Martin Freeman: 'In London our prejudices are more subtle, less lethal' | Martin Freeman

Gervais is Gervais, too bright and too giggly; Mackenzie Crook the kind, laconic pragmatist; and now I've interviewed the third of my hat-trick from The Office, Martin Freeman, and I have to say: wowza! Searingly intelligent, angry, direct, caustic, lefty, sweary, as stunningly far from "Tim" as you could get, because, as I fast realise,

The ObserverMartin FreemanInterview

Martin Freeman: 'In London our prejudices are more subtle, less lethal'

Martin Freeman tells Euan Ferguson about the brilliance of Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, multiculturalism in London and the Beatles

Gervais is Gervais, too bright and too giggly; Mackenzie Crook the kind, laconic pragmatist; and now I've interviewed the third of my hat-trick from The Office, Martin Freeman, and I have to say: wowza! Searingly intelligent, angry, direct, caustic, lefty, sweary, as stunningly far from "Tim" as you could get, because, as I fast realise, he's a real actor.

He's in a play, at the Royal Court, Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, about racism and property, the first half set in the 1950s, half now, in America, and is quite happy with his Chicago accent, and talks with such wit and insight about racism, and the corollary: political correctness gone not mad but simply haunted by the anti-intellectualism of its birth.

"It was just so well-written. I started to read it not necessarily expecting to think of doing it – it's a while out of your life, and most things I don't want to do – but, within pages, such wit, and a real nice nastiness to it. It's also got people of different colours, different classes, echoing things that were said by people 50 years before but about a different colour or sex or power or class – it shows how things shift, and it's magnificent. It's about prejudice – literally, to prejudge a situation."

And, yes, as a lefty, he does worry about multiculturalism, a bit. "In London we give ourselves a pat on the back, rightly, for not killing one another, for our prejudice being subtle rather than lethal. But nor are we waking up every morning saying, 'I can't wait to speak to my different X or Y neighbours about food or music.'"

And he's on, accidentally, to the Beatles, music being his other passion, and of course to the amazing success of BBC1's Sherlock, in which he played Dr Watson. "Look, it sounds arrogant to hell, but I remember reading an NME interview with McCartney and they'd been in Abbey Road, doing Sgt Pepper, when everyone was saying: 'What's happened to the Beatles?', and it was, 'Just you wait, just you fucking wait until this comes out.' Same thing happened. I knew it was great, writing great, Benedict fucking great… I really must stop swearing."

The signs look good for a recommissioning, he says, but, apart from that he doesn't have a specific life-plan, acting wise; he just wants to be true to himself in picking the parts, because "I've always got my eye on my deathbed. Will I be proud, or think I've sold out? I've got an overly developed sense of what selling out is, and I of course worry about it too much. Having said that, I am aware I am very lucky to be able to afford to say that. But if you are lucky enough to have some career or financial buffer to allow you to say that, then why wouldn't you? You'll last more than eight minutes that way."

There was so much more. This is a truly good actor; a truly good man.

Clybourne Park runs until 2 Oct at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, London SW1

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