Martin Freeman calls out ‘annoying’ fans for following him for long periods
By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
British actor Martin Freeman said he has begun confronting “annoying” fans that are tailing him for long periods while he is going about his daily life.
The actor, 53, known for blockbuster film series The Hobbit and crime drama Fargo, has previously spoken about his unhappiness at the fan attention of BBC hit Sherlock.
Freeman is next to star opposite Scottish actor Jack Lowden in the play The Fifth Step, about alcoholism, masculinity and faith, in the West End.
On the BBC One show Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Freeman was discussing spying as Lowden plays a disastrous MI5 agent in Apple TV+ hit series Slow Horses opposite Oscar winner Gary Oldman.
When asked if he had ever been followed, Freeman said that “sometimes you are tailed, I am tailed, occasionally, people follow you around, sometimes, and they think you don’t know, and of course you do know”.
He agreed that “you can call them” fans and said “it’s just people who just want to follow you around”.
Freeman added: “(It’s) not scary, more annoying, I suppose … it’s annoying because they think you don’t know they’re doing it.
“And so occasionally I do just turn around and go ‘look, what do you want?’ And they’re like, ‘how did you know? (And I say) ‘Like because you’ve been doing it for half an hour and you’re not in MI6’.
He also said he tries “to reason with people” and explain he is “not a prop”.
Freeman spoke in 2018 about a return for a fifth series of Sherlock as assistant John H. Watson and said that people’s expectations of the show are “not fun any more”, adding: “It’s not a thing to be enjoyed.”
Lowden recalled to Laura Kuenssberg meeting a woman who told him “Thank God you’re here. I feel safer” in the airport at baggage reclaim, and he had to explain that he is not a real-life spy.
He added: “She felt safer because I was there in the baggage reclaim area. But I don’t work for MI5. I’m an actor.”
Freeman’s comments follow Robbie Williams calling out multiple requests for selfies that cause him “discomfort” and “panic”.
The Let Me Entertain You singer, 51, who has a well-documented history of depression and other mental health issues, urged fans to give celebrities the “dignity of their privacy, their wants, their needs” on Instagram earlier this month.
Lowden also talked on the BBC show about being cast in a Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen novel Pride And Prejudice as the single, rich and proud Mr Darcy who falls for Elizabeth Bennet (Emma Corrin).
He joked that he quite likes “the idea of being a ginger Darcy. I think that that’s really breaking down barriers, one of the great last barriers to be broken down”.
Lowden, 34, added: “I quite like the idea of sort of me coming along and doing something else with it, or just copying one of them, because some of the guys that have played it are among some of the best.
“I mean, (Matthew Macfadyen) to me, is one of the best actors on the planet, so if I just try and copy him, maybe that’s all right.”
Macfadyen starred in the 2005 film of the novel opposite Keira Knightley and Colin Firth played Mr Darcy in the TV series adaptation in 1995.