![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Okay, folks. I must take a break from my attempting-to-lie-around-sick-all-day (it's not working: I have small children) to celebrate a special occasion that perhaps nobody cares about but me: it's the big Four-Oh of my favorite actor in the world, Martin "Freakin' Awesome and Also Adorable" Freeman. I doubt anyone understands my utter, complete, total, and other synonyms for "all-encompassing" infatuation with this man. This is a shame, actually, because he is, as I've said, Freakin' Awesome and Also Adorable, and every sane person ought to be feeling the same way (even though I get irrationally jealous of other people who claim to be madly in love with him. He's MY Imaginary Husband! MINE, I SAY!). Still and all, he's totally underappreciated, and it IS his birthday (and one of those big round ones at that), and this IS my blog whose primary purpose is to allow me to rave geekishly over things I love in the vain hope I can get other people to love those things too, and so I declare today Martin Freeman Appreciation Day at Amy's Library of ROCK. Here, then, is my love letter to my Imaginary Husband. I sent him a proper, serious, sane fan letter once (example of sanity: I did not claim to be Imaginarily Married to him). But this one's more for YOUR benefit than his, so it's a bit less sane and more... EXCESSIVE. Because that's what blogs are for.
It was Fatelike and Mysterious from the very beginning, because over six years later I still remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard of him. It was the summer of 2005: I was sitting at the silkscreening station in the Children's Museum allegedly prepping the newspaper bins with proper-sized sheets of paper, but I'd gotten distracted by the entertainment section of said stack of newspaper, which had an article about the new movie adaptation of my #21 favorite book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It sounded interesting enough, but I kept staring incredulously at the utterly ordinary-looking no-name guy they'd gotten to play Arthur Dent. Who WAS that guy, seriously? All the big names in this movie and they pulled that really boring-looking fellow out of nowhere to play the lead? And yes, I AM aware that it wouldn't make any sense for Arthur Dent NOT to be completely-ordinary-looking, and yet I was still, irrationally and rather pugnaciously, Unimpressed... which, as anyone who has ever watched a romantic comedy knows, is a sure sign that we were Meant To Be.
Because of course he turned out to be the BEST THING ABOUT THAT MOVIE. Halfway through, to my surprise, I started to get restless and panicky any time he was off-screen, and at the end I found myself horribly jealous of Zooey Deschanel, which admittedly shocked and confused me as I'd always considered myself Ford Prefect's girl. Martin Freeman's Arthur Dent was perfect. He was better than perfect. He was perfect, BUT AWESOMER. For the next five years I had this odd Tourettes-y problem whenever the subject of the Hitchhiker's movie came up in conversation, which involved me shouting "ARTHUR DENT WAS PERFECT... wait, what, sorry, what were you saying again?" And then, minutes into watching the movie with COMMENTARY track, I realized I was crushing on the man himself, not so much the character: this funny, sweet, thoughtful man with a whole variety of unique opinions on odd things (many of which I shared)...also there's the British thing, need we mention. I'm a sucker for the British thing... and I went all squishy. Although I was also somehow left with the impression he was gay... which, seeing as I was married and also, you know, DIDN'T ACTUALLY KNOW HIM, was a moot point. This turned out not to be true, actually: he's in a committed relationship with a woman and has two kids. And as I am also still married with two kids-- and still don't actually know him-- it's still a moot point. BUT MOOT POINTS CANNOT STAND IN THE WAY OF TRUE LOVE! ...okay, wait, what was I talking about? Right, anyway,
so five years go by without me actually seeing him IN anything else, though whenever I see him mentioned anywhere (which either happened more often or I just NOTICED it more-- probably both) I can't help smiling... BUT THEN, Sherlock. Please say you've watched this show, people. Nearly no one I actually know personally has, though it seems to be wildly popular among people I only know vaguely from the Internet. If you haven't, people I know personally, I hereby invite you to my house for a marathon ofMartin Freeman ogling Sherlock watching, it will be so much fun, I promise, because it is JUST a FREAKING FUN SHOW. Look, as a stubborn Dr. Watson fangirl, I judge all Sherlock Holmes interpretations on the strength of (ie, amount of respect paid to) the Watson, which means most film versions fail epically. MARTIN FREEMAN IS THE GREATEST WATSON EVER. EVER. He makes him such a deep, believable, REAL character, so that you can totally see him writing his blog in his head (it's a 21st century Holmes, if you didn't know), and he manages to balance admiration and exasperation perfectly. Lest you think my fangirling has biased me, let me point out that he totally won the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award (short explanation: British Emmy) this year for the part. ("Supporting Actor," HAH. Just because HIS name isn't in the title...)
