Martin Freeman almost turned down the lead role in ‘The Hobbit’ film series because he worried it would be bad for his family life.
The 47-year-old actor spent more than two years working on the series in New Zealand but had been reluctant to sign up for the films as it meant being away from his then-partner, Amanda Abbington, and their two children for such a long time.
He said: "It wasn’t an easy ‘yes’. I went to New Zealand in January 2011 and my last day was July 2013 – two-and-a-half years between the beginning and the end."
And the ‘Sherlock’ actor admitted it wouldn’t have been fair to ask Amanda – who he split from in 2016 after 16 years together – to uproot her life and career in the UK to join him on location.
Speaking at his Bafta career retrospective, ‘A Life in Pictures’, he added: "I was going to be away for a long time and Amanda, who I was with at the time, she’s an actor, a brilliant actor, and it wasn’t the 50s [so] I didn’t feel I could say, ‘Right, you’re coming with me.’
"She had her own life, her own career."
Martin – who has children Joe, 13, and 10-year-old Grace with Amanda – previously admitted working on ‘Sherlock’ with his former partner as husband and wife John and Mary Watson wasn’t much fun as they were going through their separation at the time.
He said: "She was and remains one of my favourite actors, I think she’s a fantastic actor."
Asked how it was to work with her on ‘Sherlock’, he said: "Awful! No, it was good, I really love working with her.
"By the time of the last ‘Sherlock’ that we’ve done we were sort of in the midst of splitting up, so that wasn’t that much fun, but when we weren’t in that midst it was great."
Martin Freeman almost rejected Hobbit role
