Martin Freeman in Conversation with Mark Lawson

good afternoon and sang and talked to mother Freeman for a bit and then we'll take some questions from the audience we've just seen a range of work I thought I just started the theater question the EM the hottest ticket in London at the moment is Benedict Cumberbatch him Hamlet have you managed to get her ticket yes I went the other way the other pale no no no I was we were invited me to come and yeah he was really good he was really good he was very clear made Shakespeare very accessible I thought in his mouth yeah and had he come to he he came to you're Richard the third he did yeah he did yeah he do if he paid but yes he did he did yeah and it is I know from talking to actors it's slightly tricky business this what you say when you go to see him a friend or a co-star in a show so are there I mean Alan Bennett famously said as you know that the only word she can speak are marvellous marvellous marvellous if you pick out a single moment they think you hated the rest of it you can't mention it co-star and all that so do you have rules for this will I learn very early on I was doing a play here as I was doing a play here many years ago and the director said because I think we were going to see other plays and people come to see our play you know and I was pretty young then and still learning about what you say and what you don't say and and he said all you can say to somebody else while they're doing a play is be you can only be positive because anything else just isn't helpful at that time certainly over criticism isn't helpful because there's nothing they can do about it and nor should they really they shouldn't really take your notes on particularly I mean I've taken one note on actually in Richard the third an actor who shall remain nameless but said in an email how about it'd be quite good maybe if you just tried that and I thought you and then I thought you're a good actor maybe I will try that and and it was it worked it was it mattered played Richard the third never you mind yeah he had yep and we can talk about from a number of the roles that we saw on that screen but um one that I've always interested when we look at those sites like AMD be the first entry for an actor and yeah your first TV entry is the is the Bill of course you do you have vivid memories of that can you remember the name of the character I think he was was it Craig Parnell or Chris Parnell Parnell yeah yeah it was yeah I was really excited to be in the bit I've done about 18 months worth of solid theater on leaving central and this is my first tele job on it of course it was that was a big deal for me it was kind of guest lead in the episode of the bill it was a big show and and I wasn't very good in it because I was not knowing what the hell I was doing in front of the camera but um yes those steep learning curves where people use terminology that you don't understand you know when you walk along and say I just favored the wall I think that means when you come and just banana round they're telling what that means but yes and of course I thought that I wanted to make it good and make my little bit good but in it and I look back and forth yes it's not very good but it's not about first attempt and I always think but on shows like such as before they were famous and when we look at you having been 18 years going the bill are just like you on that are you thinking I I want to be the star of this and is that what you're thinking I think you certainly you know in your heart of hearts you look you know I don't think anyone goes into acting hoping up that they play small parts for the rest of their lives another thing they think that maybe some people accept being character actors even from drama school or that they're going to play smaller roles yeah I mean I think it's pretty obvious the drama school isn't it quite often who are going to be the big stars no it's not no it's what's obvious I think a drama in my experience my year is central I think it was obvious who it's obvious who is a star at Central Germans obviously who's a star at drama school and that will not necessarily translate to the real world because you're obviously not quite a causative environment at drama school or uni or whatever it is you know because you're not actually out there with an audience yet and all an audience who's paying money be it literally in theatres or license fee or whatever you know people vote with their feet or with their you know remotes and they're not doing that century you know you're being rightly brought up and nurtured and all of that stuff that you need to be but that stuff doesn't always translate you know I I can I won't but I think of people who I could name from my year who've done really well who were like they weren't good students they weren't good little soldiers as students but they've just they tell the truth and they hit their mark and they're reliable and they're not so that they they work you know and as you know there's a lot of talk at the moment about the kind of people who get into drama school and the roots into acting does that concern you that it is suggested that and I'm clearly financially it's much easier if you come from a privileged background yeah I'm sure it is yeah I'm sure it is and of course I think that concerns everyone I think that would concern very rich people from the sort background where for generations they've been going to good schools and drama schools I think those people would also know openly limits it's unfair if I got a grant from Richmond council to go to central and yeah in this I wouldn't I couldn't have done it and that would be much harder now we yet again yeah yeah really my so I understand a lot harder yeah a lot rarer so the risk clearly is that there are actors such as you who would not now be getting into the profession well he's not that way yeah and I'm lucky because I'm from a background where I was supported you know there were always books in the house you know I'm not you know I'm not from