Martin Freeman

When I was at youth theatre and drama school, I never thought people would mistake me for a stand-up.

I've got a stag weekend coming up and I've said I'm not doing anything more than a few drinks. I won't have it. I'll go home and watch Antiques Roadshow.

Actors are people who are doing a job they want to do, which isn't the case for many of the people who watch what we do.

Acting is reacting, and it's always easier to react when someone is doing a good job.

As soon as a job finishes, I am done with it. When I'm really, really enjoying the job, I love the job, I want it to end because it's supposed to.

There are still things technically about films that I think are a mystery to me and I want to remain a mystery. I don't particularly want to know what everyone's job is because I've got lines to learn.

My ambition is to do what I like and to do good things that I might not have done before.

To be honest, if people thought my performance in 'The Office' was the same as my performance in 'The Hobbit,' it would tell me everything I needed to know about what they know about acting.

There was very little drama and performance at my school, so I've never forgotten the people who did encourage me and I've thought whether it would be a good idea to even get in touch with them and just say thanks, because they really opened a door for me mentally and emotionally - that's really important.

Coming back from doing 'The Hobbit,' you think 'Sherlock' is realistic, but of course, it's not that realistic.

Please God, I'll never be in a war zone, but everything I sort of know about people who come back is that it's a hard transition to make. I mean, even if you've not been in a war, even if you've just been in the Forces, you come back and probably have more fights in civilian life.

If it were purely up to me, my kids would probably be vegetarian Catholic Marxists.