Martin Freeman Quotes

Actors are people who are doing a job they want to do, which isn't the case for many of the people who watch what we do.

I like out, I like the outside world.

I suppose the real cult things now are independent films made for a million pounds.

I think the world needs to see more of my face.

I like being called 'Mr. Freeman' occasionally.

Most people aren't these grandstanding heroes.

Trouble is, some accents lend themselves to comedy.

I like the idea of not everything happening between two human beings to be everyone's property.

It's a funny thing, 'The Office,' because millions and millions and millions and millions of people didn't watch it. But culturally, it is more of a phenomenon than almost anything else I can remember as far as British television is concerned.

I've got a pretty good musical ear, and I can pick things up.

I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man, but nothing winds me up more than people saying, 'Chill out' to me when I'm irritated!

I can live without endless television programmes and films just centered around computers. I can sort of live without that.

We all saw it as a love story. Not just a love story, but those two people who do love each other - a slightly dysfunctional relationship sometimes, but a relationship that works.

I work in public.

I think when see you a character on the screen who is actually being touched by the world, and the stuff is actually landing on him, it makes you empathize.

If I could get bands to come and play in my house, I'd like that.

Like with anything, good writing suggest itself pretty strongly.

Benedict (Cumberbatch, who is playing Sherlock) looks amazing. He's still got a Sherlockian silhouette, with a large overcoat, but in a classic cut. Watson dresses with an urban elegance, a touch of old school dashing, giving a feeling of both the military and medical profession. I suppose it's something they have in common as well. They're a bit metrosexual.

I've always been attracted to darkness.

I can't actually believe how good 'The Sopranos' is. I genuinely am dumbfounded by it. It's like when you realize how good The Beatles are, and you think, 'How did they do that?'

If you are a plumber, you can work on a shed, or you can work on a mansion. It's just scale.

You have to, in a way, just get your head down and do the work and not expect every day to bring riches and not expect every minute to bring wild excitement, 'cause it just doesn't. It doesn't on films, anyway.

Your job, as an actor, is never to just do what you're told. That's boring, and life is too short. It's your job to bring something, and it will either be to other people's taste or your own taste, and you have to try things out. Actors say, "Well, as long as the director's happy," but I don't believe that and I don't agree with that. I want the director to be happy, but if I'm not happy, I won't sleep at night.

We all know that people who've never been on a film set think it's way more glamorous than the people who work on them.

I didn't audition for 'Fargo.' It was a straight offer.

I guess like any friendship, marriage, or whatever it is familiarity breeds more contempt, and more love. They're just more settled with each other now.

[On his Emmy win] I thought 'ah, very, very nice' and then I went to sleep.

I think acting is all about the other people. Sounds like a worthy thing to say, but it's true.

I always kind of think if The Beatles were still around now, people would've lost interest quite a long time ago. Seven years of recording - it's there forever. I think not outstaying your welcome is a vital ingredient.

I've been well-known in Britain for a long time.

My ambition is to do what I like and to do good things that I might not have done before.

My mum was Labour-voting, but wanted us to know we were important. Basically, everyone's equal, but you, my children, are a bit better.

The reason I've never gone for pilot season even as a younger actor, and wouldn't entertain that sort of thing now, is the idea of signing a piece of paper that binds me for six or seven years.

As an actor, you know there are things you get asked to do that you do quite well, with less effort.

I read 'Animal Farm' when I was 11, and it remained my favorite book, really.

It's a bit like a fledgeling duck, finding your flippers.

I don't think anyone looks into their family tree and expects it to come up smelling of roses.

I like the quiet life sometimes. I also love a bustling press conference sometimes as well. I love a 600 metre red carpet.

You absorb 2,000 years of history just by being near the Thames.

I value being able to go into a record shop and people leaving me alone.

I enjoy fighting scenes. I like fighting in film. I like pretending to fight in films.

I like bootcut jeans in a plain style with a nice line.

'The Hobbit' would have been very difficult to pass on, do you know what I mean? It's not the kind of ship that comes into dock very often.

To my mind there are not enough things that show the Nazis as human, as smart people, charismatic people, who are not inhuman naturally. But who are able to be fantastically inhuman when they choose to be.

Every actor is riddled with insecurity, of course. But weirdly, I don't really find that I'd be daunted with taking on roles or anything.

Thank you, people of Emmyland. To be nominated in such company is an honour, especially for two shows that I'm immensely proud of. I'm delighted.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of things American - but when American people do British stuff, it's so universally dreadful.

With superheroes and comics and fantasy and sci-fi being absolutely the popular currency in cinema, it's like people have said in endless magazines, it's the revenge of the geeks and all that. There's some truth in that.

Fans want to see a story with characters, and they want to see a story.

