The Unexpected Adventures of Martin Freeman (5 page)

A heavily edited version was aired in the US under the title
The Last King: The Power And The Passion Of King Charles II
. Both versions were produced by the BBC in association with the American A&E Network.

‘I think the key to him is that he was constantly shifting and his sole belief was to keep the crown as it was the one thing he promised to his father,’ Rufus Sewell explained to BBC News of King Charles II. ‘So he was capable of being compassionate but also cold and calculating.’

Freeman’s role in the film appeared to go unnoticed but it
received some positive reviews when it was released on DVD.
The Guardian
’s Rupert Smith wrote of the original broadcast, ‘This really was history as drama, with all that implies; it was also one of the very few dramas this year that I wanted to watch without being paid to do so. If
Charles II
can be topped, I’ll eat my full-bottomed wig.’

DVD Verdict
’s Amanda DeWees wrote of the US edit, ‘Structured in two parts, the film is dogged by an episodic structure, which may have been worsened by edits: The British version of the film clocks in at about four hours, which means that almost an hour of footage was cut from this release. These cuts would go some way toward explaining why the first half of the film sometimes seems like a choppy succession of similar scenes: politicians in shouting matches, lovers in wrestling matches, and various characters bursting into rooms to throw hissy fits. The second half of the film recovers to some extent from the episodic beginning and gains some unity of story through the unfolding of the Popish Plot. Likewise, this part seems to find the heart of the story and the characters, where the first half was more concerned with their political lives.’

Freeman took on varying roles to challenge himself as an actor and, in part, to challenge the public’s perception, however misguided, of him as some sort of everyday chap. He is proud to appear in art-house films and less commercial features because they reflect his personal tastes.

‘I’m not purely benign, yeah,’ Freeman admitted to
Esquire
’s Michael Holden in 2012. ‘I mean – I know I’m not, no one fucking is, but people want to just say… you know, I can name other actors who – I won’t – but you could think of a thousand
other actors who people wouldn’t feel, “Oh, would you say hello to my mum?” because people would be a bit scared to do that. But with me I’ve played the parts where people think, “He’s just a good bloke”.’

Freeman had been acting for well over a decade but there were only a couple of things he was best known for at this particular juncture.

‘So what people mean when they say I’m likable is this and
The Office
, or
Love Actually
,’ he said to the BBC’s Alana Lee. ‘Again, you can’t answer it without sounding defensive or chippy, but I’ve virtually not had any time out in a decade. My first forays into telly were as sort of drug-taking rent boys who didn’t know whether to fuck you or kill you. They were all these kind of people and it was, like, “Oh, he’s got an edge, this guy Martin.” Now the cycle turns, and it’s, “Oh, he’s so lovely.”’

Despite Freeman’s wish not to be typecast as Tim Canterbury from
The Office
, he does accept that he’s been fairly lucky in moving away from the character through more recent roles. ‘I think people now know that I’m not just Tim from
The Office
. The only place that image persists is with a few lazy journalists. You’ll sometimes see a picture of me in something like
Charles II
with the caption “Tim from
The Office
in a funny wig”. I’d like you to apologise for that on behalf of the NUJ,’ he told
The Independent
’s James Rampton in 2007.

Freeman was glad to have moved on to other projects. There was so much that he wanted to do as an actor and he refused to be limited to
The Office
and comedy in general.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Richard Bacon in an interview in 2014, ‘I’m very proud of
The Office
. If it’s on, I
still watch it and will laugh. But one of the best things Ricky and Steve did was ending it and making it finite and making it something people look back [on] and go, “I wish there was more of that,” as opposed to doing loads and people saying, “I wish there was less of this.”’

He added, ‘I’m glad not to be doing
The Office
anymore, not for any career reason or any selfish reason but as a punter, just as a viewer. I’m glad we’re not ruining it.’

Next up on the small screen, he was cast as Mike in the two-series sitcom
Hardware
, which aired between 2003 and 2004 and ran for a full twelve episodes.

