We've hardly been sitting down very long when Martin Freeman starts giving GQ the finger. "That, to me, is quite an aggressive statement," says Freeman, dryly. "Do you not think so?
Huh. It must just be my intent behind it." His delivery is almost totally deadpan - to the point we briefly think we've done something wrong - until his lip twitches slightly and he breaks into that wry smile, the one that typifies Freeman's performances.
Everyone laughs.
It's this uncanny ability to traverse the fine line between prickly and charming as deftly as - well, a Hobbit - that has lead to the recent blossoming in Freeman's career, from Office love interest to full-blown global star. Following a turn in this summer's Pegg-Frost comedy The World's End, this winter sees Freeman return with a new series of Sherlock and the second instalment in Peter Jackson's Middle Earth prequel.
As such he's sat in a dimly lit suite in Claridge's Hotel in a Paul Smith military jacket, jeans and penny loafers, talking to
GQ about suits for awards season, Sherlock erotica and his problem with the GQ best-dressed list...
**GQ: As it's a big thing on the internet at the moment, can you explain the middle-finger thing?
** Martin Freeman: [Smiles] No. There's no explanation - it was just me being silly.
**Was it always a running joke, or do you just not like the guy who films the Blu-Ray extras? ** It turned into a running joke, but it started just as a one off thing... because I'm infantile, I thought it would just be funny to do that. There wasn't any great comic plan behind it or anything. I didn't think it would be shown publicly. I thought it was the sort of thing they might put on a gag reel for a rap party. I don't mind, but it's vaguely rude, isn't it? In America it's like, "He's flipping us the bird" but to me, when I do that, it's a bit more offensive than that. It's certainly meant more offensively than that.
**Have you found your life has massively changed since the first Hobbit last year? Do you go to Japan and get chased around like Benedict Cumberbatch?
** I haven't felt that, no. Whenever I've been anywhere else, I've not been chased by people - it depends where I am and how visible I am. You can still be reasonably invisible. Not that I want to be - despite what people may think I've not gone through life trying to be anonymous. At the same time I want to have my private life and you can't have that if people are screaming and shouting at you while you're in a restaurant. I don't mind standing out in some ways.
**But you don't go out of your way to stay anonymous?
** I don't go out of my way. I'm very protective of my privacy - but I'll play it by ear on the day. Some days there are certain things where I think "Actually I don't want to talk about that at all" and I'll steer [interviews] away from that, and then other days when I think "OK, I don't mind talking about that today."
**In Time Out recently, you revealed that Sir Ian McKellen emailed you about erotic fan art on the set.
That must be a surreal experience.
** Well I already knew about that fan art for a long time, but he emailed me saying "Have you seen this?" We have a pretty open, quite liberal relationship... [Laughs] I think he knew it wouldn't freak me out. But that whole thing is its own phenomenon now, the Sherlock erotica. I think the first time it happened I thought, "Wow, that's well drawn." You know, some of it is really generally well done. It's not for me. If you're the subject of it... it's not for me and Ben to judge it really. Whatever pleasure people get out of it then fair enough.
**Benedict has played a lot of villains this year. You were once in the running to play the villain in The Lovely Bones. Do you wish you could do more of those roles?
** Yes, if there is any plan ever it's to play as much as possible. Not to big myself up too much, I think I play a lot within a second, do you know what I mean? You're not saying I am, but if I was someone who was playing one thing all the time, that would be something else. But I think I'm quite capable of bringing out colour and shade in any character.
**Particularly in this film. And in The World's End you don't play a particularly nice guy.
** No... and again I wouldn't say that's my Hamlet. I wouldn't say that was the part I was born to play either. I guess pre The Office, which was the thing that made me famous, I was more of a blank canvas for people. I think once that has hit in people's subconscious, it casts a long shadow, you know? I don't know - I think Ben's only played too villains, hasn't he? Khan and Smaug.
**Depends on your viewpoint of Julian Assange.
** I suppose so. If you're the US State Department then yeah, he's a villain!
**There has been a big mod revival recently and you and Bradley Wiggins share a tailor in Mark Powell. Do you associate yourself with the tag?