There are still things technically about films that I think are a mystery to me and I want to remain a mystery. I don't particularly want to know what everyone's job is because I've got lines to learn.

I don't want to be poor, of course. But I try not to make that the guiding force behind whether I choose to do something or not.

I have no opinion on 48 frames a second at all. I'd be completely unsuitable to talk about that.

I think I'm less gloomy than I used to be - I've got a very supportive other half.

In London we give ourselves a pat on the back, rightly, for not killing one another, for our prejudice being subtle rather than lethal.

I only really watch my own films, I don't watch any other films and I don't particularly like any other actors.

Although there's an inherent light-heartedness to 'Sherlock,' I slightly err towards not doing the comedy.

Like, honest to God, I don't expect people to be into what I'm into.

I've had several really tangible dreams about UFOs, and they've been amazing!

There's a difference between the parts that I play and who I am and who people think I am. There's quite a big discrepancy sometimes between those things.

Being an actor is just like being any other sort of self-employed person - we're all just happy to have a job in the first place, but we also thrive off the uncertainty of it.

However happy the director is, I have to be okay with it. I'm pretty strict with myself, about throwing things out or trying to be true to whatever the situation dictates.

I did a play once where a reviewer said, 'Martin Freeman's too nice to play a bad guy.' And I thought: 'Well, bad guys aren't always bad guys, you know?' When I see someone play the obvious villain, I know it's false.

Humour is - how do I say this without sounding pompous - it's a huge part of my life.

I love eating. I mean, I really, really love eating.

What makes Shakespeare eternal is his grasp of psychology. He knew how to nail stuff about us as human beings.

I hate the fact that so much of our life is computerised rather than mechanised.

I don't have sentimental attachments to characters at all.

Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and Al Pacino made me want to act. I've always been interested in men with a vulnerable side.

I don't get cast as the guy who steps off a yacht in a white linen suit with a martini.

Name anything - high-definition TV, computer obsolescence - and I'm pretty much annoyed by it.

All my life, I've felt people are looking at me. So, when I became known, it was like, 'I'm not imagining this any more. People genuinely are staring at me. Oh, Christ, now they're coming over!'

I think what 'The Hobbit' and Middle-earth deal in are quite universal and timeless themes of honour and love and friendship ... so they're things that do resonate with people.

In my life, the strongest evidence of any fandom is 'Sherlock' - 'Hobbit' fans are positively restrained.

I buy DVDs. I don't really buy CDs unless they're for other people.

You don't want your children to look at you like you are anything special other than their dad.

I would wear a full-length cape if I could get away with it - I do love a good swirl in a fog.

I think people just like seeing friendship. I think people like seeing people who just drive each other up the wall, but at same time, can't live without each other.

I don't like affectation.

I think the only directing I'd be any good at is theatre directing. It's the only thing I can see myself doing.

Coming back from doing 'The Hobbit,' you think 'Sherlock' is realistic, but of course, it's not that realistic.

This isn't meant to make me sound interesting and rock 'n' roll, but I wouldn't want to live with me a lot of the time.

'Sherlock' is beautifully done, if I may say so myself. Even if I wasn't in it, I would like the show.

I wanted to be an actor because I saw 'Dog Day Afternoon,' you know what I mean?

I don't like 'cool telly.'

My idea of a good night out is staying in.

I'm not posh or common, I'm in between.

Organised religion, organised anything, requires commitment and requires an engagement with something. A lot of the time, we don't want to commit.

It's more fun playing someone who isn't just a bad guy.

The one thing I've found is that someone always knows more than you do, including your babies. There are loads of things people presume I know about that I don't.

It's more fun to keep stuff secret.

I'm very proud of 'The Office' - it was one of the best things I'll ever do. But you do become a slight victim of your own success in the sense that people think that's you, that's what you are, and that's what you'll play forever.

Why does everyone have to pretend to be stupid and not know long words?

The Marx Brothers isn't subtle, and that's hilarious.

If you're alive for more than five minutes, you're going to be disappointed.

On the one hand, we're constantly told about recycling and cutting back, and on the other hand we have to buy the next gadget that comes along three weeks after the last one you bought. It's absolutely insane. We've been suckered into buying and buying and upgrading and upgrading. We're being given two very different mantras at the moment, I think.

I'm geek royalty now.

Acting is the only thing I'm even vaguely good at and acting is something that I think I do know about.

I've never been to a festival. I'm a creature of habit, mashed-potato comfort, I like rugs. Our sofa's squishy. Maybe too squishy - it's hard to get up sometimes.

I like things that are simple, such as an alarm clock.

I am a fan of the Coen brothers. I'm not a fanatic. I'm a big admirer. They create unique worlds, and there is a real atmosphere to their films. Not everyone can get that. That's a massive part of their appeal: you can recognise them. Like all the great directors or artists, you know it when you see it.