‘People still recognise me on the tube for roles I played 20 years ago. It’s kind of mad.’
One can only imagine what it would be like to be recognised around the world as a kid. But that was Freddie Highmore’s reality when he soared to fame as a child star in films including Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and August Rush.
Last year, the actor bid farewell to The Good Doctor, a medical drama he’d led for seven years. Now, the 33-year-old stars in the new Amazon Prime Video thriller series The Assassin, teaming up with British acting legend Keeley Hawes in what could be TV’s most dysfunctional mother-son duo.
Keeley plays former hitwoman Julie, who’s forced to come out of retirement and reveal her secret profession to her grown-up son Edward, portrayed by Freddie. It’s rife with action, excitement, twists and a whole lot of dry British humour, which Freddie delves into while speaking to Metro.
One of the standout aspects of The Assassin is Edward’s relationship with Julie. Freddie and Keeley, 49, have a brilliant dynamic together on screen, and the Bates Motel actor says that it was ‘thrilling to get to go on this journey with her’, having admired the Bodyguard star’s work for years.
‘The same goes for Harry and Jack Williams,’ he shares, bringing up the writers of The Assassin, who also created the Jamie Dornan thriller The Tourist. ‘This does what they do so well, combining the thriller, high-stakes, high-octane, twisty, turny type of storytelling, but with something more interesting and nuanced to say underneath it.
‘They’re also great at doing all of that with a sense of humour, and with a very British understated sense of humour too.’
There’s no lack of thrillers available on streaming platforms for TV fans to binge. But what makes The Assassin feel so refreshing is not only its wry humour, but also how relatable it feels, despite following the wild story of a hitwoman.
‘[The humour’s] not too broad or too silly, but it complements the seriousness of it and gives it a bit of texture and nuance, and also keeps it quite real,’ Freddie outlines.
‘The characters are all accessible and approachable and definitely make mistakes. Even with Keeley’s character, who’s incredibly accomplished at what she does, the show doesn’t try to make her impossibly perfect. I think a part of that is the sense of humour and that British dose of self-deprecation.’
Freddie’s character Edward balances out his mother’s recklessness with his overly cautious nature. The journalist also has secrets that he’s keeping hidden, and has spent years wondering who his father is, a mystery that his mum refuses to reveal.
Want to find out more about The Assassin?
In her four-star review of The Assassin, Metro’s TV Editor Sabrina Barr writes: ‘The new Amazon Prime series created by The Tourist’s Harry and Jack Williams isn’t just packed with gripping twists and stunt choreography that’ll have you on the edge of your seat. It’s also funny. And not just enough to spark a light chuckle. It’s funny in a quintessentially British fashion, with humour that’s dry and relatable. I was sucked in straight away.’
You can read more here.
Having grown up in London, Freddie has spent a great deal of time in the US with his career. In 2024, he bid farewell to medical drama The Good Doctor after playing the lead character Dr Shaun Murphy for seven years, an experience he ‘doesn’t think he’ll ever have again’.
‘I feel very lucky to have had that opportunity in my life,’ he says. ‘It feels a bit like graduation, where you have such fondness and love for being in that environment, and there’s a part of you that can imagine staying there forever, but there’s another part of you that wants to do other things and is excited about the opportunity of moving on.’
Nonetheless, when he’s on his home turf, he’s still frequently recognised for the roles he played when he was a child. When he was a kid, he didn’t think that he knew at the time that he wanted to act forever – but on reflection, he feels as though it might have been ‘predestined’.
When asked what he’s recognised for the most in the UK versus the US, he answers: ‘I would say things from when I was younger still resonate from what must be 20 years ago now, which is kind of mad. On the tube, people will still remember those roles.’
The entertainment world has changed drastically since Freddie first started acting professionally compared to now. So new child stars emerging, such as the new Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Harry Potter TV reboot, will have a far different experience of fame than Freddie did.
‘It is a very different time, and it’s so hard to give advice,’ he says when asked. ‘I was very lucky that it never became the centre of my life. I went back to school, and that was always the focus. I went off to university and took time off to do that, so acting became an active choice as something to return to, as opposed to something I fell into as a kid and then ended up doing without really thinking about it.
‘I was lucky to have that quite strong sense of separation. But it was also a time where social media wasn’t really a thing, or it had only just started to become one. So it was easier to maintain that distance and to step back from it and not feel like you were constantly on show.’
During our interview, I had to bring up one of my favourite films of his – August Rush, the 2007 musical drama that saw him act opposite the legendary Robin Williams.
‘I was so lucky to get to work with him,’ he says as he remembers his late co-star fondly. ‘I just remember him bringing such a positive energy to set and being so enthusiastic, and also just so effortlessly funny, and bringing the entire crew together and having everyone rally in the same direction because of the force of nature that he was.’
For August Rush, Freddie learnt to play the guitar. For The Good Doctor, he felt as though he was picking up medical knowledge. But in actual fact, he warns that if there were a medical emergency and someone tried to call on him for help, it would be a ‘very bad idea’.
‘I’d like to think that I picked up medical knowledge. However, my fear is that the knowledge I think I know is actually just a cheat in terms of how to make things look good and look like you’re doing a particular procedure,’ he admits. So I’d probably be worse placed than most people to try and help, because I’d think I know what I was doing, but I’d just do it completely wrong.’
Now that Freddie is back in the UK, having always thought of London as home, he’s excited to ‘actually live here properly again’, as well as to catch an Arsenal match when he has a chance. He would love to do more UK-based work, and would work with Keeley, Harry and Jack again ‘in a heartbeat’.
Being back home has also given him the chance to catch up on some prime TV that he previously missed out on.
‘You know what I have been going through recently? A few more of the David Attenborough [shows]. Being back in the UK, I’m re-watching a few of those classics, and I feel like there’s quite a few that somehow I missed when I was abroad. So I’ve got that on my list of things to work through,’ he says.
There’s nothing like being in the UK and watching a bit of Sir David Attenborough, is there?
The Assassin is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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