the background that you think no one ever from this background goes through drama school you know we didn't have a lot of money but we were you know suburban people who kind of like theater and stuff but no I wouldn't been able to go but I think more it's more of a concern that they're allowed to be blue it wouldn't even consider it on the same planet as then you know a lot of people wouldn't think it's an option at all for them and I knew it was an option for me it like culturally I knew it was an option for me and as what the possibilities in my life I thought this is an option you know if I can pay for it but uh yeah I guess it's a lot of people it's like another planet you know and where you're one of those actors where you play the third donkey in a nativity play and some teacher says my god I think you've got something there and that kind of thing I mean did people always think you had you have something I was aware of that and so I thought I was gonna be a squash player from the age of 9 to 14 I really did that sounds like a beginning of a joke but it's not you were good I was good I was in the sorry squad rows of the national squad you know juniors and them and at 14 I kind of fell out of love with it but when I was about so I stopped doing that I joined a Youth Theater but before that I went to a Catholic school and we did it we did a play a musical called the Goliath jazz about David and Goliath and uh and I thank you and I played David probably because I'm small I imagine I was David Goliath would have been interesting casting wouldn't ya you should have seen the guy who played maybe yeah and I had a sort of um I was not it wasn't like this is what I should have been doing clearly but I was alright at that you know and I felt comfortable I felt not terrified of and all I was nervous but I'm I thought this is something that is possible look at happen it wasn't until I was maybe seventeen eighteen that I was a new theatre in telling tonigh thought I would quite like to pursue this because because I had been terrified at first at youth theatre and thought looked at people who could sight read and look to people who could do anything vaguely realistically and been in complete all of that and when I got a bit better at it and a bit more comfortable I thought I should try this you know and so try the long road of you know applying the drama school and trying to get into drum you know although and we're talking about how we mentioned career progression and so I just want to pick out three roles we also there in terms of what difference they made to your career the kind of things you offer the kind of things you could do yeah which I think clearly are Tim Canterbury and the office yeah John Watson in Sherlock and then Bill Doyle yeah film but if we take those so first of all um the office yeah I mean that that was a significant step yeahbsolutely was yeah that was when even though it was a relatively when it first went a relatively small show on BBC two with no stars in it it still got more of an audience than anything else I'd done and I was doing more in it than anything else I'd done so yeah that's when people first started to properly know who I was on buses and stuff like that and tubes and it definitely yeah that changed my life change the immediate of my my reality when I would just walk around on the street or yell yeah get on public transport that changed a lot and also it was yeah it was a big door opener in work because every watched it everyone you know everyone in our industry watched it you know but also in America as well I mean that is yeah people in the industry watched it in America yeah but it I was very naive at that time I thought I was willfully naive you know my agency today and I remember him saying in about 2002 you've had a call we've had a call from the people who represent Adam Sandler deadlines talk to you about representing and I said to my closet well okay but we've got phones and we were got why do I have to do anything about that you know they can just call and I wasn't really in a hurry to pursue that sort of thing and I don't know why but I wasn't ready for that I wasn't ready to kind of engage with that because I just thought that's what phones and fax he's reinvented and the email just about the email I don't know but yeah yeah people in America did see it general public hardly anyone saw it but the industry light it but again if you don't get on that bus when it kind of stops for you America is a big place and there are 40,000 good things on at anytime and so it's like yeah you were good in that and now there are loads of other people here because you didn't you know you're on the bus and actors people who don't act I just I'm in all of this I mean you're so writers can write to certainly extent what they want to ride but actors are so dependent on what they're offered yeah and what they audition for and other people getting all the rest of it yes with the office I mean have you generally known when something was a big deal I know but it's a big deal for me that's a that's true I've tried to make that my only gauge I knew there I knew I liked the office on you as to my taste when I read it and then when we did a read-through of it and Ricky made me laugh pretty much more than anyone has ever made me laugh and I thought well we like it this will be good but there's no way we could have known at all where that would take us I mean similarly with Sherlock you know we knew we liked it but you couldn't have guessed what that would be and that hyper naturalistic acting in the office yeah which there was there'd been much less of it then than that yes subsequently from reasons but is that I mean how tell me how you approached that I mean how it was so when the script was sent yeah you knew that was how it had to be darkness had to kind of yeah but you sort of take the lead from the house style you know you kind of learn from each other really and again you know to be fair to Ricky for someone who had no training and no background in acting