How "Hobbit star" Martin Freeman nearly missed role of a lifetime
YAHOO! EXCLUSIVE
Bilbo Baggins, the main protagonist of “The Hobbit” trilogy may be a good, conservative, mind-your-own-business kind of hobbit – but ironically Martin Freeman, who plays him, is anything but. Sharp-tongued, quick-witted and most enchantingly politically incorrect, Freeman is both animated and irreverent during an hour-long interview with assembled media during an on-location shoot in Wellington earlier this year. Curse words pepper his replies, but he never offends, leaving reporters in stitches instead.
Yahoo! Singapore spoke to the “Sherlock” actor who Peter Jackson famously called “the only man who could play Bilbo” and finds out what lies beneath that benign, almost childlike interior.
Despite his pointy ears, doll-like clothes, and diminutive 1.5-metre frame, Bilbo Baggins is most definitely not “cute” -- at least not in Freeman’s books.
“Bilbo is not James Bond… he’s not uber-masculine, and he isn’t going to make women cry – unless they want to pet him,” said Freeman.
“But I also don’t want to be like cute, little ‘Oh, I’m a hobbit’. That holds no interest for me at all, and fortunately I don’t think it holds much interest for Pete(r) either,” said the 41-year-old Englishman with a guffaw.
So who is Bilbo Baggins, exactly?
“A reticent person, who doesn’t really want to go on this, who convinces himself that he wants to go on this journey, to be a hero,” said Freeman, who is known for his roles as Tim Canterbury in BBC’s “The Office”, rom-com “Love Actually”, and Dr Watson in “Sherlock”.
“By the end of the film, he has seen horrendous things, and he has killed people. He has ended life. He never would have had a punch-up in his life before he left Bag End,” mused Freeman.
“He goes from a homebody to an adventurer.”
Despite being outwardly as different from Bilbo as chalk and cheese, Freeman does feel there are similarities between the Hobbit and himself.
“At other points in my life I have been quite reticent, like Bilbo, just to embrace things that are outside of my comfort zone, because my comfort zone is very home-focused,” said the actor who has two children – Joe, 5, and Grace, 3, -- with long-time partner Amanda Abbington, an English actress and comedienne who has appeared in television series “Coupling”.
“The Hobbit” is, without doubt, Freeman’s biggest role-to-date but it very nearly did not happen.
He famously turned down Jackson as he had already signed on for 20 weeks of filming as Dr Watson in Steven Moffat’s “Sherlock” before he was offered the role of Bilbo Baggins.
“I felt very upset. Yeah, I felt sad and really frustrated because ships like these don’t call for you very often in your life… and I was ready for it,” said Freeman, describing his initial feelings after having to give the role up.“
Fortunately for him, there was a happy ending – Jackson put the entire movie on hold after interviewing hundreds of other candidates and deciding that no one else fit the role better.
Shooting was delayed for eight weeks while Freeman returned to the United Kingdom to fulfill his commitments.
“When it came back, it was unbelievable. I was pleased to say the least.”
On the Bilbo and Gandalf Bromance
Besides Freeman, the stellar ensemble cast packs power and pizzazz into the franchise.
Rising Brit stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Armitage are among the newcomers while eyecandy Orlando Bloom (seen only in part 2), Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and of course, the inimitable Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf are also back to reprise their Middle Earth roles.
So how did Freeman feel about sharing the stage with the multiple award-winning McKellen?
“As Gandalf, he doesn’t ever have to play comedy, he doesn’t ever have to play drama, he just has natural gravitas, as soon as he’s in a scene with you. You can do a scene with Ian that’s six lines long, and you can feel at the end of the day that you’ve done a great scene,” said Freeman.
With audience expectation heavy following their experience watching Frodo and Gandalf’s gradual, deeply emotional bond in the LOTR trilogy, how different is the chemistry between Bilbo and Gandalf in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?
“Gandalf is more of a mentor to Bilbo, and he’s more of a sort of father figure in a way. And he’s a protector as well,” said Freeman.
As for why both Frodo and Bilbo don’t have any romantic screen time with females, Freeman has a ready reply.
“I don’t even know if Bilbo’s ever had sex. It’s like these are things you kind of want to know about – is he a sexual person? Has he done all that? And I don’t know,” said Freeman, clearly tickled when asked by this reporter why Bilbo never got married.
“There’s no sex scenes in the film. Yet. But I’m still trying to get one in,” he joked.
With who?
“Any of the dwarves, yeah, any of them – they all look fantastic in their stuff.”
But seriously, why is Bilbo still single?
“I like sharing my life with people, so I don’t know why he hasn’t (gotten married), actually. Maybe he has a fear of rejection… maybe,” Freeman trails off with an cheeky grin.
Speaking of dwarves, what was it like working with 13 male co-stars – all that ego and testosterone in one (albeit huge) set?
“I think what is remarkable about the main cast, is that none of us have had a fight yet,” said Freeman with a straight face.
“There’s a lot of men in a group together, and there’s egos. We are actors after all, we are not Buddhist monks… there’s about fourteen blokes together all the time and we get on really well, which is lovely. That’s one of the things I’m proudest of, actually, that we have managed not to fall out.”
“I have not made any enemies. That I know of. They might hate, but they haven’t told me yet.”
Related links:
The Hobbit almost didn't happen: Peter Jackson
Meet the merry dwarves from "The Hobbit"
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