‘There are people who wonder why I did it, and it’s hard not to sound chippy, but it made me laugh,’ Freeman explained to
The Guardian
’s Stephanie Merritt in 2004. ‘People might think that there’s something boring about it because it’s a much more traditional ITV studio sitcom, but for me it was pure affection for the show – I can say I know why I did it and that’s what matters. There’s this misunderstanding, too – because it didn’t get as much attention – but far more people watch
Hardware
than ever saw
The Office
, just by dint of it being on ITV.’

The series also starred Peter Serafinowicz, Ken Morley, Ryan Cartwright, Susan Earl and Ella Kenion. It was written and created by Simon Nye, the man behind the hugely popular sitcom
Men Behaving Badly
. The programme is set in Harnway’s Hardware Store in London, where Mike works with Steve (Ryan Cartwright) and Kenny (Peter Serafinowicz) for shop owner Rex. Next door but one there is a café called Nice Day Café, where Mike’s girlfriend Anne (Susan Earl) works with Julie (Ella Kenion). The series basically revolves
around the staff of the hardware store as they make fun of the DIY fanatics that frequent the premises. The role bagged Freeman the Best Male Comedy Performance award at the 2004 European Rose d’Or awards.

‘You think, how do I get out of this? and the answer is I can’t,’ he said to Alice Wignall of
The Guardian
when talking about choosing projects. ‘Even if I think I don’t want to do comedy for ages, if I read a script and it’s really good, I want to do it.’

However, Freeman quit the series to pursue serious acting roles, wanting to turn his back on comedy.
Hardware
was a critical failure but it pulled in around four million viewers. If his heart’s not really in it, Freeman finds it difficult to enjoy the work. He was concerned by the notion that he may be seen as a sitcom actor when his talents extend far beyond half-an-hour weekly episodes of British TV.

‘He wants to turn his back on comedy to avoid typecasting,’ a source told the
Sun
at the time of the series, in 2004. ‘ITV comedy chiefs are now looking to cast another actor or comedian in his role [in
Hardware
].’

Freeman later spoke to
ShortList
about
Hardware
: ‘… y’know I stopped doing it after two series – I didn’t want to do it anymore. You’re either hardwired to think in that
Fawlty Towers
way or you’re not… and I think you can think, “Oh let’s keep going until we get into syndication and make pots of money or whatever” – and of course I like money – but I prefer leaving something behind that people go, “That was the right length.”’

2003 brought some notable roles for Freeman and with it came a certain degree of fame and public acknowledgement.
Freeman has often struggled with fame as a concept. He doesn’t especially enjoy the trappings that it brings, preferring instead to focus his energy elsewhere. He criticised reality television and said in 2003 that we have reached the zenith of people becoming famous without talent.

‘You know, apparently when Noël Coward met The Beatles he was very nice to them and said to other people, “They’re completely talentless,”’ Freeman explained to the
Observer
’s Andrew Anthony in 2014. ‘He was older than I am now but still, you’ve got to be careful about what you write off because you can be so solid in your knowledge. You don’t want to be the person who said the Beatles are talentless.’

He reiterated his opinions on modern-day society’s obsession with celebrity culture and how it is out of control to
The Independent
’s James Rampton in 2007: ‘These days it’s not enough to be acknowledged as a surgeon – you have to be acknowledged as the cover-star of
Grazia
magazine. After all, that’s much more valuable to society than saving a child’s life, isn’t it?’

Freeman isn’t interested in the celebrity life at all. He certainly doesn’t want to make a career out of it and tends to wonder, with any celebrity event he goes to – which are few and far between and generally part of the promotional work for something he is acting in – why people make a fuss about him. Usually, he sees celebrity events as a waste of time. He’d rather be at home with his family.

‘I thought actors were dodgy until I hung out with stand-up comedians,’ he admitted to Andrew Duncan of
Reader’s Digest
. ‘They’re pathologically egotistical and make us seem like selfless wallflowers by comparison. I don’t want to be around
people who can’t shut up. I guess they’re insecure, but isn’t everyone – unless you’re mental or boring?’