at all almost everything he knew about acting instinctively was right you know and and to my taste for that sort of style of thing you know you couldn't do gladiator like that but you know maybe maybe you could but yet he was so brilliantly detailed and small and kind of natural but knowing where the funny was you sort of took you lead from that really and I know I've never seen any point with comedy of hammering home the Jones's listen he liked me and again not that I wrote the office but we what we really bonded over was spinal tap and that was I thought there's never been a better mock documentary ever you know there's never been better acting in a mock documentary ever because no one's telling us where the joke is you have to listen and very often the funniest bits in spinal tap art that aren't the big bits they're the bits where Derek says something weird or you know so I think that was a huge influence on us as was Larry Sanders just people not stopping to you know not stopping to tell you what the joke was you've got the audience thing the audience is going to be listening and tuned in and getting it I thought in the clips at the beginning there was a palpable when the hardware clip followed the office because once you have a studio yeah and they're being delivered as rags yes it's really quite startling we see that hardware was a show I really liked script wise Simon I wrote the script for hardware and I read it I have to say already as a single camera non laugh nan lian ugly ya know last show anyway you know it was it was true was it wasn't canned laughter it was an audience like this and people laughed you know we probably turned it up a bit more you know but but it was very different and it wasn't lost on me that people for you know I come out of you know a big hit and cult show at the same time and gone into a brightly lit ITV mainstream sitcom in all honesty that that's not how I read it I really didn't read it kind of like this is another very well written quiet ich komm it so Burzum and again I was a bit greener then I came in as I we were in a a very bright ITV show and it was you know it was it was fine but it wasn't I never thought the show was as good as the scripts work together and it's fascinating I think when we look back from now if we imagine where your career would have been expected to go after ya the office we might have expected hardware and I'd have expected comedy maybe eight born in the West End you might have been offered I don't think we would have expected at all to go into the Eichmann trial and Richard the third and Sherlock so is that um you contributed all to your agent if you want this is that it's that very canny is that very canny career management or is that just how it worked out is that's what all actors won but not many people get it at that range well I think it in all truth is probably a mixture of a few things it's a mixture of what is my genuine taste and what's my determination to do and not do and it's people working on your behalf to kind of just let people know that he's not just this thing this isn't what he wants to do for the rest of his life have you considered him for this you know but ultimate you you still have to deliver it or not and of course it's up to people you know it's people's tastes whether I think I've delivered it or not but you're right I've done thing and I like I'm having a working life that is quite three-dimensional which I'm loving I'm really loving you know and because when I was at drama school I never thought I would he want to be mistaken for a stand-up comedian for the rest of my life you know as was happening for the first few years after the office people assumed that I was from a stand-up background or from a sketch comedy background or whatever and I wasn't I love that and I love making people laugh and I love people making me laugh but that was never the plan you know I wanted to be an actor and I've always kind of thought I was a you know a decent actor who can be funny as opposed to just a comedian you know but it's Theriault typing is so much a risk isn't it for it yeah if you've been in a head yeah it really is that's what people think it really is they offer you and they it becomes so captivating totally yeah but I think I think also there's a funny um Pavlovian response that happens that in a way whatever you do and again I'm not making any claims for myself as the greatest chameleon actor in the world I'm not making that claim but whatever you do people think that they're just seeing what they saw you in 14 years ago but there's no way I can tell you this for nothing there's no way people would say shog is the same character as Tim candy no way they said yeah but but they know it's me so it's easy to say that yummy it's like you're just like you were on front row well yeah because you know I am anyway that's no great time now and some reviews Richard it's not the same performance and yeah so that's when it gets frustrating is when you when you want to speak up for yourself a little bit but of course you speak up and like I am now and now I probably just seemed like at well nobody some reviews of Richard the third said not surprisingly he finds great comedy in this role but there's always been comedy in that role so that's an example event yeah Shakespeare invader yeah sure I improved it no that blame Shakespeare for the comedy and critics um in particular and actually and commissioners they think strongly in terms of genre you have a thing called John where a commissioners in some place but this is this is a comedy this is I mean they don't have a tragedy commissioner as father Nathan but critics things tragedy comedy do you as an actor do you think this is a comedy to subscribe you know and whenever I whenever I thought I've usually been wrong I think in the like like with hardware I kind of thought oh this is going to be that thing and it ended up being something else with all respect to that show it ended up being something slightly different to how I imagined it I read a