The Unexpected Adventures of Martin Freeman (16 page)

When it was officially announced that Freeman had landed the part, fans were ecstatic. He was just the right actor for the job. His friend Simon Pegg, a science-fiction and fantasy nut, laughed that Freeman would have to do the gruelling convention circuit.

‘Martin’s the anti-me: a soul aficionado and a vinyl junkie – absolutely not a resident of the geek universe. Not the type of person who will relish the attention he’ll get for being Bilbo Baggins. Ha!’ Pegg told
The Observer
’s Tom Lamont.

As with
The Lord of the Rings
films,
The Hobbit
movies were produced back–to-back over an eighteen-month period with principal photography commencing on 21 March 2011 in Jackson’s native New Zealand. Filming ended after 266 days on 6 July 2012. Pick-ups (minor filming to augment a scene) for
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
took place in July. Freeman enjoyed the experience of filming in New Zealand and he was certainly appreciative of it but he missed his family, London, his tailor, his record collection and Bar Italia. He told
Flicks And Bits
in 2013 that ‘It was lovely. I had never been to New Zealand before. It’s as far you can go from London before you fall off the world [laughs]. I knew a couple of the cast loosely from London, obviously my old mate Benedict, but I didn’t know anybody well at first.’

He’s never lived anywhere else but Britain but now he could say he’s lived in New Zealand. He didn’t stay in a hotel, he lived in a house. Kiwis for the most part have a less stressful life than Brits, so there was a different way of living to accommodate to. Freeman found that the locals made it a very easy place to work. The cast and crew, mostly from the US and the UK, have generally stated how at home they were made to feel by the locals.

Aside from Cumberbatch, there were no familiar faces on set so the first day reminded him of going to a new school. A great deal of time was spent rehearsing, which Freeman humorously dubbed ‘Dwarf boot camp’, where he learned how to be a hobbit and the rest of the cast learned to be dwarves or some other fantastical creatures out of the pages of the Tolkien novel. Freeman bonded with Elijah Wood over a mutual love of The Beatles. They ate, drank and got to know each other like chums. By the time the cameras started rolling on the first day of the shoot, they felt comfortable with each other and friendships had begun developing.

‘You find out so much in those first few days,’ he told
Dark Horizon
’s Garth Franklin. ‘You just come along, in a way, and be open and ready and receptive. Bring whatever you’ve got to bring, but don’t bring too much because it’s not a done deal yet. It grew as the weeks and months went on, really.’

In the story, the great wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) convinces Bilbo Baggins to accompany thirteen dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). The cast also included Christopher Lee, Hugo
Weaving, James Nesbitt, Sylvester McCoy, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Ken Stott and Barry Humphries.

Coming from the modern-day Baker Street of
Sherlock
to the Middle Earth of
The Hobbit
was an odd experience for Freeman but an interesting one. It was a challenge but that is the nature of his job as an actor. The film charts Bilbo’s journey, yet it was filmed out of order, which Freeman found difficult, so that brought more homework and training for Martin and his fellow actors.

‘There are lots of things that keep me awake at night, but work isn’t one of them,’ Freeman admitted to
Empire
magazine’s Nick de Semlyen. ‘I mean, no one’s going to die if someone doesn’t like what I do. So I don’t feel a great pressure. The first day of
The Hobbit
was nervy, but in a fun way, and with
Sherlock
obviously the success of the first series helps. At least a few people loved it, so hopefully we’ll have a fair bit of goodwill for the second series. Unless we fuck it up!’

Jackson and Freeman worked well together. The actor was well aware that it was Peter Jackson’s film and that he was in charge; that he knows the world of
The Hobbit
better than anyone else. But it would have been awful for Freeman to travel so far away from his family and to take on a role of that size without having any creative input and without being able to express his opinion. Jackson made enough room for Martin to get involved. There was a great deal of respect between the two men. But, of course, the director had to be pleased with everything. Freeman is the best and greatest critic of his own work though, so he was able to make his own choices as regards Bilbo. Early on in the filming process Freeman and
Jackson discussed who they thought Bilbo Baggins was and how he should come across on screen.