So, still high on the Awesomeness of Sherlock a month or so later, I'm at my parents' and somehow in the course of completely unrelated conversation my mom says, "Wait, you haven't seen any of the original British version of The Office yet? Let's watch it tonight!" and I say "Okay," though in my head I have added "of COURSE I want to see my Perfect-Arthur-John-Dent-Watson in his first major role, what?" Only to sit in UTTER AWE of this man, this man who can be hilarious and heartbreaking at the very same time, who can make you adore and ache for this miserable loser, who can deliver the most ridiculous lines with a perfectly straight face (not exactly true, as it turns out: watch the outtakes sometime); and right about the time that stapler went out the window, something SNAPPED, and the little voice in the back of my head suddenly got Really Big and said, with Utter Certainty, "I. NEED. TO. MARRY. THAT. MAN." Exact quote. Instant Imaginary Betrothal. Not entirely sure when the Imaginary Wedding took place, but it must have been shortly after that-- yeah, and it was that very night I had the first of many dreams wh-- um, *AHEM* Anyway, so, point being, I completely Lost It, and although my mother INSISTED we stop our Office watching after only two episodes because there's only so much Ricky Gervais a person can handle in one sitting, I decided there was Absolutely No Such Thing As Too Much Martin Freeman, and made a point of striving toward that impossible limit from that moment forward. And still haven't reached it. I will never, ever get enough Martin Freeman.
And this has proved to be a very good year forstalking him finding more and more of him all over. First, there's Peter Jackson and his noble goal to get us REALLY FRIGGIN' EXCITED about The Hobbit movie YEARS AHEAD OF TIME, YOU PSYCHO, YOU. I can't help it, I AM excited, not in the least because he's gone and made the most brilliant casting decision in the history of the world. Don't believe me? Watch his first Production Video from last spring. Go ahead, spend the first ten minutes basking in the joy of seeing Bag End and Rivendell again, and generally admiring Martin of course whenever he shows up (and snorting over his rather ridiculous taste in suits), but most importantly, LISTEN TO THAT LAST LINE, the last line of the whole video (which is, of course, the first line of the book). What is so great about this is that, the first time I saw this, the first thing I thought was, "Ah, that's Bilbo Baggins, there." And, after an auditory double-take, "...wait a second, no. That's only the guy you've been madly in love with for four months PLAYING Bilbo Baggins." YOU explain how somebody can completely nail a character, such that the listener knows in the depths of her soul exactly who it is, IN ONE LINE OF VOICEOVER. Really, Martin Freeman's history of Completely Nailing Iconic Literary Characters is a pretty unbreakable streak by now, isn't it.
He's a brilliant actor, and I know he doesn't get credit for it (except that BAFTA thing), because it's so easy to take him for granted. He plays Put-upon Everymen. Seems like typecasting because he's so dang good at it. WHICH IS WHY HE'S BRILLIANT. Each one of those characters is easy to take for granted BECAUSE he makes each of them so thoroughly believable. There's a respect for the reality of the character, the deep truth of the character-- you never get the sense that he's just putting on a show, playing a part-- for the course of the story he's not at all Martin Freeman, he's whatever sorry fellow he's SUPPOSED to be, thoroughly and completely (okay, and all his characters tend to be hopelessly adorable every time they so much as smile. Or frown. Or stare blankly. Or...). He's certainly not just playing himself over and over (dudes, think about it, Put-upon Everymen they may both be, but there's a HUGE gaping difference between Tim Canterbury and John Watson otherwise), it's just that every man he plays just FEELS THAT REAL.
But speaking of him playing himself, I realize I never properly completed the thought I started above, which was that this has been a great year for stalking him for several reasons. SO, SECONDLY, I discovered the great resource that is Sherlock Fandom. SHERLOCK FANDOM IS CRAZYPEOPLE. Says the woman writing a post about her Imaginary Husband. No, they really are, they're scary, but this also makes them really brilliant at gathering up every possible slightly related bit of information about, for example, the show's stars, which has allowed me to spend entirely too much of my spare time reading interviews and watching obscure British television shows that have been uploaded in bits and pieces on YouTube. And much as I am a fan of his acting, it's his BEING HIMSELF that I've come to adore most of all. For one thing I SWEAR WE ARE SOUL MATES. Through some bizarre cruel twist of the universe we ended up born on separate continents and hitched to other people, BUT WE ARE, NONETHELESS. Witness his huge vinyl collection! And how he totally defended Paul McCartney's honor! We could sit geeking out to records and debating the minutiae of rock history for DAYS together!
