Following the success of The Office, Martin Freeman has become one of Britain’s most sought-after comic actors, appearing in hits like Love, Actually and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now he’s taking a slightly more serious turn, co-starring with Gwyneth Paltrow, Penelope Cruz and Simon Pegg as a disaffected ex-pop star trapped in a failing relationship, who meets the woman of his dreams, in his dreams, in The Good Night.
IGN: Your character Gary tries to live out his dreams. Have you ever had any really striking or recurring dreams yourself?
Martin Freeman: I’ve had several really tangible dreams about UFOs and they’ve been amazing! You know that sort of everyday quality that you get in a couple of scenes in Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] where these lights fly over a road and it somehow seems tangible, somehow seems real. I’ve had a few of those dreams about UFOs where it’s been absolutely clear that this is the day that the world changes and it’s very exciting. I’ve not had one of those for a while, but I love them when I have them!
IGN: Ever get abducted by the aliens?
Freeman: No, it never gets that far and I suppose that’s the thing, dreams are never that literal are they? It’s never a proper sort of narrative, they’re more a series of random events.
IGN: How did this role come your way? I understand [writer-director] Jake Paltrow wrote it for you…
Freeman: I don’t know if I was the first actor he had in mind but I was certainly one of the first. I was really pleased because it showed some nous on his part that he was prepared to take a punt on me because I wasn’t exactly what you’d call a huge movie star.
IGN: Did you know what he’d seen you in?
Freeman: I presume it was The Office, he might have seen me in Love Actually, but I really don’t know what else. I spoke to him while I was making Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and it’s not like I’ve done 100 films anyway. It’s not like he could have seen me in Zulu and A Bridge Too Far…
IGN: He managed to assemble a very glamorous, starry cast, including Penelope Cruz and his sister Gwyneth.
Freeman: There was very little ‘starriness’ happening on the set, which was good, considering there were major stars around. It’s always encouraging to know that it is possible to be a huge star and be relatively normal.
IGN: Was the Paltrow brother-sister dynamic ever awkward to be around?
Freeman: Gwyneth wasn’t involved initially. Obviously she and Jake are close and Gwyneth had come along wanting to throw her hat into the ring and be in it from the get-go and Jake had nicely said ‘No, I don’t want that to happen, it’s my first feature and it’ll just look too cute.’ But then as time went on, it just transpired that there’s a really good actor, who knows the material, who knows the director, who’s volunteering her services, and I’m guessing, for a slight cut in her fee! I think it was the right choice, I love Gwyneth in it and I loved being around her.
IGN: You and Simon Pegg are good friends off-screen and known for real laugh-out-loud comedies – was there an appeal in doing something together as darkly comic as The Good Night?
Freeman: I can’t speak for Simon but it was certainly an appeal for me. Simon’s obviously very funny and I must admit I lobbied for him to be in the film. He’s very truthful and very un-egotistical as an actor, he serves the piece that he’s in and gives 100% all the time – sorry, it sounds like a football manager! The fact that he and I already know each other pretty well, it was good to have that short hand in the film.
IGN: So what’s up next – playing Rembrandt in the new Peter Greenaway film Nightwatching? Were you a fan of his?
Freeman: Some of it, yeah. I don’t suppose he’d expect anyone to be a fan of all his work – I doubt he’s a fan of all of it. I think some of it is really beautiful and quite compelling and I hope Nightwatching is. I’ve never had an experience like it. It’s one of those where if Peter Greenaway asks you to play Rembrandt, you don’t think twice. But you do think, ‘that’s an odd offer…’
IGN: It’s hard to imagine Peter Greenaway sitting down with The Office DVD box set…
Freeman: Well that’s the thing, I think he did! I was sitting around trying to suss out what it was he’d know me from and I think it was that.
IGN: Speaking of The Office, have you ever watched the U.S. version? Is it of any interest to you what they’ve done with it?
Freeman: I’ve not seen many of them but I think it’s really good, yeah. It’s different enough to not be annoying in a way, they’ve done their own thing with it – obviously heavily based on ours – but they’re all too good for it to not work, particularly Steve Carell, who’s pretty much a master.
IGN: What about your own ambitions to do more work in the U.S. – several of your Office co-stars have taken their chance…
Freeman: It really depends on what it is. It genuinely does because of course some big American films are absolutely brilliant and some of them aren’t, but that’s the way of everything. I don’t write anything off without reading a script and if it’s a good one, I’ll consider it, whether it’s for $20 or a million dollars.
IGN: Moving further away from comedy?
Freeman: I suppose most of the things that I’ve either gone towards or have come my way – I’m, not Chuck Norris, you know what I mean?! I’m not an action star, those things don’t really come my way and I guess there’s a reason for that. But you know, if there was a great Chuck Norris film, I’d read it…
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The Published article can be read on IGN – ‘Martin Freeman Q&A’