Martin Freeman: "I get more fan mail for Sherlock than The Hobbit"

He has made a career playing Bilbo Baggins in 'The Hobbit' and Dr Watson in 'Sherlock'. But Martin Freeman claims he's rarely recognised off screen.

“I get more 12-year-olds coming up to me than I used to. But, I promise, I still have a lot of conversations with people that have no idea who I am. Which is great for me as I usually just want to eat a bowl of pasta in peace.”

[First poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug]

He's never been happier professionally, but fame is a byproduct, he insists in an interview with 'The Independent'. "I'd have been quite happy being known as 'Tim from The Office' and now Bilbo Baggins and John Watson have come along. 'Sherlock' is one of the biggest things I will do, ever – we could never have predicted that level of insanity around the series. I think that gets me more fan mail than Bilbo. Not that I think I am the biggest deal in the universe,” he adds hastily.

 “If someone had a pint with me, they'd find out pretty quickly I'm not so nice, I'm not Tim from 'The Office,' although a lot of people still think I am. I have absolutely no problem telling someone to f*** off.”

The final scenes are under way for Peter Jackson's two 'Hobbit' sequels, 'The Desolation of Smaug' and 'There and Back Again'. It is, he says, “an intense period; it's that definite feeling of, ' it's business time, we can't mess around now'.”

[Edgar Wright answers your questions about The World’s End]

But he's been spending a lot of time at High Wycombe railway station, where he recently filmed 'The World's End', the sci-fi comedy from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and 'Hot Fuzz' director Edgar Wright.

Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City also feature – which suited him, as he and his family live in Hertfordshire, near his birthplace in Aldershot.

“It was part of the sugar pill to do the movie – 'please sign up and we promise you'll never have to travel more than half an hour to work'. That and the fact Simon and Edgar begged me to do it.”

He and Simon have been “mates” for more than a decade. Freeman had small parts in 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz'. In 'The World's End', Freeman plays an odious estate agent. “Obviously they wanted me for my acting ability, ”he deadpans, “because I am playing a complete prick.”

Freeman joins Pegg, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan and Paddy Considine as friends reuniting to complete a crawl of 12 pubs they failed to finish as teenagers. During that time, they realise they're not just facing the start of middle age, but the end of humanity.

Anonymity can be a wonderful thing for a person, “but at the same time, I had to do 'The Hobbit', even if it was going to change the game for me. It was my one chance to do something that nearly everybody, at one point or another, was going to see. I've made other films that maybe I've loved more, but they haven't made a billion dollars.”

'The World's End' is released on 19 July