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I need more respect put on Taika as an actor because this scene right here is my favourite piece of acting out of every single thing I watched in 2022 (and I watched a lot of good acting in 2022).

It's the way you can see him get to the point of not being able to hold it back anymore, his face crumpling slightly, his voice getting thinner, eyes getting wetter and wetter until a tear leaks out, even as he's still trying weakly to hold it in. It's not over the top, or great gulping wails, or an overabundance of tears (although he's fantastic at all those too) - it's just pure believable nagging pain, slowly bubbling up and spilling out of him. Every time I watch this scene, I can actually viscerally feel that scratchy tightening that you get in your throat when you're on the edge of crying but trying desperately not to.

I've watched a lot of crying-acting in my time, and Taika in this scene is just a masterclass. Nothing feels forced. It doesn't feel like someone who is making himself cry for the camera. It feels like a genuinely heartbroken man, who is desperately trying to stop himself from crying but can't stop the pain from bursting out of him.

Taika completely inhabits Ed's heartbreak, his despair, his pain and his vulnerability, and it just gets me in my chest more than almost anything else in the show. He's a fantastic actor who goes to some truly difficult and vulnerable places for this character - every single one gut-punchingly believable - and I need people to start yelling about him deserving awards for it as much as they do for some of his co-stars.

Martin Freeman in BBC Sherlock  |  [insp.]

Hugging his enemy in Nativity! vs Hugging his wife in BBC Sherlock.

Acting choices

Heh

Sherlock wants John to stay.

i will face god and walk backwards into hell

this moment was the definition of NO FACE JOURNEYS

It’s fun to know that one of the things Martin is notorious for as an actor is giving his directors a huge number of very different takes on the same scene. They have a lot of options to pick from when they pick that exact expression.

If you’d like to see this in action, watch: [x]

not to like bring it up again but, that last scene in 221b was the best acting I think I’ve ever seen martin freeman do

Martin Freeman x (via rominatrix)

“The game’s afoot.”- Henry V (Act 3, Scene 1) Sherlock s4e2

I just loooove the mad passion in his tone & gestures in this scene! Fantastic.

Give Martin all the awards, he blew me away this episode…

“And he’s always right.” [x]

John’s eyes appreciation - His Last Vow

So, somebody asked for it :D

it is way different doing this for Martin’s eyes because he is shot in a very different way than Benedict. But he’s oh-so-expressive. I can feel the emotion John’s feeling just watching his eyes.

step one … concern.

step two … disbelief.

step three … shock.

#watching the man who literally brought you back to life ending his own

Request 2 for @bilbo-baggins-is-fantastic My absolute favourite moment. Out of this world, Mr Freeman. Out of this world!

Give him all the awards. All of them!

I hope that there are big names out there seeing this performance and taking note, because though the series itself may have been lacking in a lot of ways, no one can deny that Martin’s performance was extraordinary. He can carry heavy, meaty, serious roles. He can pretty much be whatever you need him to be, and I’d like to see him start to get offered more serious, dramatic stuff. He carries it so well.

The first time I saw this scene, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There has never been anything like this. Nearly 4 minutes with absolutely no dialogue and the RANGE of emotions he goes through is stunning. It’s practically unbelievable to watch him do this. Simply amazing.

I didn’t see Start Up and I probably won’t. But this scene is a whole film in 3 minutes and 40 seconds. At :45 I thought: Why am I watching Martin Freeman driving a car? By 15 seconds later the roller coaster was well underway. What @monikakrasnorada and @sussexbound and @byebyefrost and @freeman-martypants wrote…

I can only add, he did it all IN FUCKING PROFILE. PROFILE, and only from the chest up. In other words, without about 75% of the expressive resources actors usually have.

This is beautifully put and so true.

I’d kill to see the unedited take.

This performance right here is about 2 or so pages of dialogue and multiple lines of heavy character development WITHOUT A SINGLE WORD! Other actors would go through the usual spiel about self image or hurt pride. I don’t know a single thing about Start Up or his character, but I can tell from 4 minutes without words purely from his face and body a huge chunk of Phil Rask’s motivation and how he sees himself. 

Bravo, Martin Freeman, bravo.

This reminds me of something I said after watching the first series of Sherlock years ago, and only knowing Freeman’s work from a few things: “I would watch Martin Freeman do literally anything on screen. I would watch him in an empty room for an hour.”

Which is what this is. Fucking wow. I did watch some of the first episode of Start Up, but you don’t need to in order to identify the emotions he conveys in this scene. Amazing.