Martin Freeman, who stars as Bilbo Baggins in new film The Hobbit, has confessed that he had never read the book when he accepted the part.
The 41-year-old admitted he never read JRR Tolkien's prequel
or the Lord of the Rings series until he got the role but is now hooked.
He said: "I hadn't read any of the books actually. I got familiar with Middle Earth through Peter Jackson's films. Now I can see why people love that world so much."
Martin also loved spending a year and a half in New Zealand filming the movie.
He said: "It was lovely to have the time to get to know people properly. I'm a homebody so I like putting a DVD on and having a beer. But Ian McKellen was the kind of the social scene. Night's round Gandalf's house. There was a lot of that."
Martin had to wear prosthetic feet in order to look like a hobbit and revealed he found them quite painful.
He added to PEOPLE magazine: "The foot prosthetic comes halfway up your thigh, sort of like stockings. If you've got hairy legs then it's agony. So you have to powder your legs first."
