Martin Freeman

Born on September 8, 1971, in Aldershot (Hampshire), Martin John C. Freeman is the youngest of five children in a Catholic family. His father, Geoffrey, a Navy officer, and his mother, Philomena, a housewife who had felt the acting vocation, separated when he was very young. He lived with his father for a few years, until he died prematurely of a heart attack, and had to move to Teddington, southwest London, with his mother. There he enrolled in a Catholic school.

Freeman was a sickly young man, suffering from asthma and prone to fainting. Still, he strove to play sports and for five years he joined his country’s national squash team. He left this discipline at the age of 14, just when he began to be interested in acting, and joined a local theater group. Subsequently, he enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London.

After several theatrical productions, he made his television debut with the neighborhood police series , where the actress Amanda Abbington also took part, who turned out to be the woman of his life. Much later, they would have two children, Joe and Grace, the couple. With his wife, he has appeared in telefilms and in the feature film The All Together .

For many years, Martin Freeman was involved in numerous productions, mainly series, without attracting much attention, until in 2001 he became popular, especially in Great Britain, playing the ironic sales representative Tim Canterbury in the hit comedy The Office.

In movies, he participated in Ali G is on the loose , where he was the protagonist’s best friend, and Love Actually , in which he stood out as a porn actor who nevertheless had a chaste and romantic date with his co-star.

Subsequently, he proved that he was more than capable of playing a dramatic role in the BBC historical series Charles II: The Power and the Passion , as Lord Shaftesbury. But he continued to lean towards comedy, with small roles in Zombies Party , and Fatal Weapon (both by Edgar Wright with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost ), as well as the title role in The Hitchhiker ‘s Guide to the Galaxy , a poor film adaptation of the hilarious novel by Douglas Adams . He also headed the cast of the irregular The Girl of My Dreams, where he was a fading pop star, well accompanied on screen by Gwyneth Paltrow and Penelope Cruz .

But the true consecration came to Martin Freeman with the extraordinary BBC series Sherlock , which imaginatively adapted to modern times the adventures of the detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , on the 80th anniversary of his death. The actor plays Watson, who in this version is a medical veteran who was left with a limp after going through the war in Afghanistan. The great repercussion of Sherlock caught Freeman off guard. “After filming I thought it was going to be a success, but not that big,” says the actor. “I think the audience likes to see a friendship; I think they also like to see two guys who get each other’s nerves, but at the same time they can’t live without each other. You can see this in Waiting for Godot.”Steptoe and Son “. In May 2011 he won the Bafta for television supporting actor for this work.

While the series was succeeding, Freeman traveled to Spain to play a brief role as a teacher in Animals , Marçal Forés ‘ modest-budget debut. “I did not accept for the money, but for the script, which has always been my priority,” the actor came to clarify. “My career has gone little by little in pursuit of good scripts. I have sought honesty at work, not having a bigger pool in the garden of my house.”

When Peter Jackson decided that Martin Freeman was the ideal actor to play Bilbo Baggins, JRR Tolkien ‘s immortal character , in his adaptation of The Hobbit , the actor was forced to turn down the role, as the series schedule did not allow him to make both shoots compatible. But Jackson, who was to suffer multiple misfortunes during production, had to undergo surgery for an ulcer. Filming was delayed, and the new dates suited Freeman better, to the delight of Jackson, who had been determined to cast the British actor since he had planned to limit himself to producing, ceding the director’s baton to Guillermo del Toro., who later resigned. Although the book was initially going to give for two installments, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug , Jackson finally announced that there would be a third, The Hobbit: Departure and Return , for its release in 2014.

“I like the fact that most of the roles I’ve played so far are reactive and Bilbo is active: he creates the adventure,” he said of the character, played in Peter Jackson ‘s previous ‘Tolkienian’ adaptations in his version Ripens by Ian Holm . Curiously, before the filming, Martin Freeman had not even read the original book, but afterward he was enthusiastic about it, to the point that he declared himself a fan of the writer.

After filming the film in New Zealand, Freeman faces new projects. He has re-teamed with filmmaker Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in their new comedy, The World’s End .