Freddie Highmore Is Back to His British Roots (and Loving It) in ‘The Assassin’

Freddie Highmore Is Back to His British Roots (and Loving It) in ‘The Assassin’

Freddie Highmore has called London home is whole life, but you wouldn’t know it from his portfolio.

The 33-year-old actor, a former child star thanks to his titular role in Tim Burton‘s 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has spent a good chunk of the last decade across the Atlantic. Shooting entirely in Vancouver, his rise to fame is best associated with the medical drama The Good Doctor from 2017 to 2024 or the psychological horror series Bates Motel in the years before that.

“I had such an incredible experience that feels so unique and will probably never happen again,” Highmore tells The Hollywood Reporter about his TV adventures abroad. “But at the same time, there was definitely an excitement to do something back in the U.K.”

He adds: “It did always feel like, ‘Oh, I should get back at some point.’”

The Brit is back with a bang in Amazon‘s hit(wo)man thriller The Assassin, airing on Prime Video in the U.K. on Friday, July 25.

The show, from Fleabag producers Harry and Jack Williams — creators of The Missing and The Tourist — stars English actress Keeley Hawes (The Bodyguard) as Julie, a retired assassin living in Greece. She reunites with her estranged son Edward (Highmore), who is seeking answers about the father he never knew. But the pair find themselves forced to call on Julie’s tricks of the trade when her murky past begins catching up with her. Gina Gershon, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jack Davenport, Alan Dale, Gerald Kyd, Devon Terrell, Richard Dormer and David Dencik round out the supporting cast.

“We got along incredibly well from the beginning — we were lucky in that way,” Highmore says of nailing a mother-son rapport with Hawes pretty swiftly. “We have a similar sense of humor, and we gravitated towards bringing out the same things in Jack and Harry’s writing.”

The six-episode season takes audiences across Europe — the program filmed for some months in Athens, Greece — with Hawes and Highmore at their very best through shoot-outs, yacht bust-ups and moped getaways.

Highmore spoke with THR about getting back to his native England, The Assassin’s original title and why he feels lucky to have entered showbiz before the rise of social media: “Now, it’s a necessary part of starting one’s career. It’s very hard for people to to not partake in it, and to not be encouraged to do so.”

One of the most compelling parts of the show is this relationship between Edward and his mum. Talk to me about creating this chemistry with Keeley. Had you watched her in The Durrells or The Bodyguard? Did she talk to you about being a fan of yours before you were both cast in The Assassin?

Yeah, we were both familiar with each other’s work. There’s lots of different parts to your question! One of the huge appeals of working on the show was definitely getting the chance to work with Keeley. I admired her work and loved so much of what she had done for so long. That was really exciting. Then we had a Zoom because I was in Vancouver, and she was doing a play in London. And we just saw the show and what we had read so far the exact same way. We are very similar in many ways. We have a similar sense of humor, and we gravitated towards bringing out the same things in Jack and Harry’s writing.

So that part of it felt effortless, that sense of mutual understanding from the start. It’s funny though, because I think, in a way, there wasn’t a huge amount of rehearsal or effort in creating that dynamic. We got along incredibly well from the beginning. We were lucky in that way. Hopefully Keeley says the same.

How do we see that chemistry play out on-screen?

That was the thing that gave us the ability to feel quite free in the scenes — not changing the words or changing the sense of the scene — but trust trying different things, having that bickering back and forth, finding that easygoing relationship between the two of them. One of the things that I find interesting about their dynamic is that, yes, on the surface, their relationship is complicated and it’s messy and it’s a little bit strained. They haven’t seen each other for some time. There’s an estrangement.

But I think they’re also more similar than each of them realize at the beginning. They’re two people that understand each other intimately [and] who yearn for that deeper connection. So there’s an element of tragedy, I think, to the two of them at the start, where even [from] those initial reactions you know each of them are trying. But they just keep on getting it wrong. So hopefully, over the course of the show, they’ll be able to to figure it out and realize that maybe they don’t need to be quite as opposed as they always have been. A large part of that is the secrets. They have dug themselves into this dishonesty. Obviously, Julie, in quite an obvious way, is hiding the fact that she killed people for a living. But even Edward, in terms of the secrets that he’s been keeping from her and and other people — they just keep getting it wrong.

What can you tease about their relationship over the course of the season?

There is so much to learn and so much to understand about their relationship and their history. There’s a lot of twists and turns. There are a lot of cliffhangers, but at the same time, it never feels like they’re there just to have a cliffhanger at the end of the story and [have] people go, “Oooh!”

It always felt grounded, rooted in characters and in the dynamic between Edward and Julie. So [the surprises are] never there just to tick a box and get people to keep on clicking. They service a more interesting, nuanced story underneath.

It is a familiar genre, and that feels comforting when you’re thrown straight in. At the same time, I felt like a lot of my expectations were subverted. Is it a testament to Harry and Jack’s writing that this show does feel fresh in quite a popular genre?

Yeah, and I love The Tourist. So when this came along, having already been aware of that and their work there — and obviously, Shalom was brilliant in that too. I think it’s very much in that vein. What they do so brilliantly, Harry and Jack, is combining the serious and the silly. It’s always grounded in reality. But there’s also these high stakes and bigger engine and dark humor.