lot of scripts where I think this is quite this is a serious script and then I I do the job and I find out it's a comedy because people are telling me it's a comedy and people saying these people going to love this motor but I'd honestly don't read it like that because I don't think I um I don't again this is going to sound self aggrandizing but I don't see things in black and white like I just don't think life is that simple it's not I see things on a more complex level mark but I know but I think a good script is more complex than that you know I've said it a million times with that you know nil by mouth is also very funny generally it's not comedy you know The Sopranos is also very common funny but is not a comedy and sometimes Laurel and Hardy is heartbreaking but it's not a tragedy you know there's a well-written script will have everything in it unselfconsciously I think and the other thing that an actor needs is people who believe in them or give them chances and ricky gervais as you've mentioned and Beryl virtually we should mention before receiving the Lifetime Achievement yes award on her behalf as she sadly isn't here but um again she so for you she was another of those figures who well I mean yes yes as well as that you know the rest of the team of Sherlock you know I don't think I mean Stephen stood to put me royally I don't think she was always said him it has to be him I think they you know I think there was a committee about her but it happens that when I'm able to bend your ear about her like I just I just like talking to her surely I love I'm slightly in all of her just the way she's managed to do bit of that and the end of that it's like you forget or Christ then you were also part of that world you know so she's just someone who I think is really interesting for me to speak to because half the things she's done what offered my favorite things when I was 12 you know such as Hancock yeah you know yeah like you know I got that from my parents I suppose because I was you want was born after it you know so it wasn't on telly when I was a kid but I'd have tapes or records and script books and stuff and I was kind of obsessed with Tony Hancock for a long time for a while he was all I drew I was quite a good drawer and I was he was all I drew for ages as a twelve-year-old yeah and you talk about reading script and then the way it turns out sure looks a good example of that because very unusually on the first DVD set there's the pilot yeah which was the abandoned partisan yeah and add and then that yes is in effect yeah redone but with that so when you got that yes script did you again did you think did you see it as a huge opportunity I again there's no way on God's earth you could have foreseen what would happen to it as far as how people receive it as concern but I knew I liked it I knew within about four pages I was really excited and I wanted to go in for it and you know get their job so I went in for it and apparently did a terrible audition where and Michael Michael rang me a couple weeks later and said so they sort of hated you and they seemed like you were a really moody prick and they think you didn't want to I was like no I'm really are it and I might well have been a moody prick but I really did want it um so I went back again and read with Ben and luckily it went better but um yeah I knew that happening so to auditions and to first episodes for that so shows how hard it is to get things on yeah well right yeah I mean it would have regarded it's always yeah it's always hard to get things right but I see I thought the pilot episode was great I loved it you know I think well while we were making that pilot episode we all thought this is really good I still thought it was better than most other things that were on telly and when it was put to me between making the pilot between making a series that with the BBC wanted to make 90 minutes I thought these fools what do they know what's wrong with an hour you know they're going to ruin it with this and I really didn't think it's it just seems like you know no I just felt it seemed a bit silly actually and I was happily extremely wrong yeah and we're talking about technique in this but also um genre is a TV and film do you when filming do you is it even significant to you this is TV this is not at well not at all not in the least no because my job is still the same all actors job is still the same you know you have to just convince the audience that this moment is really happening that's the beginning middle and end of your job I think the other stuff that is different the externals and you know the bit where you where you call cut and then you go off there's either a sandwich or there's a big table of nice food you know that and very often not even that there's not even that difference you know right because most films aren't big-budget and you know I've done a lot of kind of small budget films done a few big budget ones but I've done a lot of things that are not exactly you know throwing money at you or but yeah that's where you notice what the difference is you notice it but not never I never notice it in my job because it's a camera to camera and so um in a fact you complaining about the catering on Sherlock haha me too about that conversation before no the catering zor-el children and again which a lot of actors haven't had you've had the experience of doing Fargo in America Sherlock and other TV here yeah in terms of the production from the food yes and it was quite similar yeah well it's similar but in terms of production process did it feel very different American TV and British TV not really apart from schedule that yeah I couldn't believe how quickly they make quality television it's really quick cuz I thought well you know we we make we're always under the cosh here because there's no money for anything never any time or money to do stuff we would always want more time we would always want you know more of a cushion with that but they make Breaking Bad in like seven or eight days in her episode and