Amanda Abbington on loving life with Martin Freeman (original) (raw)

How Tim from The Office found real love: Amanda Abbington on life with Martin Freeman

Romance: Martin Freeman with his partner Amanda Abbington, a real life love story for both actors

Martin Freeman is taking a break from filming Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, a prequel to The Lord Of The Rings.

Martin takes the role of Bilbo Baggins, the film's 50-year-old narrator.

Somehow, you can easily picture the actor - who plays the stuffy Dr Watson in the BBC's Sherlock and love-lorn Tim in The Office — as the home-loving hobbit, which makes the thunderbolt of passion which struck his partner Amanda Abbington on their first meeting a little bit, well, unexpected.

'I'd seen him in a TV sketch show and thought he was gorgeous,' says Amanda.

'My ideal man. As I sat watching I said to my friend: "He's lovely, isn't he? I'd love to meet him." Then a couple of months later I did.'

They met on the set of TV movie Men Only in 2000.

'I was moaning to the make-up girl that I hadn't got a boyfriend, and she said there was a guy on the same job who'd been saying the same thing, that he was looking for a nice girl.

'At that minute Martin walked in and I just had a thunderbolt. It dawned on me: "Oh, God it's him!" We flirted with each other all day and when I went home he texted me, saying "You left and I wasn't done flirting with you. That's a bit rude", which I thought was really smooth.

'The next night he invited me for a drink and a couple of months later I moved in with him. That was it.'

At 37, she's the mother of Martin's two children, Joe, five, and three-year-old Grace, and has seen his career soar.

But now her star is on the rise, too, with a role opposite Jason Isaacs in Case Histories, the six-part BBC1 adaptation of the best-selling Jackson Brodie novels by Kate Atkinson.

Rising star: Freeman is currently filming the follow up to The Lord of the Rings with director Peter Jackson

An animated and pretty blonde with a dry sense of humour, Amanda lights up when talking about her other half, even when disclosing how she's had to deal with the fact that Martin's fame has made him hot property to women.

Sometimes, she says, women throw themselves at him even when she's standing there.

'But he always says: "And this is my girlfriend." Only recently some girl came up to him and shoved me out of the way.

'And he said: "Excuse me, this is my girlfriend, don't push her out of the way".'

She does admit to the odd pang of insecurity, however, when Martin was cast opposite Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow in the 2007 movie The Good Night.

'I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant and bigger than a house. And Penelope's so beautiful and talented, who wouldn't fancy her?'

Leading ladies: Amanda admits to feeling a little bit jealous when Freeman filmed The Good Night with Gwyneth Paltrow

Any speculation that she might be remotely jealous of her other half's career is quashed immediately. She is clearly Martin's biggest cheerleader. A favour she says he returns: 'He's so supportive. He always says: "You should be having my career!" I say: "Thanks. Tell (The Hobbit director) Peter Jackson that." '

Surprisingly, Amanda says marriage is not on the cards, even though they often call each other husband and wife.

'I don't know why, really,' she muses.

'We don't want to spoil it. We've got two children together, two dogs and a cat and a house, and that's such a big commitment. #

'Maybe one day we will, but we wouldn't want a huge hoopla; we'd run away and do it on our own and have a party afterwards.'

The family has had to deal with forced separations due to Martin filming The Hobbit — an adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien books featuring Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom — in New Zealand and Amanda being on the set of Case Histories in Edinburgh.

Mother's choice: Jason Isaacs got the thumbs up from Amanda's mum

Despite being offered the lead role of Bilbo Baggins, Martin nearly turned it down, she says, because he was already committed to a second series of Sherlock.

But Peter Jackson, who won three Oscars for his Lord Of The Rings trilogy, was so keen for Martin to play Bilbo that he rearranged his filming schedule to accommodate Sherlock's.

'I was so excited,' she says.

'But Martin is never fazed by anything. He's never starstruck.'

The same can't be said for her mother, when she discovered Amanda was going to work with Jason Isaacs.

'My mum fancied Jason Isaacs! She was watching the trailer and said to my dad: "He has a lovely chest."

'Jason does have something of the George Clooney about him. He's like one of those old-fashioned heart-throbs.'

Amanda plays DI Louise Munroe, an Edinburgh detective who has a love-hate relationship with private eye Jackson Brodie.

'Louise is a glass-half-empty kind of person. She has had a hard life and doesn't let love into it.

'She's a single mum and she works in a man's world. She finds it very hard.

'She hates herself for being attracted to Brodie. She helps him out with inside information even though she shouldn't.

'I think he loves her back, but they keep missing each other and he infuriates her.'

There was one person, she reveals, who was distraught to discover who Amanda's co-star was.

'My son, Joe, was frightened at first about me working with Lucius Malfoy [Jason Isaacs plays the villain in the Harry Potter films].

'Waving goodbye to the children to go off filming is hard, but it was me who'd go off in tears'

'He was frightened I wouldn't come back! So I had to explain that Jason is just playing a part like Daddy does. Then he had a good long think and said I could go.'

Waving goodbye to the children to go off filming is hard, she says: 'I would only be away filming Case Histories for four nights at a time, but it was me who'd go off in tears; the kids would say, "It's OK, mummy."'

It's a different scenario for Martin, however.

'When he first got the part in New Zealand it was going to be for 18 months with no break, which would have been terrifying; but we knew he couldn't not do it, so we'd have to work it out.

'But, of course, he has been able to come back to do Sherlock.

'Although when he'd been out there for over six weeks he really needed to see us. His heart ached a little bit. But we know the film is going to be huge.

'He does get stressed, though. Sometimes he rings me up at 7am to say:

"I've been covered in c**p, hanging upside down and I've got bloody ears on." But he knows it's for the greater good and he does it with a smile.'

• Case Histories is on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday and Monday.