew out to New Zealand with their two kids to be with Freeman. During their stay in that country Sir Ian McKellen babysat for them and read
The Gruffalo
to their two children, Joe and Grace.

Martin played Dr Williams in the short film
The Voorman Problem
produced by Honlodge Productions in the UK and directed by Mark Gill, who co-wrote the screenplay with Baldwin Li. It is based on a section of the acclaimed novel
number9dream
by David Mitchell.

There was a long six-week pre-production where the creative time found it a challenge to accommodate the cast’s hectic schedule. Director Mark Gill spoke to
IndieWire
’s Carlos Aguilar: ‘We were very confident on our script, so we decided to approach some great actors, the first one we approached was Kevin Spacey. We just wrote him a nice letter and he responded very positively saying that he would like to help, he suggested we contacted Tom Hollander directly and not use his agent, which is something you are not supposed to do but it worked for us. Then Tom and I had a conversation and Martin’s name came up and we thought he’d be great. Tom sent Martin’s agent an email with the script, and Martin’s agent said yes. Sounds quite simple, but it really was that easy.’

In the film Freeman’s character takes on the role of a prison psychiatrist after ‘The War In The East’ has produced a shortage of doctors. Williams is hired by Governor Bently. However, there is a prisoner named Voorman (played by Tom Hollander) who is adamant that he is God and has convinced the rest of the prisoners to spend all day chanting in worship. Due to a computer error, it is not known why Voorman is behind bars. This man, in a straitjacket, is interviewed by Williams in a locked room within the confines of the prison. Voorman explains that he is God and created the world exactly nine days ago. Naturally, Williams thinks this is the thought process of a loony and objects to the idea so Voorman suggests that, to test his powers, he will eliminate Belgium. Williams sits at home and tells his wife about the case. However, his wife has no idea what Belgium is so he gets out an atlas and points to where Belgium should be. It is a body of water called ‘Walloon
Lagoon’. Williams is totally bewildered by this but does not believe Voorman. The latter suggests that he be the psychiatrist and Williams be God. They change attire – Voorman wears a suit and Williams puts on a straitjacket. Williams shouts out to the guards and, as Voorman leaves, he tells Williams to ‘keep an eye on North Korea’. Voorman exits the room as the prisoners are heard chanting, a sound which gets louder as the film ends.

An intriguing little film, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2014 and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. It had a limited release on 23 April 2013 after being shown in Canada in August of the previous year.

Freeman wrapped up his appearances in the
Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy
by appearing in the final film in 2013,
The World’s End.
Freeman had a non-speaking role as Yvonne’s boyfriend, Declan, in
Shaun of the Dead
and a cameo as a police officer in
Hot Fuzz
and now the trilogy was complete as he starred as Oliver Chamberlain, one of Gary King’s (played by Pegg) friends in the final film.

Speaking about Freeman’s character in the film, Edgar Wright told Simon Brew of
Den of Geek
, ‘In the case of [Martin Freeman’s] Oliver character, there’s more than one kid at school who was destined to be a great businessman. And I think I was ever so slightly jealous of they because they seemed to have it all figured out, even at the age of sixteen. They know what they’re doing, they understand finance and business. They’ve gone on to be very successful. So there’s an element of me feeling like a little kid next to these guys. In
fact one of them, just like the movie, was the first person I ever saw with a mobile phone. This was in 1991, and I was like what is that thing that kid has got?’

A science-fiction comedy directed by Edgar Wright and written by him – he had written the original draft when he was twenty-one and named it
Crawl
– and Simon Pegg,
The World’s End
is the weakest of the films. It stars Pegg and Nick Frost as well as Paddy Considine, Pierce Brosnan and Eddie Marsan. The film’s premise is simple: a group of mates discover an alien invasion during a pub crawl in their home town. Wright’s influences included John Wyndham books in general and
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Freeman personally has no interest in pub crawls or a live-now, die-young lifestyle, preferring to stay at home with his partner or have a meal and do a pub quiz with friends.

Filming mostly took place at Elstree Studios Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire with some shots taken in High Wycombe railway station in Buckinghamshire, after principal photography commenced on 28 September 2012.

Freeman had been friends with Pegg and Frost for years and they each watched their respective careers flourish in different ways. Pegg enticed Martin to star in the film because of where it was shot – Freeman did not have to travel too far from his Hertfordshire home.