Though it was only a cameo, Freeman was cast as Declan in the zombie film
Shaun of the Dead
, released on 9 April 2004. The film is the first in the
Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy
by actors Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright and inspired by George A. Romero’s revered
Dead
trilogy.
Shaun of the Dead
sees Pegg play Shaun, a man who attempts to deal with the issues of his life – namely his girlfriend and his mother and stepfather – while battling an apocalyptic uprising of zombies. The film is filled with pop-culture references, most notably to movies, TV shows and video games. The film is, in many ways, similar to the TV series
Spaced
, which Pegg, Frost and Wright co-created.
Shaun of the Dead
was, in actual fact, inspired by the
Spaced
episode ‘Art’, which sees Pegg’s character Tim hallucinate that he is fighting a zombie invasion under the influence of amphetamines and the PlayStation video game
Resident Evil 2. Shaun of the Dead
features several actors from
Spaced, Black Books
and
The Office
, including Dylan Moran (
Black Books
), Tamsin Greig (
Black Books
), Julia Deakin (
Spaced
) and Reece Shearsmith (
Spaced
).

Filmed over nine weeks in May and July of 2003, the comedy film received rave reviews from critics and picked up some famous fans along the way, such as Quentin Tarantino, Stephen King and George A. Romero. It was a box-office success and became an instant cult classic.

Empire
’s horror-film expert and author Kim Newman said of the film, ‘A surprisingly good TV transfer for the
Spaced
crew.
It may not exactly be Ealing, but it’s funny for long stretches. Even when in danger of self-destructing, it cadges laughs with smart lines, silly observations or blokish inside jokes about zombie movies, video games and pub nibbles.’

2004 also saw Freeman cast as Fleck in the TV film
Pride
, written by Simon Nye and released on 27 December. The film is about two lion cubs as they grow up and face adult life. Computer-generated imagery was used with digital effects by the esteemed Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. It was shot in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park and, aside from Freeman, it features the voices of Kate Winslet (Suki), Sean Bean (Dark), Helen Mirren (Macheeba), Jim Broadbent (Eddie), Robbie Coltrane (James), Rupert Graves (Linus), John Hurt (Harry) and Kwame Kwei-Armah (Lush). It was produced by the BBC and broadcast on the A&E station in the US.

Freeman was next seen as Kevin in the film
Call Register
. In the film, Kevin wants to get in touch with a girl he met recently named Amanda (Neve McIntosh), so he borrows his best mate Julian’s (James Lance) phone. When he dials Amanda’s number, the phone recognises the number and identifies her by name, which means Julian knows Amanda. Kevin arranges a date with her and learns that she’d once dated Julian and had slept with him, which understandably makes Kevin feel uncomfortable. The film then follows a series of phone calls between the three characters.

Yahoo’s Contributing Network writer Philo Gabriel praised the film, saying, ‘In any case, it’s a winner. If you appreciate this style of humour at all, it’s worth checking out.’

Freeman continued to explore more diverse parts. He played
Vila in the 2005 short comedy film
Blake’s Junction 7
, which follows the cult 1980s science-fiction gang Blake’s 7 as they make a lively late-night stop at Newport Pagnell Services on the M1 motorway.

The actor explained to
Empire
, ‘It’s not that I don’t love comedy and don’t want to do comedy, but my background isn’t in comedy. If I do comedy for too long, and nothing else, then it’ll just look like I’m trying to validate myself by playing a child killer, or whatever. Whereas, actually, that’s always been quite natural to me, to play straight things.’

Freeman received another big break with his portrayal of hapless protagonist Arthur Dent in the 2005 film
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
, released on 28 April of that year. This was his first major Hollywood role. Many actors had been attached to the portrayal of Arthur Dent over the years but it was Freeman who the creative team had in mind. He didn’t fight for the role, because that’s not his style.

‘At first I didn’t think I’d get the part but when I thought about it, I reckoned maybe I was right,’ Freeman told the
Daily Mail
’s Chris Sullivan in 2008. ‘Arthur had to be believed and I suppose I have that rooted quality, someone you can side with, which isn’t a bad thing.’

After the script arrived, Freeman met with the director and producer and did a reading for them. They had told him which scenes to prepare and the reading went well and, from there, he worked with director Garth Jennings on developing the role.