Fargo with seven or eight days perhaps oh yeah that really surprised me because that is you know fall of a better word very filmic and it looks like a feature film and it gives so you would assume it's gonna be like three weeks per episodes if they do it really quickly they don't know around there's a great organizational skill behind that stuff but apart from that no it's the same is that the same tribulations everywhere they're saying difficulties the same pleasures the same discomforts yeah I think it's the same and if it's quicker you have to do more work yourself do you have to do you have to turn our bread here to do it I suppose that would be the I suppose that would be the logical things take from there but I think people I think people generally expect you to come prepared you know I think generally people expect you rightly to come and do your job you know and that's what you know that's what with the difference in theater and camerawork generally speaking even a very even a very good camera director be it film or television will probably not tell you as much about acting as a theater director will because he or she will assume that you know we've cast you because you know how to do that thing and you haven't got five weeks of rehearsal to dig around in what this scene really mean just they want you to do it you know so I think the nature of television of film is pretty much that you have to come and be ready to do it here and a Bilbo and which is one of those examples really of physique being destiny isn't it because um you're not Armitage is six foot one and these are bloody dwarf either so but it is but I think in the way people think producers I mean it's very unlikely they I mean like Angus right that actor who's secured eight or something yeah they Polly wouldn't think of him as but that's cos all this isn't a very good actor climber I know Angus he's a show yeah how not yeah they probably wouldn't yeah yes I'm not a very tall person and I guess that's known no yeah yeah but then but truthfully they do say yeah I know what you mean about perception mmm but yeah but again they're buggering about with everyone's high anyway to do and in terms of what it allowed you to do in trailers private jets better catering Oliverio Kate did it make a significant difference well that was you know up to that point and probably for the rest of my life that that's a big number you know as far as production is concerned as far as budget and everything is good we were all very well looked after so yeah you noticed that you really noticed that that you are you are afforded every opportunity to do your job as comfortably as you can let me know you travel and how you looked after and how you eat and where you sit you know it wasn't and again very egalitarian everyone who was on that job it was all you know not one of us didn't get a big trip everyone had the same not huge trailer every one of nice chairs and you know it was I thought it was it was a very good well-run fair job I thought yeah and didn't know did it note noticeably open up other opportunities and you're a colonel no wait whether you're offered lots of small medical breakthroughs a bit yeah after that it cut it yes I guess it did I think I think it well for instance like being offered something like Fargo or probably I'm guessing that wouldn't have happened in the way that it did without being in the midst of those films as I was you know because I think one of the first one had come out the second one was about to come out when I was I was offered Fargo and I yeah I don't think that would have had to go through some hoops I'm sure to get that and it's an awful word but it's that star thing isn't it you you are then classified as a star which is what has happened yes I suppose so um yeah to a certain extent I guess so yeah but then there's like you have to try not to think that I mean you if you're an actor but I mean that is what happened in terms of external % ER yes sir yeah so and there are God knows there are you know upsides and downsides that the upside is wow I was offered a really good American TV show which I don't think I would have had to audition for that and yeah the downside is that well many Delta yeah yes yeah just one no talking I mean what are the downsides more more public attention well yes yeah which is not you know that for you like doing work and you set you know complain about the kind of work that you get offered now and I don't complain about earning a good living that's fantastic of course it but I don't think it I don't really think people go into it thinking god the fame and the stopping pit you know gangs and constantly pictures and signing isn't this great I don't think P I don't really think people do think that I get it I understand it it's not why you get into it at all you know it's not so if you want to go buy some milk and you'd allowed yourself five minutes for that trip and not an hour that is yeah that listen I hate this phrase first world problems because yeah it there's no problems we all live in the first world you know if we didn't complain that first world problem we never complain about anything and that would be awful if we never component it but but yeah it's not a terrible thing but there are it's it's not my favorite thing in the world know that that side of the public perception that and scheduling because Sherlock all of you are involved in other things because the writers also doing doctor who barely come batteries doing everything including Hamlet and Barbican you have me I think he's doing this in a minute yeah he's taking over from me yeah yeah um so that is it Sherlock would always be that problem of carving out enough time when you can you know it does appear that you all want to though well it's the hard thing is you know Steven mark been me everyone is everyone's busy but yeah we make time to do it because from my part I can only speak for myself it's one of the best written things I think I'll ever do it's been beautifully shot it's been beautifully