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Benedict Cumberbatch
I found Stephen Galloway’s piece on Benedict Cumberbatch so fascinating I’m tempted to cut and paste the whole thing; instead here’s the link to The Hollywood Reporter article, The Confessions of Benedict Cumberbatch. I’ve also summed up Ten Things I Know about Benedict Cumberbatch from reading the article, including a few excerpts, below. Cumberbatch—brilliant as the brilliant Sherlock—is Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate, out Friday, October 11th. Watching the trailer (below) I’m struck by just how closely Cumberbatch resembles Assange and totally wowed by his Australian accent. Superficialities aside, I suspect he may really rock the controversial role*; unfortunately, the film looks a bit like a TV movie. It's not news that it’s difficult to make a film based on active current events, the ’news’. Clarity is evasive when situations are constantly evolving and reshuffling and sorely lacking the perspective that time and distance provide. I don’t know if the film works or not but Cumberbatch never fails to fascinate me; I can’t imagine not being absorbed by his performance no matter what.The Fifth Estate, directed by Bill Condon, stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl. The film comes out October 11th. Here’s the TIFF trailer.
Ten things I learned about Benedict Cumberbatch
1 Cumberbatch smokes - or has smoked - weed:
As the friends removed the tire, six armed figures emerged from the dark. "They were like: 'Look down! Look down! Put your hands on your heads! Look at the floor!' And they started frisking us and said: 'Where's your money? Where're your drugs?' -- we had smoked a bit of weed -- 'Where are your weapons?' And at that point, this adrenaline of fight or flight just exploded in my body. I was like, 'Oh f---, we're f---ed!' "
2 Oh yeah, and he was once tied up and stuck in the trunk of a car!
3 He's a Buddhist "at least philosophically"
4 He wrote his dissertation on Stanley Kubrick
5 He finds 'Cumberbitches' - the term some female fans call themselves - offensive.
Am I too harsh? Here's a link to the Sigur Ros site where you can preview some tunes via iTunes; you be the judge!
7 He loves books and hates the internet
He seems both part of this world and removed from it, with an old-fashioned liking for books (he lavishes praise on Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, the basis of an HBO miniseries for which he has received an Emmy nomination) and a contempt for the Internet, where vitriol "is horrific. You can't win. It's like a new form of bullying. I find it quite despicable."
8 I bet he's not on Twitter either!
One of these fans got out of control and spied on Cumberbatch in his home from a nearby building, tweeting his actions as he took off his shirt and put on another. The experience shook him to the core. Coming to terms with it, he says, is "an ongoing process. To think that somebody knew everything I'd done in a day and told the rest of the world in real time!"
9 He thinks your fan art is weird
But the requisites of stardom still seem alien to him, and he is dubious of his fan appeal, describing how odd it is to be surrounded by portraits of himself that fans have given him: "I've kept a couple that are stunning, that are just really beautiful drawings, and the rest I've had to give away. And I've told fans, 'Look, I'm very flattered, but what do you expect me to do with it? Think about it. Would you want your room surrounded by drawings of you?' It's a bit weird."
10 He's a push-me /pull-me kind of guy
At the flick of a switch, he can turn from icy to incandescent, from dignified to indignant. "He embodies the contradictions of Julian Assange," says DreamWorks partner Stacey Snider. "He is classical and modern, he is cerebral and intuitive, he attracts you and at times keeps you at a distance. That's what makes him singular and utterly compelling."
10 He's a push-me /pull-me kind of guy
At the flick of a switch, he can turn from icy to incandescent, from dignified to indignant. "He embodies the contradictions of Julian Assange," says DreamWorks partner Stacey Snider. "He is classical and modern, he is cerebral and intuitive, he attracts you and at times keeps you at a distance. That's what makes him singular and utterly compelling."
Ah! So that's why the ladies love him.
If you ADORE Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, you probably dig the looks of his digs. Yes? Then you might want to check out my Holmes at Home post.
* I'm accutely aware I haven't said word one about the subject of the film or really about Assange, who tried to convince Cumberbatch not to play the part. There's a bit of that discussion in the article but frankly the whole issue is so complex and clouded I hardly know what I think and feel about it; let alone the issue of filmmaking before all the facts come out, regardless of where you find yourself standing.