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Martin Freeman Talks About All the 'Daunting' Prep for 'The Hobbit'

by Alex Billington
February 4, 2011
Source: UKPA

Its been about four months since British actor Martin Freeman was officially confirmed as playing Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's two-part adaptation of The Hobbit. If you recall, there was a moment last year where Freeman actually declined the offer, because he was obligated to shoot the rest of BBC's "Sherlock," but re-accepted when they delayed it for him. We haven't heard much from him since regarding his role, but the UKPA (via TheOneRing.net) finally posted quotes from Freeman and he seems excited and nervous. "It's very daunting - the daunting part is leaving home… I'm very excited though," he told Modcast's Eddie Piller.

The Hobbit is going to shoot for more than a year and production starts in the next couple months. "It's very daunting - the daunting part is leaving home," Freeman reveals. "I'm a real homebody, even before we had children, I was a homebody, so with children it's like aww… I'm very excited though." Freeman goes on to recall how he didn't accept the offer at first and the emotional ups-and-downs until everything worked out.

"I had to turn it down because of being contractually obliged to do the second series of Sherlock for the BBC, which we are doing in the middle of this year," he recalled. "I turned it down with a very heavy heart because things like this don't come your way very often. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as far as scale is concerned. It's a huge, huge deal. But I was contracted to do Sherlock. I wanted to do both."

The dad-of-two added: "When I found out I couldn't do both it was very sad. And then it was very flattering when Peter Jackson rearranged the filming around my availability."

Reading these quotes as text online, he doesn't sound very enthusiastic, but I can understand as he's about to take on a huge undertaking and there are millions of fans breathing down his neck hoping he delivers a performance worthy of Elijah Wood/Ian Holm. Plus, it really is a massive burden to move his entire family down to New Zealand and shoot there for a year. Freeman doesn't say anything else, so as expected he's not talking much about the role itself, but I'm still excited to see this get underway with Freeman. I'm a patient fan and more than anything I want this to turn out wonderful, so it's best to sit back and let Jackson and his cast/crew work for the next year without putting too much pressure on them. Good luck Martin - have fun!

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