As with
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
, Freeman was far from an expert on the original novel. Fantasy just isn’t his thing.

‘It wasn’t in my orbit at all’ he told
Empire
magazine. ‘I’m not sure it would have been very helpful if I’d always wanted to play Bilbo Baggins. I’d have come up against someone else’s vision. We’re taking the work seriously, but when we’re looking up at tennis balls that are meant to be trolls, it’s got to be fun.’

Freeman had never met Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in Jackson’s
Lord of the Rings
trilogy, and he would have loved to but that was never the original set-up. Martin had Holm’s blessing though, so that created some positivity and Freeman just had to follow his own way into the role. Ian Holm had established Bilbo Baggins as a character on screen but Freeman was conscious not to copy him just for the sake of it. Martin was cast because not only is he an excellent actor but he’s also a good fit for the part. Of course, for research Freeman watched
The Lord of the Rings
films again and in more detail but he didn’t study Ian Holm’s performance as such. Martin knew why he had been cast and it was not because he could copy other actors, but rather because he is a self-styled thespian, perfectly capable of tackling the role. During his scenes he wasn’t thinking, ‘How would Ian have done this?’ He was starting from scratch with his own version of the character. He didn’t feel as though he had anything to live up to – he had faith in himself as an actor and the creative team evidently had faith in his abilities too.

Freeman spoke to
Collider
’s Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub about the role: ‘I think if I was, I don’t know, Jeff Goldblum or someone, then I might be thinking, “Right, hang on, if he’s the older me, I’d better attend more to something else maybe.” Well, grow, for a start. But no, ’cause I think I was always trusted with it. All I was told, which I think was flattery, and probably bollocks, was, “You are the only person to play it.” So I thought, “Well, if they think that, then I’ve got to trust that.” And there’s only so much you can run with someone else’s thing. It’s very helpful, in the way that it’s brilliant as he is always brilliant, and it’s a beautiful establisher of that character, and a very loved one, for obvious reasons.’

The first day on set for Freeman was in Gollum’s cave, so he got to work with performance-capture maestro Andy Serkis, which on its own was an experience-and-a-half.

He told Garth Franklin of
Dark Horizons
, ‘I was working with Andy as Gollum, which in itself is interesting. Fascinating as a baptism of fire, but friendly fire because he’s so good. That character is so beloved and he knows that character, obviously, as well as anybody knows anything.’

Speaking about the experience, Serkis told journalists at Comic-Con in 2012, ‘We were able to shoot a scene in its entirety, on a live set, with Martin’s performance being captured on a digital camera while Gollum’s performance used a performance-capture camera, and captured them both, at exactly the same moment in time. What that does is that there’s no disconnect. The fidelity to the moment, the choices and the beats that you create, between the director and the actors, is absolutely nailed in one. That makes a significant
difference to the believability and the emotion. Therefore, the chances to augment and change the iteration on the fly makes a huge difference.’

This sort of high-scale film was not something Freeman had experienced before – even
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
was not this gargantuan in scope. Freeman felt safe because Serkis knew the character and is an expert at what he does. The first few days on set for Martin were about finding his feet. He learned so much as he was getting to grips with everything on set. It was important for him to be receptive and open to ideas. It was a long stint so Freeman had the chance to look back and ponder if he had done things right. Usually, acting gigs don’t last that long, so it was all a new experience.

Working with all the various technologies and cameras was difficult at first for Freeman, who was used to a more basic style of film-making, but
The Hobbit
was filmed for 3D and forty-eight frames per second rather than the standard twenty-four. A scene would be set up and filmed but then there’d be a technical issue with the new ‘Slave-Mo-Co’ camera system, which would halt filming. Freeman was not a fan of the new technological system, which was used for the Bag End scene with Gandalf and the dwarves. The breakdown of technology was especially prominent in the early days of shooting and the actors found it difficult but they persevered. The multiple takes were mostly down to technical issues. Some film-makers, such as Clint Eastwood, are known for just one or two takes before the next scene is set up; other film-makers, such as David Fincher, could do dozens of takes. Freeman’s experience was mostly in independent films where time is of the essence and filming is
wrapped up in six weeks. Though he is an accomplished actor and had not been out of work since leaving drama school, in this case he was still learning the tricks of the trade. What was good about the technology issues was that they got more opportunity to rehearse so, by the time the cameras were set up for another take, the actors were finely tuned.

