I think the only directing I'd be any good at is theatre directing. It's the only thing I can see myself doing.
— Martin Freeman
If you want your film to be instantly green-lit, your first approach is not to go to a relatively unknown English actor. They're not going to throw millions of dollars at you for that.
'The Hobbit's a big gig. It's a huge circus that you become a part of.
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.
I like being called 'Mr. Freeman' occasionally.
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.
I can live without endless television programmes and films just centered around computers. I can sort of live without that.
I like life to surprise me.
I wasn't like a Fifties dad.
My job as an actor is for you, so why should my private life be for you, too? That's not fair.
I was on record before I did 'The Hobbit,' saying I don't care at all about 3D. And I suppose I should now say I care a lot about 3D. I've always loved 3D, I think everything should be 3D, and I think it's just a shame 'The Godfather' wasn't in 3D.
I have less than no interest in trying to replicate another brilliant actor's work, thank you very much.
It's hard talking about acting, in a way, because it's like explaining a joke: I do think it loses something in the telling.
Are there many Tims in America? I don't know if I can think of many American Tims.
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.
We all know the films that have affected us from the age of nine onwards, that mean so much to us.
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!
Television is where the great movies that used to exist have gone.
Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and Al Pacino made me want to act. I've always been interested in men with a vulnerable side.
You absorb 2,000 years of history just by being near the Thames.
Without sounding overly pompous about it, I don't really trust certainty in anything, actually. Especially as I get older. Except love. I'm certain of love, I guess.
I like the idea of not everything happening between two human beings to be everyone's property.
If it were purely up to me, my kids would probably be vegetarian Catholic Marxists.
My main priority in any job is when is the soonest I can get back to the three people I love most in the world.
'Sherlock' is one of the biggest things I will do, ever - we could never have predicted that level of insanity around the series.
I have no opinion on 48 frames a second at all. I'd be completely unsuitable to talk about that.
I love watching Billy Bob, just as a punter anyway. I like his work. But working with him is really easy and really straight-forward. He's immediately good. He doesn't have to work up to it. He doesn't make your life difficult. He listens. He's a very good listener, in terms of his acting.
I've always liked clothes, since I was a kid.
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.
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.
I'm always interested with other actors in what their process is, and are they still interested in acting, as opposed to being a star.
It would be a shame for me if I were to become 'Mr. Half-Hour Sitcom.'
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.
If you're alive for more than five minutes, you're going to be disappointed.
The best of American television is thought-provoking, original, brilliant, exciting - from 'The Sopranos' on, whether it's 'The Wire' or 'Breaking Bad' or 'House of Cards,' they're fantastic pieces of art.
I grew up in the suburbs, so I remember arriving at Waterloo and seeing Big Ben and the coloured lights on top of the Southbank Centre and thinking, 'Wow!'
I hadn't grown up with 'The Hobbit;' I hadn't grown up with 'Lord of The Rings,' anything like that.
I like uncertainty in roles, and I like uncertainty in art, really.
It's more fun to keep stuff secret.
I'm quite a disciplinarian: I can be a shouter. But I can be a very demonstrative kisser and hugger.
There are about 20 people in my life that I want to love me, and none of them are the 'Daily Mail.'
I love eating. I mean, I really, really love eating.
We can all look on the Internet and go, 'He hates me! Oh, but she loves me. Oh, but he hates me,' you know. And that way, madness lies.
I'm just a sucker for a good script.
I've been well-known in Britain for a long time.
I'm afraid I don't have a very pragmatic or unromantic view of props. I don't imbue them with any great sense of mystery or anything.
I like the quiet life sometimes. I also love a bustling press conference sometimes as well. I love a 600 metre red carpet.
Even someone as truly dark as Lorne Malvo is still very attractive, and you want to spend time with him because he's a fun character.
