An Interview With Martin Freeman

If you go to Starbucks, bump into Martin Freeman, and spill your espresso all over his face and neck, you probably still wouldn’t notice him. And that’s just fine with Martin. The non-descript star of the British phenom “The Office,” Martin is the consummate “everyman,” the sympathetic, huggable bloke that we can all relate to.

This might change. After some supporting work in “Love Actually” and “Shaun of the Dead,” Martin suddenly gets top billing in one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” He stars as Arthur Dent, an everyman—who else?—who wakes up one morning and learns two pieces of bad news: 1) his house is about to be bulldozed; and 2) the earth is about to be destroyed.

With a dry sense of humor that is razor-sharp in person, Martin tells us, with deadpan delivery, that he will be the next James Bond, that the only similarity with his “Office” character is that he’s not a 60-year-old Korean woman, and that he hopes his performance “wasn’t shit.”

This is going to be the first time a major audience sees you. What do you want them to know about you going in?

Martin Freeman: About me? As little possible. I don't mind them knowing nothing about me, to be honest.

What about after they see movie?

MF: I'd like them to think, “Well, he wasn't shit. He wasn't awful.”

Okay, anything else?

MF: I think that if we get away with having served the film that's alright, really. I mean, the star of the film is the film. And if anyone, really, I guess that the star of the film is Douglas Adams. And if we’ve done him in any way proud, I'll be quite happy. And if we've given people an hour and a half or whatever of laughs and thrills and hilarious consequences, then good.

So you knew the book?

MF: Yeah. I grew up with it. I mean, I grew up with the books kind of in the house.

Was that an attraction for you?

MF: Yeah, it was. Certainly in Britain everyone does sort of know it.

How did you approach playing Arthur?

MF: Well, I approached playing him with a bit of trepidation, really, because I'd grown up with the television series very much in my mind, with Simon Jones. I'm not like Simon Jones particularly either. I'm not the same sort of person. In my mind I thought, 'How can I do that?' I had to take that out. So I just kind of played Arthur the way that I saw him.

How is that?

MF: His planet is about to be blown up, and so I just played it as real and as funnily as possible, all the while knowing that you're in a comedy. You've got to kind of know what you're in. So it's slightly heightened with humor. The humor is definitely there, but I thought that the stakes had to be genuine because he's a man whose day starts badly, and within 10 minutes of the film, his planet's gone. So all of his reference points, every single thing that he's ever known or thought he knew or will ever know has gone.

When filming the movie, was there extra pressure because of the enormous fan base?

MF: I suppose there was theoretical pressure, but in all honesty, and I don't particularly go on the Internet, and I don't particularly go to Forbidden Planet and check out the vibe of the sci-fi world, because that's not the life that I live. But I was aware that there was something there, that they'd obviously want it to be done well. I knew that was something that fans obviously cared about and cared about passionately, but we can only do what we can do, the best and the most honest interpretation of the story that we can do.

Of course, once you're at work, you're getting up a six o'clock in the morning and you're too much in the mode of going to work to really worry about, '”Hang on. Will Derek in Milton Kings be affected by this portrayal?” And he probably will be. So we were mindful that we wanted to be respectful of that audience because they're important. They've kind of kept this story alive and they've been champions of Douglas and champion of the story for 25, almost 30 years. But ultimately they're not the majority of the people who we want to see the film either. The majority of the world doesn't know “Hitchhiker's Guide” and so we can't obviously just make a film for the hardcore fans. There's got to be something about that's inclusive for an audience that doesn't know. So, Christ, hopefully we've done it.

What do you think is the Douglas Adams tone?

MF: I suppose a bit of irreverence, wryness and silliness really. I like the fact that he doesn't censor himself with his ideas and where his ideas go. Things like the Babel Fish, a fish that you put in your ear and it translates every language in the galaxy. And in space what you really need is a towel of all things. I kind of like that. It's silly and it's kind of schoolboy silly in the very best way.

Is the green screen work difficult?

MF: It can be. Fortunately for me there wasn't that much of it in there. I think that in the film that you see Arthur and Slartibartfast, when they're going to the factory, that was the only massive green screen work. That was a whole week of me and Bill Nighy in that cage pretending that there was all this stuff going on, and Garth [Jennings] shouting directions as we were doing it. “Okay, you're seeing this. You're seeing sea being made. You're seeing forests come up.” So there's always the risk that you can feel very hammy doing that because you're going like this [Laughs]. It's potentially the worst acting in the world because it could just be amateur night and I think that in Bill's case it was. I think that I got away with it, but Bill is quite bad in it. [Laughs, clearly joking].

