Over on AICN, Quint recently had a long chat with Martin Freeman about the conclusion to The Hobbit, and his own role as Bilbo within the three films.
As well as chatting about the effect of the three-film split, working with Peter Jackson and a his own acting process. As Quint points out, “he’s also pretty blunt about Bilbo taking a back seat at this point in the story.” Click the link at the bottom to head to AICN and read the whole interview.
Quint: Before we get going on The Battle of the Five Armies, I wanted to first say how great I thought you were in Fargo.
Martin Freeman: Oh, thank you. I very enjoyed it. Thank you very much. I was quite pleased with the results.
Quint: Lester is the best weasel I’ve seen in a loooong time.
Martin Freeman: (Laughs) Oh, good. Thank you.
Quint: I love that pretty much every episode I went from “No, I see where he’s coming from… I’m kind of with this dude…” and getting into arguments with people about it and then the next episode would come on and I’d go “Oh, no! Everybody’s right. He’s a horrible human being!”
Martin Freeman: All credit possible to Noah Hawley. He’s a very clever writer.
Quint: Last time that we talked about Hobbit stuff was on the set way back at the end of the production. Back then it was just a rumor going around the set that they were considering breaking it up into 3 movies.
Martin Freeman: Yeah, yeah. And the rumor became true!
Quint: I’ve always been kind of unclear on what the decision entailed for you and the other actors. I know that the first cut of Movie 1 when it was just two movies was very long, so I guess I want to know if the further split meant significantly more work for you or did they just end up pretty much having enough material for three films in what they shot.
Martin Freeman: For me it entailed a few more weeks of shooting. There was always going to be pickups. There was always going to be an additional block in 2013, but the extra film meant there was more addition stuff. For me it was just a few weeks more. It wasn’t a very, very long time, but it was long enough to go “Okay, we’ve got a third film!”
Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party
We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a toast to all SIX movies, both LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit.