I was at the recent screening and Q&A session with you and the rest of the cast. I found it hilarious that Shalom and Devon were so unfazed by the Greece heat, because they are Australian. But you and Keeley struggled a bit more.

(Laughs.) Yeah. I would say it was the one good thing that I had versus Keeley — in fact, this extends past the weather [and applies] to all things stunt or action related — my character was never meant to be a professional. He has never been a professional. So heat-wise, I think it was quite good that I looked a bit out of place and not in my comfort zone.

Edward gets off the ferry, he’s feeling a bit sick and thinking, “What have I done to put myself in this position?” And then, over the course of the six episodes, Julie does encourage him to buck up at a little bit. [She’s] like, “at a certain point you’ve got to start learning some of my old tricks of the trade” — just to keep them both alive. But again, I didn’t need to be very good at them. So that can be my justification!

Did you find that your own personality spilled into Edward at all? Are there any similarities you drew on to help you play him?

I guess there’s probably a part of me, of you and everyone in every character. There were probably more superficial similarities than other roles that I’d done more recently as well. I’d say one of the things that attracted me to it as well was just that he is British. It did feel like there was a very British sensibility to the show and a British point of view, even though we were filming abroad. And I think as a Brit, it had been a long time without being able to work here and have the opportunity to do things here. So it was exciting to get into a character and a script that has a very British tone to it. That was something I was definitely excited to do.

Well, you’ve been doing The Good Doctor for so many years. Did you miss our British sense of humor?

Yeah, I definitely was keen to do something in the U.K. again. I think it had been a long time. It was one of the most amazing chapters of my life, being in Vancouver, not only on The Good Doctor but Bates Motel and that 12-year run in that city. There’s definitely a nostalgia for that, and I had such an incredible experience that feels so unique and will probably never happen again. But at the same time, there was definitely an excitement to do something back in the U.K. So much great television and so many great films are made over here. It did always feel like, “Oh, I should get back at some point.”

You’ve had such a colorful career so far. You were a child star. What kind of roles get you excited at this stage in your career? Why The Assassin?

I’ve always loved the television I’ve been lucky [enough] to do alongside films. There’s just an opportunity to dig deeper into characters and into storytelling [in TV], getting into the nuances that you just can’t do when you’ve only got 90 minutes or two hours.

It’s just never wanting to do the same thing again, not wanting to repeat oneself or feel like you’re doing the same thing, playing a character the same way, or tonally doing something similar. I’m always looking for things that are exciting and challenging in new ways.

Do you feel like TV has your heart a bit more than film, because of those storytelling capabilities?

Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve been so lucky in general in both film and TV. Maybe I see the greater fortune, having been in television, where it’s so rare to get to spend so many years with one particular character — and to get to do that twice. But I think the other thing that it gives you is an awareness that you can end up spending a long time, a large part of your life, doing one thing. [The Assassin] is only designed to be a one-off, but when thinking of television more broadly and future opportunities, you do want to make sure that you choose the right thing. I can’t imagine what it would have been like doing those things for so long if they hadn’t been as exciting.

So yes, I’m excited to do more TV, but it’s also just being aware of wanting to choose that carefully because those decisions can have big repercussions. For me, it ended up being great and wonderful but the opposite may have been more difficult.

Do you think being in the industry as long as you have has helped you make those decisions?

I do feel fortunate about that. Having started younger, I avoided social media being a necessary part of starting one’s career. Now, it’s very hard for people to to not partake in it, and to not be encouraged to do so. It’s wonderful for many people, and many people enjoy it and have a great relationship with it. For me, [not having social media] has always helped me keep a healthy boundary between work and life outside of that. Growing up and starting to act in a time when that wasn’t a requirement — or even in existence — was lucky.

It’s amazing that The Assassin was initially titled The Hermit.It immediately transforms the vibe.

I still end up calling it The Hermit a lot of the time. People refer to it as The Assassin and I’ll forget that’s what it’s now called, just because [we went] through so many months of working on something with a particular title. When you’ve worked on it and gone through the whole process, it seems more irrelevant, [the title.] But of course, that’s people’s first impression and that’s all they know about the show.

I guess [The Assassin and The Hermit] signify different things. But at the same time, it depends on what part you want to highlight. The show really is a mix of these two things. There is that high-octane thrill. But I don’t think, personally, that’s what keeps people coming back to shows. These characters that they’ve created are interesting and nuanced and people that, ultimately, you want to spend more time with. So if [The Assassin] hooks people in, then great. The one thing I liked about The Hermit is a lot of characters in the show are somewhat isolated and seeking connection. Everyone, to some degree, is a hermit, just wanting to find love and reconciliation or validation with someone else.

Whose idea was it to change the title?

Who knows? I’m sure it’s to do with all the algorithms. (Laughs.)

That search engine optimization. Would you happily return to Edward’s shoes, if the opportunity arose?

I had a brilliant time doing it. I can see from your position that maybe it feels like more [seasons] were planned. It was never the case. Would I want to do something with [the Williams brothers] again? Would I want to do something with Keeley again? Of course, I had such a wonderful time. Whether that’s this show, a different show, who knows?

The Assassin is now available to watch on Prime Video in the U.K. and Ireland.