directed and it's yeah you don't think of those things like leagues I don't come along very often if ever in an actor's life so it's worth carving out the time for it but it's I think the upside of that is that we haven't made even if we'd wanted to either who are able to I don't think between any of us we probably wouldn't have wanted to make you know 15 a year but I think for all those people who say make more make more it's like when we did the office why didn't you go on and yell in five years you'd have hated us I think George Osborne has said hasn't be that he doesn't understand why there aren't 20 yeah George Osborne doesn't understand something yeah really yeah easy sound logic it's not being exploited enough as a head okay well yeah yeah better wind but the way it's written and the way it's done you couldn't make him that kind of volume I wouldn't want I mean you know and again it's not up to I'm not in charge of the show but I'm glad I'm kind of glad in a way that we don't do it all the time because I have a very low boredom threshold I really do I want to do other things and what starts off as a real pleasure and feels like play time very quickly can become got for me anyway you know I I didn't get into this world and this to this job sort as a sort of replacement for a proper job I like the unknown I like not knowing what I'm doing next I really do I mean as long as I don't starve to death along with my family all right I like the thing of okay well this is an adventure I'm not quite sure if I'm working for the next six weeks let's try and get something on you know but if it was like nine months of Sherlock the first month would be great in the next eight months would be a Christ really and we'll just open up to the audience in a moment be we've mentioned politics a few times and um you are quite politically engaged and a bit I know I use a figure in the list candor leadership right yeah Labour Party's everyone knows but um actually we got an America we've got someone from entertainment Donald Trump actually going into politics I mean is that something you've ever thought about not at all no because um you know if I watch question time or news night whatever and I'm I can be hissing and booing or cheering whether any one of the people that I don't like or any one of the people who are booing would take me to the cleaners in a debate because this is what they do for a living you know it's like sort of thing I love a fight with that boxer no you won't they'll kill you however much I dislike someone will think they're wrong there take me apart in a debate that's why I would never go on anything like a question time or you know as the celeb none way I mean I know your behalf I'm not Shh you know I'm not sure if I know I'm not sure if I have actually we don't think so oh well no okay well yes and I cannot see now that you only know I would turn it down yeah I'm turning it down before they ask me but no but things that you are asked to sort of pundit on things and yes and I did a little film for the Labour Party last time just because gun to my head that's who I'm going to go with you know but I didn't I would never do it for any party or any person thinking this is the second coming of any but I don't believe in people in that way you know I think it's all it's always the best of a bad lot in politics I really do and it's like this is the most we can hope for as opposed to this will usher in a new great wave of whatever it's I don't believe really that that's going to happen with anybody but um but the reason that I did the labor thing and then didn't do anything after that at all and I know yeah I know I was actually I was asked to do question time don't don't that was a lower assignment thing yeah I was asked to stuff like that in the wake of it as I knew I would be and I knew that I didn't want because I'm not I'm not that animal I can't go on and do that and look impressed I wouldn't have served the Labour Party or myself well at all if I'd get been getting into a set-to with you know David Cameron about anything factual you know I mean I've know more about the Jam than him but that's about it and last one you don't have to answer but we would pass gas and Jeremy Corbyn would be your preference of the four well yes I mean I think I think his critics are right in what you know people who say don't vote for a t-shirt don't vote for a badge or a beard or a beard it's all very well you know if somebody just make it tells you what you think want what to hear and preaching to the choir I totally get that and if it means that you know we're in the wilderness but then it's no good at all however I happen to think that he is the most impressive one of the four you know I do I think all that stuff is true about we should be cautious about what we fall in love with however if I'm presented with the four people who they are I respect all of them because I wouldn't do it and they're all on my team but yeah I think he's the most impressive one as an individual yeah okay let's take him as many as we can in this um it's very crowded so I don't think I'm like we'll try to get my friends around yeah and he'd like to start off anyone yes and lady over there we can get a microphone too and then if someone on that side wants to wait for the microphone we'll do it as many as we can yes hello um you said you weren't often moved to punditry but we saw you lay your heart bare for the jam on Monday night I just wondered why poor weather and Coe was such an exception when it came to something like that what yeah music was my favorite thing and still is my favorite thing since I was five or six I guess you know as an art form it's my favorite art form and yeah I've always loved that I mean I love a lot of people but I love I love the gem and then they were well again I can't over talk it because it's just talking about mute I'm talking about music isn't forgot one they were just a really good band they had great tunes and great lyrics and and they did I wasn't the only person who was partly