‘It was part of the sugar pill to do the movie – “please sign up and we promise you’ll never have to travel more than half an hour to work.” That and the fact Simon and Edgar begged me to do it,’ he said to
The Independent
’s Emma Jones in 2013.

The rule was that anyone who was in both
Shaun of the Dead
and
Hot Fuzz
had to return for
The World’s End
regardless of how small their part might be.

‘… with Martin Freeman,’ Edgar Wright told
Dork Shelf
’s Andrew Parker, ‘after
Shaun
and
Hot Fuzz
, we knew we HAD to get him back and give him a bigger part. It’s great having these people back and giving them something to do because they’re all really talented comedians.’

The World’s End
received its premiere on 10 July 2012 in London’s Leicester Square and was released nationally on 19 July and in the US on 23 August. Its UK box-office takings were strong: it earned £2,122,288 during its opening weekend, which was higher than
Shaun of the Dead
but lower than
Hot Fuzz
, and it lost the top spot to
Monsters University
. It grossed $3.5 million on its opening day in the US and eventually made more money than the previous
Cornetto
films. The film won Best Ensemble Cast Award at the Alternative End Of Year Film Awards.

Reviews of the film were mostly positive, though some critics took swipes at it. There is a general consensus among fans of the films that it is the weakest link in the trilogy with less gags that hit the mark. Still, though Freeman’s role was only minor, it was another string to his bow.

London Evening Standard
’s David Sexton wrote, ‘So this one’s easy to decide about: if you loved
Shaun
and
Hot Fuzz
, don’t hesitate. You need some affection for men who are having problems growing up, perhaps. And maybe it is just very British to prefer the spoof to the original? Perhaps it was a mistake to watch it stony sober at a morning screening. It
is still pleasing to think of all the less enlightened nations around the world being so fully informed at last of just what a proper pub crawl looks like.’

Though on the surface Freeman may not have anything in common with Pegg and his co-conspirators Nick Frost and Edgar Wright – self-appointed pop-culture geeks and comic-book nerds – it was certainly a wise move to be a part of the
Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy
. Add that to
The Hobbit
and Martin Freeman, whether he appreciates it or not, is now firmly a member of the ‘Geek Universe’ for want of a better term.

Pegg is not only a colleague but a friend. His own career has taken off in unlikely directions and it’s good to see both Freeman and Pegg enjoying their own turn in the spotlight. Pegg, born in Gloucestershire in 1970, carved an interesting career for himself post-
Spaced
and
Shaun of the Dead.
He struck up an unlikely friendship with director J.J. Abrams and was cast not only in
Star Trek
and
Star Trek Into Darkness
as Montgomery Scott (aka Scotty) but also as Benji Dunn in the third and fourth
Mission: Impossible
films. He was also cast in the Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg film
The Adventures of Tintin
and, perhaps more surprisingly, he cropped up on the small screen in the Frank Darabont 1940s LA-noir series
Mob City
, which was unfortunately cancelled after one series.

Their mutual mate and colleague Nick Frost, meanwhile, may not have enjoyed as high-profile a career as Freeman or Pegg but he has starred in some projects of worth. He played drug dealer Ron in the awesome British sci-fi alien-invasion thriller
Attack the Block
and also starred in various roles in the sketch show
Man Stroke Woman
. His role as Jeremy Sloane
in the series
Mr Sloane
won him critical praise, as did his performance as John Self in the adaptation of Martin Amis’s acclaimed novel
Money
in the BBC TV movie of the same name in 2010.

Director Edgar Wright co-wrote, produced and directed the 2010 movie
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
based on the cult comic books. He also co-wrote (with Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat)
The Adventures of Tintin
. For some time he was involved with the much-anticipated and written about Marvel superhero film
Ant-Man
but left the project.

There’s no question that despite being on screen for only a short time, Freeman had pivotal roles in the three films and it proves again just how eclectic his body of work is.

There wasn’t just a euphoria around the release of
The World’s End
in July; it was announced by Peter Jackson on his Facebook page that the final scene featuring Bilbo Baggins had been filmed. It was probably a bittersweet moment: they were no doubt pleased that the long and arduous journey had come to an end and Freeman was probably ecstatic that he could fly back home to be with his family but at the same time the visiting cast and crew had a wonderful time in New Zealand, which they would miss. Fans were now looking forward to the release of
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
on 13 December 2013.