3D is a cause of controversy and criticism among film fans. Since the release of James Cameron’s 2009 science-fiction film
Avatar
, 3D has been all the rage with Hollywood film-makers. Of course, ticket prices are more expensive and studios therefore make more money but some film fans believe it to be a phase. ‘I’m not particularly committal or non-committal to 3D,’ Freeman admitted to Garth Franklin of
Dark Horizons
. ‘I never watched
The Godfather
and went, “Do you know what this needs? This needs Fredo’s hand coming out at you.” I think as long as it’s used tastefully, and as long as it’s used to enhance something, that’s fine. As soon as… the medium is the message, then no. I trust Peter. He’s a pretty well-versed film-maker, and he’s got pretty good taste.’

Martin did not realise how small his character and those of the dwarves were until they stood next to Gandalf. Freeman’s scale double wasn’t used excessively though. He got used to the ways of filming rather quickly, much to his surprise.

He told reporters at the 2012 Comic-Con, ‘The first time that we ever shot a scene with Gandalf, where Ian had to be in a completely different room, I thought, “This is ridiculous! This will never work! Who are these people? Why are they doing this to us?” And then, an hour later, you go, “That looks brilliant!” You rehearse it and rehearse it, and it becomes normal. Your whole
frame of reference for how you normally work on a film shifts. What, one minute, is completely unworkable and ridiculous, the next week just works. It becomes very easy, actually.’

Another new experience for Freeman was wearing prosthetics. He got off lightly as he did not have to wear a great deal of prosthetic make-up but some of his co-stars found it very tough. It can get hot and claustrophobic. Filming lasted for upwards of ten months and the cast had to wear this make-up constantly while working, so all this added a lot of stress and discomfort to the work. Who said filming was easy!

British actor Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, spoke to the
Radio Times
’s Susanna Lazarus about working with Martin Freeman: ‘He’s just brilliant. He’s so inventive and he keeps the atmosphere on set really buoyant because he’s got a natural sense of comedy, as Martin but also as Bilbo Baggins. He really experiments with the role and he makes me work in a different way. He’s always having a bit of a laugh but when it comes to doing the serious stuff he can always pull it out the bag.’

Freeman had never previously done such a lengthy job, so it was especially helpful that, despite the huge male cast, there were no egos or falling-outs.

The days were long and the weeks were longer so Freeman and his fellow cast members cherished their days off and used them for a bit of R&R.

Freeman said to
Stuff
’s Tom Cardy, ‘It’s good, it’s always nice to have a day off. But I can’t complain, because on this block [of filming], I’ve had quite a lot of days off. It’s been quite nice, actually. Unexpected, but still relatively rare. Yeah, days off are
always good. However much you’re enjoying the job, and I am enjoying this job, it’s always nice to be out and go and have some Japanese food.’

What did Freeman think of his character, the famed Bilbo Baggins?

‘Bilbo went through a few faces. There were a couple of noses,’ Martin said to reporters at a press conference. ‘They had the idea of having a more snub nose, and then they decided that my nose was weird enough. So it went from a more middle-aged rocker to being what Bilbo looks like now, which is a middle-aged rocker. So it was gradual; it wasn’t one minute you are you and then the next minute you are the character. It was incremental.’

Being a bit of a mod, Freeman even made a joke about ‘Moddit’, with a ‘little paisley scarf, a little bit of brocade. I’m doing what I can. A wine coloured corduroy jacket…’ he told
Esquire
’s Michael Holden.

The Hobbit
takes a different turn from
The Lord of the Rings
. It’s a much lighter, family oriented film but with dashings of darkness. The film sees Bilbo Baggins become a hero, which is ultimately the film’s greatest evolution, but his heroism comes out of necessity. He comes into situations where, unless he does things, he and his friends will die. The history of fantasy cinema is littered with unlikely heroes and, of course, Bilbo Baggins is now one of the most indelible.