shaped by that now that doesn't meet you know I'm 43 it's not like I'm gonna think everything I thought when I was 12 but I do kind of think some of those things and that would have been partly down to tutto than the germ and reggae and things that I was listening to as a very small child yeah as someone on the side cough no please do will try and take many as we can hello yes there's a hello we're just look at the microphone up to you unless you don't speak yet don't allowed blue label sound and then again if anyone wants to get that microphone and then we can go straight to the next one can I just ask give you any thoughts on the on the issue of diversity and the opportunities for actors in this country in comparison to America roberson you've done a lot of business yeah I remember idris elba I call it I'd known him a little bit at drama school because he was very good friends with a guy was in my year at Central so I would see a dress kind of social do's and things I remember being on the tube with him about 98 I suppose and we shared a central line journey and and he said I think I'm gonna go to America I really are you why you know what he said because you know there's not really much else to do here you know just opportunity you know opportunities for black actors at that time and probably still are different to what they are in America cut to couple your easing the wire you know and again that's not like and if you go to America this will happen of course not but yeah I think the two there is definitely a feeling among some actors I know that and he's not the only one I know other British actors who have gone and had a different life you know I just think there is a different ceiling maybe there and I I can't be any more profound or intelligent of that but I think yeah I think there is a difference yeah and it's very one over there who wants to yeah I think I'm right that it was em here I like em hey and Paul Andrew Williams that directed you in the Aikman show yes and I'm a big fan of him his assistant once and when I loved London to Brighton and I just wondered what kind of director he is now because he's quite experimental it was quite off-the-wall and what was your experience with him I love Paul he was um very very passionate and kind of like a lot of directors his entire guts were in every moment of of directing that film you saw real pain in his face sometimes you know when things were a bit difficult as again I've never done a job where things aren't a bit difficult 70% of the time and it really shows on its face and I would the thing that I took the Mickey about him of him about was and he won't let me say this why would he was that he looked he looked his look was permanently confused and angry and he of course denies that and he'll hate me of saying it but but yeah he scares a lot you know he cares as much as you want a director to care did he eat a lot of fried chicken no he didn't I don't think he did I think he's must've changed he was being quite healthy it was being quite healthy I think but it's fun yeah good fun I really like what I'm hoped to work with him again there's a script knocking around but we are both quite keen to do together at some point I like him very much great good luck with it thank you okay last chance on this side anyone like to yes gentlemen there with his you've got a loud voice oh should we wait for it no is there a particularly genre I'd like to go after next no um not really no not really and I jump okay no not really no I I guess because I read yeah when I read your script I'm Pierre Lee going on do I like the writing and that it could be it could be any you know it could be a musical set on Mars or it could be a kitchen sink that whatever it is I'm just going on is it well written and has it been written by an individual voice and not a committee is it a true you know is someone telling the truth when they've written it that's all I'm looking out for me so no I don't really consider things like what the type of film it is just whether it's a whether it's a good thing took to my edit totally subjective whether it just appeals to me you know and that can that's a hard one because I don't even sometimes know why I'm rejecting a script or while you know it's not very easy to explain with actual English words but but you just know you feel it you know have you ever turn one down and something else has won an Oscar for or had a huge success with I don't I don't think so yeah not to me them there's no I don't think I have no because also without trying to sound like I don't like her what of course everyone likes getting an award it's great but that but you're also not thinking that when you when you are reading a script you know because if it's not right for you it's not going to be something made right for you just because two years later you win a bit of metal for it you know cuz you have might have been miserable or you might have been feeling like a fraud or you know and that nothing is worth that and I hasten to add Awards are lovely but that but it's not it's not worth doing something that you know is not right for you well Martin Freeman will be accepting an award tonight his extraordinary performance as a Jew which a role he's played for a number of years and undetected very nice yeah on anyway he'll be making that up thank you very much for being such a large and attentive audience and thank you particularly to martin freeman thank you very much thank you very much you

Channel: Edinburgh Television Festival

Views: 58,467

Rating: 4.9603472 out of 5

Keywords: Martin Freeman (Film Actor), Mark Lawson (Author), Talking, Live, Lecture (Type Of Public Presentation), Interview (TV Genre), Television (Invention), Chat, Theatre (TV Genre), Sherlock (TV Program), The Hobbit (Film Series), The Office (TV Program), Fargo (Award-Winning Work), Comedy (Theater Genre)

Id: 82jhEFyPh6s

Length: 41min 26sec (2486 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/haikitteh]

Loved this interview, thank you so much for posting it.