Martin Freeman: Nice, but not Tim

Martin Freeman made his name as the hapless romantic of The Office, but his role as a chancer in BBC1's The Debt is the change of direction he needs, he tells James Rampton

In the past, Martin Freeman has taken jobs as a cleaner, a caterer and a kitchen porter to make ends meet. His career as a jobbing actor became a thing of the past, however, the moment he took the role of Tim, the voice of sanity in BBC2's brilliant sitcom, The Office. After two series of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's multi-Bafta-winning series about the dysfunctional workforce at a Slough paper merchant's, the actor was propelled almost overnight into being one of the hottest properties in television.

It is obvious to Freeman why The Office struck such a chord. "I think what really resonates about the show is not that we've nailed what it's like to be in an office, but that we've nailed what it's like for people having to work with each other anywhere. It shows the crushes and the frustrations and the unfulfilled ambitions that happen in all jobs. It's not Dostoevsky, but it's true."

Gervais, who plays David Brent, Tim's boss and one of comedy's greatest ever self-deluded monsters, echoes the theme of the show's universality: "If you work for Nasa or the Cosa Nostra, I bet it's all the same. 'Why's his chair bigger than my chair? I've been an assassin longer than him and he gets to sit nearer the water cooler'."

Viewers particularly warmed to Freeman's character of Tim, an Everyman figure who is continually thwarted in his desire to storm out of his job and ride off into the sunset with the object of his unrequited love, Dawn (Lucy Davis).

It has turned Freeman into a perhaps unlikely heart-throb. "I'm under no illusions as to why that is," says the actor. "It's just because Tim is the most empathetic character. Brad Pitt I am not. It's just that I play a likeable bloke and don't actually look like Quasimodo."

Audiences were also drawn to Tim's all-too recognisable flaw, his inability to carry out his ambitions. "He pussies out," Freeman explains. "He doesn't do what the whole audience is willing him to do. He plays it safe - and that's what people do in real life. I really admire the show for that. At the end of the first series, he didn't go off and become an award-winning psychologist. He stayed in his job for an extra 500 quid a year, and he didn't have a fight with Lee, Dawn's boyfriend. There was nothing heroic about it. It was as downbeat and as dreary and as disappointing as life is."

Described by Richard Curtis, no less, as "the greatest programme ever", The Office has put a rocket launcher under Freeman's career. "If you are in something that's successful, it's like you've been rubber-stamped as a safe bet," he reckons. "And that's reflected in the scripts you get."

The 31-year-old isn't going to let it go to his head, though: "Just sleeping at night and knowing you're doing something good is fine by me. So often, British actors make noises in America, and then get offered rubbish parts. What's the point? Getting an extension on your swimming pool is not what I want out of life. It would be easy to get carried away thinking how big you are, but I'm sure the vast majority of people don't even know who I am - I'm not Robbie Williams. Even though people come up to me in the street and say things, they still don't know my name. To them, I'm just 'that bloke'." Freeman, it seems, would be more than happy to continue to be seen as "that bloke".

For all his meekness, however, there's one subject that's guaranteed to make him erupt into passionate invective: our society's obsession with celebrity. "We're inundated with the idea of celebrity, but it's basically half a degree up from pond life," Freeman says, becoming suddenly animated. "Fame for its own sake is a subject I could bore on about for hours. We have reached a zenith in this country of people becoming famous with an absolute lack of talent.

"Fame is not about achievement anymore - it's about having been on TV for more than two hours, whether you're Fred West or someone from Big Brother. I don't give a shit about being famous. I don't respect that world of trying to get as many column inches as possible."

Consequently, on any given evening Freeman is much more likely to be on his sitting-room sofa than on a red carpet outside a glitzy first night. "I don't go out much," declares the actor, who lives with his girlfriend, the actress Amanda Abbington, in north London. "I like home comforts... I stay home with my girlfriend, my records and DVDs. In the showbusiness sense, I'm really very boring. Home's the best place in the world. Why would I want to spend the night at a premiere with the reserve list from a Five soap?"

Freeman may have to be even stricter about turning down invitations over the next few months, because his profile is only going to rise. Recently, he has taken leading roles in projects as diverse as Curtis's latest romantic comedy, Love Actually, BBC1's historical serial, Charles II, and the ITV1 comedy drama, Margery & Gladys.

But, first up, Freeman is starring in The Debt, a new BBC1 drama which starts on Sunday. He plays Terry, the wastrel son- in-law of Geoff (Warren Clarke), a safe-cracker who is desperately trying to go straight. When Terry falls behind on his debt repayments to a local hood, Geoff is forced to take on one last job to bail out his son-in-law. Not surprisingly, Geoff introduces Terry as: "Chancer, adulterer, would-be businessman, son-in-law, dickhead."

Freeman is slightly kinder about his character: "Terry's one of those people who can't stop getting involved with things that he shouldn't. He's a dreamer and has high hopes. I suppose he's a bit of a lovable rogue. I don't think he means to let his family down - he's just a bit of an idiot." The role is very far removed from sensible Tim - and emphasises Freeman's versatility. "I'm eager to have my cake and eat it," stresses the actor, who trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. "I know the rules are 'You're either a comedy person or a straight person', but those rules can strangle you. I don't want to be just trying to get out-and-out laughs until I'm 80, any more than I want play the Dane for the rest of my life. I'd like to have a balance. I'd be as proud of being a Stan Laurel as I would of being a Robert De Niro."

So does Freeman think that viewers will accept him in more serious roles? "I suppose I'll find out when these different dramas start coming out and people say, 'What the hell is he doing?'," he laughs.

Of course, he hasn't by any means abandoned comedy. Freeman has recently been working on the Christmas special of The Office. It will be absolutely, definitely, unequivocally the final ever outing for this most treasured of sitcoms.

Freeman believes that going out at the top is "frankly the right decision. The Office has been the biggest comedy hit for a long, long time, and there must be massive pressure on Ricky and Steve to make 400 more episodes, but I trust them to resist that pressure at all costs.

"The longer you go on, the more embarrassing it gets," he continues. "For me, the difference is between being the Beatles and the Stones. One of them knew when to stop. Look at Fawlty Towers. There were only 12 episodes, but everyone thinks there were about 50. Let's explode in glory."

It hasn't all been plain sailing post-Office, however. Hardware, the ITV1 shop sitcom Freeman starred in earlier this year, was greeted with far from critical acclaim. "The bad reviews didn't get me down," he recalls, "but, boy, do you remember them. They're Xeroxed in your mind rather more than 'Isn't Martin Freeman good?'."

All the same, he is making strides towards a greater diversity of roles; he is no longer destined to be forever tagged as "nice guy" Tim. Which is good, because, "I don't want to be likeable for the rest of my life."

Whatever his status, however, one thing won't change: Freeman's desire to run a mile from the very whisper of the word "celebrity". "You won't ever find me in Hello!. Well, not unless I have seven kids and need the money."

'The Debt' starts on BBC1 on Sunday