Martin Freeman talks about losing privacy with ‘Hobbit’ role, working with Gollum and the ‘family’ feel
Martin Freeman is center stage as the lead in “Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” the first film of a new trilogy by director Peter Jackson. Freeman stars as the main character, Bilbo Baggins and is now launched into super stardom.
Talking with Time Out London in an interview in which the “Sherlock” star answers about “everything changing.”
“It’s a hard question because it either implies that I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t, or “poor-me” if it does. I get to do a great gig and play Bilbo, but the price of that is another part of my privacy is gone. Which is a huge issue, a real downside. I like being private. People ask, ‘So why are you an actor, then?’ That’s a fair question, but it shows that they don’t really understand the situation. I work in public. That’s for you. But you can’t have my private life as well.”
The lengthy “”Hobbit” shoot all started for Freeman with a scene with Gollum, the “Riddles in the Dark”
“It was. And I wasn’t having to imagine Gollum, he was there! Albeit with a slightly different face. Andy Serkis is better-looking, but the voice and the physicality is all there. But I felt very welcome. I didn’t feel like the new boy because there were so many of us, actors and crew. A lot of them were also on “Lord of the Rings”, but others weren’t, so there was a good mixture of old and fresh blood.”
Freeman confessed to watching the behind-the-scenes videos from the first LOTR trilogy, but described a different type of family feel.
“We were a very different group than the original Fellowship. We didn’t get tattoos or anything, but we did go for a lot of great Japanese meals. We’re at different stages of life: we weren’t The Monkees. But we were pretty tight. No one punched anyone, which, when I consider it, all that testosterone over 18 months and a lot of swords in hands, makes me very proud.”
Check out the entire interview here
“Unexpected Journey” has earned over $287 million in the US and over $632 million worldwide.
The next chapter, “Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” arrives in theaters Dec. 13, 2013
