That’s a far cry from the comics version of the character, who was introduced in September 1998 in Ka-Zar #17 by writer Christopher Priest and illustrator Kenny Martinez as a nervous, rather unmemorable little man who worked alongside the Black Panther and succeeded at his job almost in spite of himself. Martin Freeman, of course, needs almost no introduction thanks to the very memorable roles he’s played over the years, including Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit trilogy, Lester Nygaard on the Fargo TV series, and Dr. John Watson on Sherlock, opposite his fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe cast member Benedict Cumberbatch. We did ask for an update on Sherlock — the fifth season of which is yet to be confirmed — but focused primarily on Ross and Black Panther when we spoke with the amiable Freeman recently. Den of Geek: I really liked where they took Ross in this movie. When you first got the role back in Civil War, did they give you kind of an inkling of his future? Did you go back and look at his history in the comics? A little bit. I mean, I saw enough to get an idea of how he was. He was funny and he was very straight sort of a by the book funny guy. Sometimes easily made nervous, you know, sort of sweaty and just an anxious person sometimes. What was Ryan’s take on the character? We talked a lot around the subject. We talked a lot of politics and we talked American and British politics, a bit of history, and I suppose that probably informed it in some way. Because if the point of directors and writers meeting actors is to get a flavor of who they are and get jumping off points for where you might take the character, that might have informed this as well. But with absolutely all the respect in the world for the source material, and what totally worked for that world, I don’t think it would have really worked for this film to be honest. A lot of actors I’ve spoken to say they don’t look at the source material, or the director actively discourages them from doing so. Well this isn’t a comic. I’ve played several characters now in my life who have literary beginnings and while it’s interesting to know the literary beginnings, you’re not doing the book. You know, a book and a film are a really different thing. And they’re supposed to be different things. I never want to be slavish to any book. If we’re doing the movie or the TV, it’s a different art form. You’re not making the book. If there are things in the book that help, great. Apart from that, there are 150 people or more working on this version of it now. So let’s concentrate on that. Ross reminds me a little bit of Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson from the earlier movies, in that he sees the world in a certain way and then finds himself thrust into this entirely different reality. But regardless of race, my feeling is that Ross is still, he’s like Americans. He’s like America and the West. Whatever color you are, he’s still kind of your eyes and ears in Wakanda because no one’s been to Wakanda. He’s taking you into this other world. If you’re in a cinema in the Western world, you are sort of having the same reaction that Ross is having because we don’t know Wakanda and all our minds would be blown by that. So when you see his mind being blown, then yeah, he’s a sort of surrogate, I guess. What did Ryan bring to the table and how did you like working with him? He set out to make a good movie, first and foremost. What I keep saying is, if it’s not a good film then who gives a shit? He didn’t go to film school just to be an important black man. Do you know what I mean? He went to film school to make really good films. He really likes films. And so do I. And I want to be in good films, I want to be good in good films. There’s no point in me being in a really historic film if I’m shit in it, you know? I want to do my part. That doesn’t help anybody. Doesn’t help anybody. And I’m a massive believer in the art form. It’s really important that we make good art. It’s massively important we make good art, I think, and that stories keep being told. You know, it’s one of the best things mankind has ever done, is tell stories. No, no news actually. We’re definitely in a pause at the moment. But I know to Americans it feels like it’s all a pause. Right. Black Panther is out in theaters now.
