Joe Freeman is in pursuit of improvement

It’s been a big year for Joe Freeman. With his previous acting experience including only a small part in Doctors and a school production, the nineteen year old found himself launched into his first major TV role, co-starring with industry legends and relocating to Canada. How is he feeling? “It’s all new stuff,” he tells me from his Hampstead home as we chat on Zoom, “but it’s good stuff. I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved.”

Freeman stars in the new adaption of Stephen King’s The Institute released earlier this summer. He plays Luke, a fourteen-year-old boy with telekinetic abilities who is abducted, along with other children with supernatural abilities, into an unknown facility. The show follows “experimentation” on the kids by the chillingly terrifying Mrs Sigsby (Mary Louise Parker), while ex-cop Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes) begins an investigation into the missing children, leading to alliances, escape plots and exposing dark secrets. In August, a second series of the show was greenlit.

The son of actors Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington, Freeman appears acutely aware of the tough nature of the industry. Having only just stepped into the spotlight, he tries not to think “at great length” about what the future might hold. There is something refreshing about his realism and down-to-earth nature as he knows he’s “got to stay grounded” in this line of work.

We sit down for a chat about highlights and lowlights on set, what he’s learnt during the filming process and how his biggest acting inspiration is close to home.

The Institute is your first major acting role. How did it feel when you got the phone call saying you got the part? What was going through your mind? 

I was actually in the cinema, watching Deadpool & Wolverine with my two best mates.  My agent called me that morning and said, Right, we’re going to find out today, we’re going to get the definitive yes or no, so be prepared. I kept looking at my phone and then I saw her call halfway through the film and I ran out of the cinema. She approached it in a sad way, so I was like, Fuck, I haven’t got it. Then she just went: How would you like to spend the next four months in Nova Scotia? I was calling everybody. 

You play Luke, a fourteen-year-old boy with telekinetic abilities. Do you think you share any similarities with the character at all?

Obviously I’m not fourteen and not a genius, some would say. The only thing I had to go off was the book, and there’s only so much you can visualise. I think the things I share with Luke are the things that I’ve implemented into the performance. I’ve made him quite cheeky and, you know, he stands up to people. I was very like that at school. I didn’t like school. I was never horrible in class, I was just a bit loud. I was trying to be the class clown a lot of the time. I think ‘smartness’ can come in a lot of different ways. You can be emotionally intelligent, but I think that humour is also a form of intelligence. 

In the show, you work very closely with Ben Barnes and Mary Louise Parker. What did you learn from them on set, and how did these relationships influence your performance?

Ben was very easy, because he settled me into Halifax. I arrived in Nova Scotia not knowing anybody, and I got a lovely text from Ben the night I touched down, just saying “I’m really happy to be making this show, I can’t wait to meet you”. That really settled me, and I was like, Oh okay, so the star is excited, so that means I’m more excited. Mary Louise is quiet on set, but her performance speaks for itself. It’s just amazing. Trying to keep up with Ben and Mary Louise is just so fun. To try and match what they’re doing and try and get a compliment out of them for what you’re doing, it’s a whole experience that’s just brilliant.

What were the hardest scenes to film? I read that the scenes involving the oxygen deprivation tanks were particularly challenging.

Yeah, that was hard. In that box, you cannot hear anything. When I speak, it’s so echoey and bouncing around the room. It was a lot. I think the most challenging thing was actually a physical challenge [of filming in the river]. That was not fun, because we had a mishap with the wetsuit I was wearing. The zipper broke when I was trying to do it up, so the water was just getting in anyway. I’m thinking to myself, Okay, I’ve just got to firm this. It was not pleasant. But you do feel amazing when you come out of water that cold. It’s like you’re reborn.  

Any other highlights or lowlights from filming?

Never, honestly, never lowlights. And I know that’s hard to believe, because it’s a four-month shoot — there was bound to be something that happened. But honestly, every day felt like coming to see your family. Obviously, that can have its challenges in itself, seeing an extended family every day, but we genuinely all got on so well. I guess the only lowlight was at the start, when I initially arrived in Canada. I was like, I can’t do this, I’m totally inexperienced, and I’m on a continent that I’ve never been to before, and this is the next four months [of my life]; I’m not going to see my family or my friends, this is going to be tough. But it ended up being brilliant. 

Is there anything you’ve learned from the process of filming that you would take with you into a future role?

I’ve learned a lot about myself as a performer. I think if you don’t want to better yourself, then what’s the point? If you’re not looking to improve constantly, then what’s the point? And I really am. As an actor, this is not how I want to act for the rest of my career — touchwood that I have one. So, it’s about always looking to improve, and I am in pursuit of that, for sure.

The Institute is adapted from Stephen King’s novel. Are you a fan of any of his other works? 

 I love Stand By Me. I love The Shining, I love Misery. Mary Louise’s Mrs Sigsby shares similarities with Kathy Bates in Misery, just as a villain who’s just horrible, but you kind of can’t help but like her. 

Both your parents are actors. What advice did they give you before you went on set?

In the audition process, they were both like, Don’t expect this to happen, do not expect anything, don’t expect a callback, and if you do, great. My dad was more in the mindset of ‘this is not going to happen’, because he’s been around the block in terms of TV more, so he just said, Do not think that anything can happen because of your name, it’s just not how the industry works. But when I went to Canada, they weren’t in the actor-y headspace at all, it was more just a parental thing of ‘good luck, be yourself, stay focused…’ At the end of the day, it was their son leaving the country for the longest amount of time I’ve ever left the country for and not seen them.

Looking forward to the future, have you got any dream roles or franchises you’d love to be part of?

There are two new directors floating about, who I used to watch on YouTube. They’re called the RackaRacka Twins, better known as Danny and Michael Philippou, who directed Talk To Me, and the new film out at the moment, Bring Her Back. I think they’re really, really, good directors, so I would love to work with them. Also to stay in Britain, because I think Britain makes great things. I love Adolescence, something along those kinds of lines, an Owen Cooper-y type role for sure.

Are there any other actors in the industry that you look up to as role models or inspiration?

I really like Stephen Graham. I love Andrew Scott. I loved Philip Seymour Hoffman. And honestly, my parents. I think they’re both really, really, really good, and it’s just a lovely thing to have talent in the family. It’s really great to look up to my parents and be like, I want to not only be as good as you, but at some point, surpass you. It’s always that thing of wanting to be better than your parents, because you want to show them ‘I can do this’.