Martin Freeman stars in new improvised comedy, Nativity!

MARTIN Freeman used to perform in school plays, but not often because he “wasn’t really into that”.

“And if I was into it, I was so embarrassed about being into it that I had to justify it to my friends who were shouting at me from outside, ‘Why aren’t you playing football? You’re dressed as a monk,” recalls The Office star. “So I had a funny relationship with it at school.”

Martin’s memories of his formative years on stage have been stirred by his latest film role in Debbie Isitt’s new improvised winter comedy, Nativity!

Now 38, he plays Mr Maddens, a frustrated actor-turned primary school teacher who must pit his pupils against the posh private school’s always superior Nativity play in pursuit of a five-star review in the local paper.

In an act of bravado, Maddens seeks to put one over his rival by claiming a big Hollywood producer is coming to Coventry to film his play. Such aspirations were not on the agenda in Martin’s schooldays in suburban London, but he remains grateful for whatever encouragement he was given en route to the Central School of Speech and Drama.

“There was very little drama and performance at my school, so the couple of people who did encourage me, a music teacher and a drama teacher, and I’ve never forgotten them. I’ve occasionally thought whether it would be a good idea to even get in touch with them and just say, ‘Thanks, because you really opened a door for me’.”

Whereas Martin may have had his “funny relationship” with performing plays at school, he is delighted that the children in Nativity! “had the sense not to be embarrassed about it”.

“I hope for these kids… it’s just another little door that opens for you mentally, and emotionally that’s really important; you see another world,” he says.

“The experience we all had over last summer, especially for the children, was unforgettable. How many kids can say I’ve come down a death slide from the top of Coventry Cathedral?”

As for Martin’s own experience, he had worked previously with writer-director Isitt on another improvised film, Confetti.

“We had a meeting back in December 2007 about her next idea – she just described the outline of my character and his journey, and I was hooked,” he says.

“She has a good way, even just one to one, of telling a story, not showily but really enthusiastically. She said, ‘It has to be you Martin’ – she’s very good at flattery, and she has a very popular touch. She has no shame at all about loving children’s films, and it’s quite infectious.”

Nativity! is wholly improvised but has a more structured storyline than Confetti. “In Confetti, in the course of a scene, if the characters decided to take it north or east, that’s where the scene and story went,” Martin says.

“For Nativity!, Debbie’s general modus operandi would be, ‘We need to get from this point to this point by the end of the scene, away you go’! How you get there is down to you, but you have to hit certain landmarks along the way. I think Debbie likes the uncertainty of what can happen in a moment.”

Making Nativity! has reaffirmed his admiration for the work of primary schoolteachers. “I’ve always had a great respect for anyone who wants to get in a room with 30-odd children and not kill them. It gave me more of an idea how difficult it would be,” he says.

Filming had necessitated thorough rehearsals of the Nativity play with the schoolchildren cast in the film. “We were there for hours and hours going through the choreography and the songs,” says Martin.

“It was testing, and I’m a dad in real life, and I definitely drew on my own abilities or otherwise to corral children.

“But I haven’t got 30 children, so there’d be times when I’d be trying to appeal to the older ones, saying ‘I need your help and you’ve got to be a good example to the other kids because if we don’t get this done, it’ll be disastrous, and we’ve only got ten minutes to do this’. That worked sometimes, and then they’d do what children are supposed to do, and arse about a bit.”

Nevertheless, he had no qualms over scenes being stolen by his young co-stars. “After all, whatever makes the film right and Debbie was adamant that she wanted not only a child-friendly film, but very much a film that all the family could see,” says Martin.

“As far as I’m concerned, the stars of the film are the children, and that’s the real, over-riding thing you come away with. So yes, fortunately in this case I was very happy to be gazumped.”

Martin, the youngest of five children, cannot recall ever being in a Nativity play in his childhood.

“I was at a Catholic school so there would have been Nativities happening – I remember a lot of Christmas stuff, a lot of Mass and jollity, but I don’t remember being in a nativity,” he says.

His own children are still too young to play Mary and Joseph, but Martin will bring them up to know the Nativity story.

“I always go for an Advent calendar with religious people on it as opposed to snowmen. I think whatever society we are now, we have the date for a reason,” he says. “Regardless of whether you’re a believer and whether you dig it or not, this culture is where we come from, so it’s just good to know stuff.”

The Nativity is his favourite story. “I can’t think of a better one. It’s a lovely story to tell your children, and I want them to be included in that,” says Martin.

“I’m not heavily religious, they can do what they like, but I want that to be present, and I certainly want it to be present at Christmas – it doesn’t negate the fun stuff.

“This film is not heavy or religious, but despite the High School Musical side of it, there is feeling. The story is still told, just with a bit more rapping, you know?”

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