Martin Freeman isn’t "grateful" of the attention he receives.
The 46-year-old actor can’t walk down the street without fans stopping him thanks to his glittering movie career – which has seen him land roles in major blockbusters, including ‘The Hobbit’, ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War’ – and while he insists he’s not "unfriendly" and a "decent person", he thinks people don’t realise he is his "own person" not just character in a movie when they meet him in real life.
In an interview with Guardian newspaper, he admitted: "I think I’m a pretty decent person. I’m not horrible or unfriendly. But I’m my own person and I think sometimes people think ‘affable’ is going to mean ‘doormat’ or ‘just grateful all the time for any attention’ – and I’m not.
"I’m not grateful for the attention – quite the opposite, 80 per cent of the time, dependent on the context. This is work and I want people to see my work, so it would be silly for me to be arsey in this situation. But when you’re out and about, people have an idea of whoever you are and I think they have a different idea of, say, Ray Winstone than they would of me. Maybe not now – word’s got around by now."
The ‘Ghost Stories’ star – whose latest role sees him take on infected father Andy in Netflix’s zombie thriller ‘Cargo’ – began his career playing Tim Canterbury in the original UK version of sitcom ‘The Office’, but he says he’s tried very hard ever since not to be known for one genre in order to have a long career as an actor.
Martin – who has 12-year-old son Joe and nine-year-old daughter Grace with his former partner Amanda Abbington – explained: "If you’re not careful, you’ll never get out of it until you are too old to be a lovable Tim from The Office type – and then you won’t work again because that was your bit. I wasn’t a comedian and I had a very deep hunger to not just do that."
Martin Freeman ‘isn’t grateful’ of attention
