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The Hobbit’s Martin Freeman Talks Film's "Sweaty" Costumes: "It's Quite Unpleasant, Actually"

Actor sounds off about cumbersome prosthetic feet that he donned for Peter Jackson's blockbuster movie adaptation of the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien book

By Alexis L. Loinaz Mar 18, 2013 12:39 PMTags

Martin Freeman literally put his best foot forward to play podiatrically endowed Bilbo Baggins in last year's mega-blockbuster The Hobbit. But those ginormous, hairy prosthetic feet didn't quite leave him skipping away with glee.

In this exclusive clip touting the film's upcoming home-video release on March 19, the actor sounds off about the fantastical costumes he wore in An Unexpected Journey, the first installment in Peter Jackson's big-screen trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved novel.

Those costumes proved integral to helping him shape his performance—that is, when wasn't worrying about sweating up a storm in them.

"The big feet kind of inform part of your physicality, and your physicality helps inform how you play the part," he says in the clip.

"You literally can't walk in a way that you would normally walk if you've got this much extra on the end of your feet," he adds, noting that such large prosthetic feet "will make you walk funny."

They certainly did, and Freeman had to make some adjustments. "So you literally have to lift your feet higher, and that affects your gait."

As for getting in and out of costume, things were apparently much easier than one might think.

"They're quite easy to put on and off—about eight minutes." he explains. "Two people sit at my feet, roll them on literally like a pair of tights—they come up to your mid-thigh. And then if you wanna take them off between lunch or whatever, you can do that."

That doesn't mean things were a walk in the park, though. "It's quite unpleasant, actually. If it's a hot day, it gets sweaty," he quips.

The next installment in The Hobbit saga, The Desolation of Smaug, storms theaters on Dec. 13.