Seriously, though, it's more than that. He's hysterically funny and yet takes things quite seriously, thoughtfully, in general. He's utterly, comfortably ordinary* and at the same time a bit contentedly odd. He can be wickedly snarky but it never crosses over into cruel. He's actually exactly how I've always envisioned Henry Tilney (yes this is the third time I've linked you to that post today-- it's too easy for me, just copy-and-paste, so if you don't want to actually click on it anymore, I'm not forcing you), except, you know, modern. And technically older, but my impressions of Henry Tilney were built when I first read Northanger Abbey as a teenager and now it is shocking for me to read it and realize how much younger than me Henry Tilney is (when I'm in my 80s, Henry Tilney will be 90 in my head. It's just how it works).** Anyway, in short, a) he's exactly the sort of person I'd be friends with in real life, and b) he, by all accounts, appears to truly be one of those Good People I'm always going on about, the ones I can only hope to emulate. Here is a fan's adorable account of a run-in she had with him, which seems to be typical of anyone who's ever met him. From people who've encountered him just briefly to good friends, anyone who talks about him gets this quiet, private smile before they speak, only to use a lot of words like "wonderful" and "dear" and "lovely" and "...just great. That's all." And you really can see it, when he interacts with people in a not-acting capacity on film, you see the way he looks at people and talks to people and talks OF people as if he's genuinely interested, genuinely cares, truly respects that person as a person. Which, come to think of it, is probably what makes him such a great actor. He truly respects his CHARACTERS as people, too.
So maybe I haven't convinced you to fall QUITE as madly in love with him as I am after all this incredibly long post (which is quite all right, since he's MINE! MY Imaginary Husband! Back off!), but I believe I may have made enough of a case for his Freaking Awesomeness that you can join me in celebrating this auspicious day.
* and yes, I still think he's utterly ordinary-looking. BUT THAT'S A GOOD THING. Ordinary is far more likely to be adorable than flashy is.
** Also, you know you really have passed the point of Official Grownup No Return when you realize you have a crush on a 40-year-old man and he can't even properly be considered an Older Man to you anymore. 6 1/2 years older. Which is practically nothing at this stage in the human life cycle. He's only 3 years older than my Real Husband. My brain is boggling slightly.
It was Fatelike and Mysterious from the very beginning, because over six years later I still remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard of him. It was the summer of 2005: I was sitting at the silkscreening station in the Children's Museum allegedly prepping the newspaper bins with proper-sized sheets of paper, but I'd gotten distracted by the entertainment section of said stack of newspaper, which had an article about the new movie adaptation of my #21 favorite book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It sounded interesting enough, but I kept staring incredulously at the utterly ordinary-looking no-name guy they'd gotten to play Arthur Dent. Who WAS that guy, seriously? All the big names in this movie and they pulled that really boring-looking fellow out of nowhere to play the lead? And yes, I AM aware that it wouldn't make any sense for Arthur Dent NOT to be completely-ordinary-looking, and yet I was still, irrationally and rather pugnaciously, Unimpressed... which, as anyone who has ever watched a romantic comedy knows, is a sure sign that we were Meant To Be.
Because of course he turned out to be the BEST THING ABOUT THAT MOVIE. Halfway through, to my surprise, I started to get restless and panicky any time he was off-screen, and at the end I found myself horribly jealous of Zooey Deschanel, which admittedly shocked and confused me as I'd always considered myself Ford Prefect's girl. Martin Freeman's Arthur Dent was perfect. He was better than perfect. He was perfect, BUT AWESOMER. For the next five years I had this odd Tourettes-y problem whenever the subject of the Hitchhiker's movie came up in conversation, which involved me shouting "ARTHUR DENT WAS PERFECT... wait, what, sorry, what were you saying again?" And then, minutes into watching the movie with COMMENTARY track, I realized I was crushing on the man himself, not so much the character: this funny, sweet, thoughtful man with a whole variety of unique opinions on odd things (many of which I shared)...also there's the British thing, need we mention. I'm a sucker for the British thing... and I went all squishy. Although I was also somehow left with the impression he was gay... which, seeing as I was married and also, you know, DIDN'T ACTUALLY KNOW HIM, was a moot point. This turned out not to be true, actually: he's in a committed relationship with a woman and has two kids. And as I am also still married with two kids-- and still don't actually know him-- it's still a moot point. BUT MOOT POINTS CANNOT STAND IN THE WAY OF TRUE LOVE! ...okay, wait, what was I talking about? Right, anyway,
so five years go by without me actually seeing him IN anything else, though whenever I see him mentioned anywhere (which either happened more often or I just NOTICED it more-- probably both) I can't help smiling... BUT THEN, Sherlock. Please say you've watched this show, people. Nearly no one I actually know personally has, though it seems to be wildly popular among people I only know vaguely from the Internet. If you haven't, people I know personally, I hereby invite you to my house for a marathon of
