I read 'Animal Farm' when I was 11, and it remained my favorite book, really.
— Martin Freeman
I value being able to go into a record shop and people leaving me alone.
In my life, the strongest evidence of any fandom is 'Sherlock' - 'Hobbit' fans are positively restrained.
What makes Shakespeare eternal is his grasp of psychology. He knew how to nail stuff about us as human beings.
On the surface, you think you wouldn't have to think at all about being asked to play Bilbo in 'The Hobbit.' It's not prison; it's a good gig. But you know it's going to take a long time, and it does. There are times when you thought: 'Gee, I've not seen my house for months.'
As an actor, you know there are things you get asked to do that you do quite well, with less effort.
I've not been called on to do a lot of accent work.
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.
I'm not particularly affable in real life, I have to tell you. I've got that side to me, of course, but that's not all I am.
Acting is reacting, and it's always easier to react when someone is doing a good job.
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.
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.
Trouble is, some accents lend themselves to comedy.
I've been doing interviews for years, and in all that time, I've virtually never read one and gone, 'Yep, factually and tonally that's exactly what happened.' Pretty much never.
Not all art is great; most of it's rubbish.
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.
I hate the fact that so much of our life is computerised rather than mechanised.
Your slippers last a lot longer in your bedroom. On a film set, they do get very scuffed up.
True heroics, obviously, is not the absence of fear, but having that fear and doing something anyway.
You don't want your children to look at you like you are anything special other than their dad.
I've tried not to treat Shakespeare as a marble giant.
Please God, I'll never be in a war zone, but everything I sort of know about people who come back is that it's a hard transition to make. I mean, even if you've not been in a war, even if you've just been in the Forces, you come back and probably have more fights in civilian life.
My first engagement with any art was music.
There are always challenges to green screen.
I could say, 'I want to play a French-African humpback,' but I probably won't get that role.
I'm not a writer, director or producer.
I love the smaller scenes. I love the smaller, slightly more theatrical scenes.
I don't want to be alone; the thing I love about acting is the other people you're doing it with.
The Marx Brothers isn't subtle, and that's hilarious.
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.
If I could get bands to come and play in my house, I'd like that.
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.
There are lots of things that keep me awake at night, but work isn't one of them. I mean, no-one's going to die if someone doesn't like what I do. So I don't feel a great pressure.
I like things that are simple, such as an alarm clock.
Humour is - how do I say this without sounding pompous - it's a huge part of my life.
If you are a plumber, you can work on a shed, or you can work on a mansion. It's just scale.
Rehearsals are one of my favourite things in the world.
It's more fun playing someone who isn't just a bad guy.
Although there's an inherent light-heartedness to 'Sherlock,' I slightly err towards not doing the comedy.
My ambition is to do what I like and to do good things that I might not have done before.
You're not fully you until life has booted you in the behind.
I work in public.
I have played nasty people, but not everyone has seen that stuff. Before 'The Office,' I mainly got cast as little toe-rags.
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 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?'
I like talky scenes.
I'm a big believer that life changes as much as you want it to.
Americans assume all British people have at least one servant.
As soon as a job finishes, I am done with it. When I'm really, really enjoying the job, I love the job, I want it to end because it's supposed to.
I didn't audition for 'Fargo.' It was a straight offer.