** Not any fashion tag. I think you are what you are. But it would be silly for me to deny that that has been a presence all my life. Modernism, for want of a less lazy word, that has definitely informed me - musically, stylistically, just outlook-wise, I suppose. I like the minimalism of it but also the peacock element of it and sometimes the wholly impractical nature of it - not style over content but style over practicality. The long march that we've all done towards tracksuit bottoms and hoodies and trainers the entire time? I'm not having it. I like people making an effort for themselves and those around them.
**Mark Powell told us Quadrophenia ruined modernism because "now everyone equates it with parkas and mopeds." That or The Jam.
** Sure. Quadrophenia gets it in the neck a lot of the time. Although you show me a bigger Mod than Paul [Weller] - it's in every phase of his being.
**If you look at old photographs, Weller dresses the same way now.
** But that's the template, you know? He's been around every part of it. For me that's the beauty of modernism: you can knick bits from here, there and everywhere. The one thing I think it should never be is a uniform. But there's no question there are parameters - it's a very broad church, but there are limits.
**Do you get a bunch of new suits every awards season?
** No. It's not regular as clockwork, it's just something that I've got more into as time's gone on, I guess. And to be honest you can't do that when you're joining the dole. Having a bit of money helps, no question. I always had an eye, and I always had an opinion, but you don't always have the bread to do it. Now I can afford to have suits made I do. I do love having it done - but then I get very impatient. I want it tomorrow.
**There's still something about having a bespoke suit.
** It's all those little things - which are, you know, very mod. I think that's why I've been attracted to modernism, because I recognize something in that. Not having to necessarily scream "I'm wearing this tie!" or "I'm wearing these shoes!" but for other people of a like mind - I don't even mean for mods, I mean for people who just like clothes - they spot that and go "oh, nice." It might take you ten minutes for you to realize that someone's got a certain detail on their pocket, and I love that - that it's not all surface. You might spend a whole day with someone until you say "Jesus, those trousers are fantastic."
**Which other labels do you rate? I read you're a big fan of Albam, who have just launched suiting.
** I like Albam. The last thing I bought in there was this sort of orange - I'm always attracted to a bit of orange - kind of zipped-up smock which looks nice with say a Smedley or something with a collar underneath it. I've been going there for years.
It's my "arctic mod" penchant. A bit mod with a bit of Captain Scott in there.
**What's your best piece of style advice?
** I would say you can get away with wearing almost anything - any price, anything - if it fits you properly. Sometimes it takes a long time to say, "Why don't I look as good as I thought in this?" It's because it doesn't fit properly. If it doesn't fit on the shoulders and the sleeves are an inch too long. I've always been militant about not having too much of a break in trousers. But it took me a long time to realise, "Of course, this is just too long here". You could buy a suit from Marks & Spencer, get it tailored to you, and you could look a million dollars.
**Actors are particularly bad with ill-fitting trousers.
So you don't have a stylist then?
** All bullshit! Death to the stylist. Death to the stylist and the people who benefit from them. Death! What offends me is people end up going "Oh, he's so well dressed." Saving your presence, GQ does a lot of that. "That man, he's so well dressed." Bullshit! See that man when he picks his own fing clothes. GQ and other men's magazines should know a lot better - if you love clothes, go for people who love clothes. You get these identikit fing singers, actors, celebs... someone will just come in who knows a lot more about clothes than they do. They shouldn't be considered best-dressed, their stylist should be best-dressed! It really pisses me off, because I do love clothes and I do care about them. I know it's not Nelson Mandela, it's not that important, but it is important. Especially for a magazine and a movement that purports to be about great clothes - celebrate people who love clothes, then.
**There's something about individualism, too.
** Of course it is. But you have no individual style if you just go "Yeah, I'll have A, B or C". Whatever, that's not you. You haven't gone out and fing done that! You don't need money to have an interest in it. It's the interest. But if you've been dressed like some fing prick actor - which most actors are dressed like - and someone says suddenly "Here, have a well fitted suit", all of a sudden you're in the best-dressed men! It's bullshit. I haven't been this exercised I think since Nelson Mandela was alive and he'd just come out of prison. I used to care about important things... now it's socks.
The Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug is out now.