How has your life changed since making this big film?

MF: Well, it's hard. I'm not just batting this back or being coy, because I'm not really the star of a big film yet. Because people might come and go, “What?” I mean, they'll be the judges. That's the hard thing about publicity. Obviously you want to kind of tow the party line and be good for the film, but ultimately, I mean, Christ, I've seen enough films that I hate more than war. Do you know what I mean? You can tell me as much as you like how great this film is, but I will be the judge of it when I go click or when I'm walking out. I just really hope that people like it.

Again without trying to just sound like a good bloke, Douglas is the star of it and it's his legacy. I would be happy just being a cog in that wheel because, again, it's not “Hamlet.” It's not like, “How did he do that?” Well, it's the way that anyone would. It's not an extraordinary performance. It's not a role that requires an extraordinary performance. I hope that I did it well, and if I did it well then I'm more than happy. This is the thing, no one has seen it. I'm sure life will change if it turns out to be a big film and I sincerely hope that it will, and if so it'll be another way for me to be annoyed by people.

Do you think that you'll be going to be sci-fi conventions or 'hitchhiker' conventions 20 years from now?

MF: My belief in God says I hope not. I don't plan to. No. No. I really, really hope that I don't. No.

How many of these films are you signed for after this?

MF: None. Well, for the option of considering a sequel really. So it's not like you're handcuffed in there. I've been in a show where I'm very associated with that character. The last thing that I want to do is get out of that now and be associated with another character for the next twenty years.

Would you do the sequel though?

MF: If it was the same team, and if the script was right and ready, because I mean God knows that this script took 25 years to come to the screen, and so I think that dashing another one out would immediately make me suspicious of the quality of it. Do you know what I mean? If the first one has taken a quarter of a century and the next one takes a quarter of an hour, I'd think, “Hmm, is this as good as it could be?” Also, Douglas really isn't here anymore. I mean, this is Douglas' screenplay of “Hitchhiker's Guide.” And given that Douglas isn't here anymore, that puts a different spin on it as well because most of what you see in the film is absolutely Douglas. I don't know that he wrote a screenplay for 'Restaurant At The End of the Universe,” which would be the next book. I don't know that he did. I'm pretty sure that he didn't. So that puts another spin on it as well. I love Garth and Nick [Goldsmith], director and producer. I mean, I genuinely, genuinely love working with them. If it was going to be the same team that would always be worth consideration because I had a lot of fun for a third of a year doing it.

Does your 'office' character invade your life that much?

MF: I mean, it can do that, a bit, yeah. It can do that.

How so?

MF: Well, a question that I'm often asked is, “Arthur is quite like Tim, isn't he?” No. He's not. You wouldn't be asking that if Hugh Bonneville was playing it. I mean, it's quite like Tim in that I'm using the same vocal chords to play both of them and I'm using the same legs. And I’m not going to be cast as many 60-year-old Korean women. I'm a sort of white man in my early 30s. I'm going to be playing that sort of thing. I'm not going to be and I wouldn't want to be a James Bond type where everything is going well for me person. I like people who are a bit under it.

So you're going to be the next Bond?

MF: Yes. You heard it here first. That's the thing, if you look like, like a kind of average bloke then you're going to be playing that the way that the movie industry is or the way that my industry generally is like, 'Do we believe this person is that?' So I'm going to be playing men of my own thing, whatever that is.

Are you surprised that “The Office” is so big?

MF: Yeah, I suppose. Although, I'm still genuinely not that sure about how well “The Office” did do in the States. I know that here some people have watched it. L.A. But America is a big place. So there's a sort of inherent arrogance I think sometimes of like, “It's so big in the states.” What? You mean New York and L.A.? There's a fucking great load in the middle who will go, “The Office?” What?

What do you think of the new “Office?”

MF: I've only seen the pilot, and to be absolutely honest, if I had come across it on the telly I'd watch it again. It was enough to reel me in. I sort of thought that it was faithful enough to the spirit of ours. What my fear was, was that everyone was going to look beautiful with great white teeth. Actually, everyone just looks normal and everyone just looks pretty crumpled and depressed which I thought was right and I thought it was very funny to be honest.

“HITCHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY” HITS THEATERS ON FRIDAY, April 29th

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at jeff@latinoreview.com.