So, still high on the Awesomeness of Sherlock a month or so later, I'm at my parents' and somehow in the course of completely unrelated conversation my mom says, "Wait, you haven't seen any of the original British version of The Office yet? Let's watch it tonight!" and I say "Okay," though in my head I have added "of COURSE I want to see my Perfect-Arthur-John-Dent-Watson in his first major role, what?" Only to sit in UTTER AWE of this man, this man who can be hilarious and heartbreaking at the very same time, who can make you adore and ache for this miserable loser, who can deliver the most ridiculous lines with a perfectly straight face (not exactly true, as it turns out: watch the outtakes sometime); and right about the time that stapler went out the window, something SNAPPED, and the little voice in the back of my head suddenly got Really Big and said, with Utter Certainty, "I. NEED. TO. MARRY. THAT. MAN." Exact quote. Instant Imaginary Betrothal. Not entirely sure when the Imaginary Wedding took place, but it must have been shortly after that-- yeah, and it was that very night I had the first of many dreams wh-- um, *AHEM* Anyway, so, point being, I completely Lost It, and although my mother INSISTED we stop our Office watching after only two episodes because there's only so much Ricky Gervais a person can handle in one sitting, I decided there was Absolutely No Such Thing As Too Much Martin Freeman, and made a point of striving toward that impossible limit from that moment forward. And still haven't reached it. I will never, ever get enough Martin Freeman.
And this has proved to be a very good year for
He's a brilliant actor, and I know he doesn't get credit for it (except that BAFTA thing), because it's so easy to take him for granted. He plays Put-upon Everymen. Seems like typecasting because he's so dang good at it. WHICH IS WHY HE'S BRILLIANT. Each one of those characters is easy to take for granted BECAUSE he makes each of them so thoroughly believable. There's a respect for the reality of the character, the deep truth of the character-- you never get the sense that he's just putting on a show, playing a part-- for the course of the story he's not at all Martin Freeman, he's whatever sorry fellow he's SUPPOSED to be, thoroughly and completely (okay, and all his characters tend to be hopelessly adorable every time they so much as smile. Or frown. Or stare blankly. Or...). He's certainly not just playing himself over and over (dudes, think about it, Put-upon Everymen they may both be, but there's a HUGE gaping difference between Tim Canterbury and John Watson otherwise), it's just that every man he plays just FEELS THAT REAL.
But speaking of him playing himself, I realize I never properly completed the thought I started above, which was that this has been a great year for stalking him for several reasons. SO, SECONDLY, I discovered the great resource that is Sherlock Fandom. SHERLOCK FANDOM IS CRAZYPEOPLE. Says the woman writing a post about her Imaginary Husband. No, they really are, they're scary, but this also makes them really brilliant at gathering up every possible slightly related bit of information about, for example, the show's stars, which has allowed me to spend entirely too much of my spare time reading interviews and watching obscure British television shows that have been uploaded in bits and pieces on YouTube. And much as I am a fan of his acting, it's his BEING HIMSELF that I've come to adore most of all. For one thing I SWEAR WE ARE SOUL MATES. Through some bizarre cruel twist of the universe we ended up born on separate continents and hitched to other people, BUT WE ARE, NONETHELESS. Witness his huge vinyl collection! And how he totally defended Paul McCartney's honor! We could sit geeking out to records and debating the minutiae of rock history for DAYS together!
Seriously, though, it's more than that. He's hysterically funny and yet takes things quite seriously, thoughtfully, in general. He's utterly, comfortably ordinary* and at the same time a bit contentedly odd. He can be wickedly snarky but it never crosses over into cruel. He's actually exactly how I've always envisioned Henry Tilney (yes this is the third time I've linked you to that post today-- it's too easy for me, just copy-and-paste, so if you don't want to actually click on it anymore, I'm not forcing you), except, you know, modern. And technically older, but my impressions of Henry Tilney were built when I first read Northanger Abbey as a teenager and now it is shocking for me to read it and realize how much younger than me Henry Tilney is (when I'm in my 80s, Henry Tilney will be 90 in my head. It's just how it works).** Anyway, in short, a) he's exactly the sort of person I'd be friends with in real life, and b) he, by all accounts, appears to truly be one of those Good People I'm always going on about, the ones I can only hope to emulate. Here is a fan's adorable account of a run-in she had with him, which seems to be typical of anyone who's ever met him. From people who've encountered him just briefly to good friends, anyone who talks about him gets this quiet, private smile before they speak, only to use a lot of words like "wonderful" and "dear" and "lovely" and "...just great. That's all." And you really can see it, when he interacts with people in a not-acting capacity on film, you see the way he looks at people and talks to people and talks OF people as if he's genuinely interested, genuinely cares, truly respects that person as a person. Which, come to think of it, is probably what makes him such a great actor. He truly respects his CHARACTERS as people, too.
