Did Martin Freeman Just Have A Dig At 'Pompous' Sherlock Co-Star Benedict Cumberbatch?

Martin Freeman admits that he speaks his mind a bit too loudly sometimes, but has he just had a swipe at his ‘Sherlock’ co-star Benedict Cumberbatch?

Cumberbatch recently used his captive audience while playing Hamlet at London’s Barbican to castigate the government over its inaction in the Syrian refugee crisis.

He told the crowd 'f**k the politicians’ in a speech at the end of one of his performances, urging people to do all they could to help.

But in an interview with the Radio Times, Freeman appears to be decrying such talk from actors.

Though he obviously stops short of naming Cumberbatch, the timing seems intriguing to say the least.

The 44-year-old star of 'The Office’ said: “Some people think celebrities pontificating is great.

“Others say, 'Are you serious? Shut up and get back to work’. I used to be very political and still am to an extent. Actors can be pompous and we can overestimate our importance, but it’s not a mistake to have a social conscience.

“I won’t overdo it, go on 'Newsnight’ or 'Question Time’ and become a 'pundit for hire’. It’s deeply annoying to hear someone like me, who doesn’t know everything, bang on – the quickest and most justifiable way for people to hate me.

“But as a British citizen – sorry, subject of the Queen – it’s my right to have an opinion.

“The trouble is I’m gobby and my life would be over in five minutes if I went on Twitter or Facebook because there’s no nuance. They’ll say, 'If you believe this, you must hate that’. No. There are grey areas.”

That said, Freeman has lent his voice to various causes in the past.

Last month he appeared in a video in support of junior doctors protesting enforced conditions in their new contracts.

Then prior to the General Election in May, he appeared in a party political broadcast for Labour, in which he described himself as one of 'the privileged few’, but urged voters to make ‘a choice between two completely different sets of values, a choice over what sort of country we want to live in’.

Read more
Pixar Has It’s First Flop
Star Trek Trailer Coming With Star Wars
The new Tarzan is amazingly ripped

Image credit: BBC/Getty