Martin Freeman has responded to the backlash his latest film, Miller’s Girl, received for the massive age gap between the Hobbit star and his co-star Jenna Ortega.
In the erotic thriller, which was released in cinemas earlier this year, an 18-year-old student develops an inappropriate relationship with her writing teacher. The Wednesday star, who is 21, is 31 years younger than Martin, who is 52.
Miller’s Girl received criticism prior to and after its release, with users on X, formerly Twitter, discussing its lead actor’s “disturbing” relationship in the movie.
In an interview with British outlet The Times published over the weekend, Martin said the movie isn’t intended to glorify age-gap romances and that it’s “grown-up and nuanced”.
“It’s not saying, ‘Isn’t this great?’” Martin said of his and Jenna’s relationship in the film.
Calling the backlash against Miller’s Girl a “shame”, Martin went on to note how movies with controversial topics tend to garner criticism.
He brought up fellow actor Liam Neeson in Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama Schindler’s List as an example of how an actor can play a role without co-signing the film’s topic.
“Are we gonna have a go at Liam Neeson for being in a film about the Holocaust?” he questioned.
Previously, the former The Office actor admitted he found the storyline of Miller’s Girl to be “very uncomfortable” when he read director Jade Bartlett’s script for the first time.
“When I read the script, I was like, ‘Okay, that’s a gutsy script,’ because it’s very uncomfortable and there are things in it which are not cut and dry, and not black and white,” he told Collider in August last year.
In February, Kristina Arjona, the intimacy coordinator for Miller’s Girl, told the Daily Mail that Jenna was “comfortable” on set despite the age difference with her co-star.
“There [were] many, many people throughout this [filming] process, engaging with [Jenna] to make sure that it was consistent with what she was comfortable with, and she was very determined and very sure of what she wanted to do,” Arjona said.
“Part of my job too is supporting her decisions,” she continued. “I adapt to whatever is the comfort level of my actors, especially on a production like this where there is a large age gap between the actors.”
Jenna Ortega has not publicly addressed the backlash around Miller’s Girl.