So maybe I haven't convinced you to fall QUITE as madly in love with him as I am after all this incredibly long post (which is quite all right, since he's MINE! MY Imaginary Husband! Back off!), but I believe I may have made enough of a case for his Freaking Awesomeness that you can join me in celebrating this auspicious day.
* and yes, I still think he's utterly ordinary-looking. BUT THAT'S A GOOD THING. Ordinary is far more likely to be adorable than flashy is.
** Also, you know you really have passed the point of Official Grownup No Return when you realize you have a crush on a 40-year-old man and he can't even properly be considered an Older Man to you anymore. 6 1/2 years older. Which is practically nothing at this stage in the human life cycle. He's only 3 years older than my Real Husband. My brain is boggling slightly.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 03:29 pm (UTC)From:(I hope Jason isn't too jealous of your fictional bigamy?)
And YESYESYES Martin will be SUPERB as Bilbo. I am SICK that I have to wait so long to see the film!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 07:34 pm (UTC)From:I am glad you find lunacy a worthy quality in a friend. Finding lunacy a worthy quality of a friend is in itself a worthy quality of a friend.
Also, if YOU had just gotten that dang Ukranian Mushroom back to Peter Jackson sooner, maybe you wouldn't HAVE to wait so long to see The Hobbit. Or I just need to hurry up and finish that story.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 07:43 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)And I think it is a worthy quality in a friend to find worthy the finding of lunacy... oh nevermind.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 07:48 pm (UTC)From:Sorry.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 07:53 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 08:27 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)You have weird taste in men.
Seeing who you are married to, and who you are imaginarily married to - I guess you know that.
That is all. :)
Also...are you coming on Saturday?
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 09:17 pm (UTC)From:And here I was going to mention how isn't it a clever astrological coincidence that this is someone else's birthday today, too, which must be why he's such a handsome little dude? But maybe you would find that mildly insulting.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 09:00 pm (UTC)From:I am nowhere near as familiar with Martin Freeman as you - only really know him from Sherlock and the forthcoming Hobbit movie (I have almost lost all faith in Jackson's ability to pull this off, but the darn man keeps luring me back in. Mr Thornton - I mean, Richard Armitage is one lure; Martin Freeman is another), but he does seem incredibly charming, and nice, and hey, anyone who can make you think of Henry Tilney is just fine in my book.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 09:24 pm (UTC)From:And yes to any and all indications of Henry Tilney love, always!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 07:21 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 05:59 pm (UTC)From:...I do suspect I get more sympathy/agreement from people who've seen him in Sherlock first. Makes sense. Though even among those people the huge loud contingency of "Cumberbitches" sometimes makes me want to wave sheepishly and say "Uh, I actually prefer the really ordinary-looking one. Sorry."
no subject
Date: 2012-09-08 09:56 pm (UTC)From:Tee hee hee.
2) "he seems to think I'm attracted to the dashing leading man types everyone else goes for. What is he THINKING?! I married HIM! I keep trying to set him straight, but perhaps he ignores my real tastes out of self-preservation or something...."
God, I laughed so hard at this.
3) Anyway, Martin Freeman IS awesome, the only thing I haven't watched from here is The Office, and he is terribly underrated as Watson, because nobody realizes a mad man blabbering about and shooting the wall is just boring and stupid without the foil of the (perfect) straight man.
Happy birthday, sir.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-09 05:02 pm (UTC)From:I don't think he's terribly underrated as John Watson, he's generally acknowledged as one of the (if not THE) best Watsons ever, though admittedly Benedict gets more publicity and more fangirling. And there ARE still (entirely too many) articles about the show that only give him a sentence or so (albeit a positive sentence). I always feel a little awkward hanging about Sherlock fandom, because while I love the show, I'm really only OBSESSED with Martin, so I don't care particularly much what the other actors are up to, or whether the American show Elementary in the fall should be celebrated or shunned, or what's up with the Conan Doyle estate, or whatever. Just give me more Martin.