Saturday October 6 2012 saw Sherlock fans travel in their droves
to Cheltenham to listen to Louise Brealey interview Benedict
Cumberbatch at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sherlock
Holmes and his role in the television series. In the event, the
talk became more focused on Benedict's work and career, but when
the discussion was as sparky, funny and entertaining as this that
was certainly no bad thing.
When J.K. Rowling, arguably the world's most successful modern
author, tells her audience that she is merely the warm up act for
Benedict Cumberbatch's session, you can get a sense of the
anticipation that was pervading the Centaur building at Cheltenham
Racecourse. Emerging onstage to a frankly thunderous reception from
the sold out audience of two thousand people, Benedict and Louise
were in playful mood from the off, joking that Steven Moffat and
Mark Gatiss, the true Sherlock Holmes experts, weren't attending
the talk. This led Benedict to play act shock and confusion,
walking around and staring backstage in mock incredulity, before
settling down in his seat. Louise noted the next time she would
publicly say "I play Molly Hooper" in front of an audience would be
during the read through for Sherlock Series Three next
year.
While many of the questions covered previously known
information, there was a smattering of confirmations and news
revealed relating to Sherlock and Benedict's upcoming roles, which
we'll get out of the way first:
- Mark Gatiss handed in his first draft of the opening episode
of Sherlock Series Three last week - he tweeted about completion of
a script that came as a 'physical relief' on Tuesday 2 October.
- Confirmation that Benedict actually owns one of the incredibly
rare Belstaff Milford coats, made iconic by his role as Sherlock
Holmes. It was a gift from Mark Gatiss after the filming of the
original pilot episode of the series in 2009. Benedict joked that
he has only worn it the once, hinting that going outside publicly
wearing it would make him far too visible.
- There is no truth to the recent tabloid rumours about his role
as the lead villain in the proposed 24th James Bond
film. Benedict knows nothing about it.
- First news that Benedict has performed motion capture for The
Necromancer in The Hobbit trilogy - previously it was only
stated that he was voicing the character. This emerged from an
expression of his frustration that most media outlets report that
he is only providing the voice for Smaug the dragon in the films,
whereas he will actually portray the entire physical onscreen
performance for the gigantic creature through motion capture, which
he performed during an intense couple of days of work in New
Zealand earlier in the year.
- Confirming earlier comments, Benedict stated that the one role
he would want to play onstage above all others is Hamlet, and he is
working to find room in his schedule to make this a reality.
On Sherlock, both Benedict and Louise reaffirmed that
they could only offer a healthy 'no comment' when questioned as to
how Sherlock survived the drop from St Bart's Hospital during
The Reichenbach Fall, with Benedict saying that whether
the questioner was Steven Spielberg or any other Steven, he could
only offer the same answer. He told an amusing anecdote on playing
the character, following an encounter with someone in a pub after
the broadcast of the first series. The man had huge appreciation
for his performance, but amusingly noted that Benedict had 'stolen'
the famous praying hands from others who played the character in
the past - though as Benedict noted, Sherlock's famous physical
depiction of thinking of course comes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
original writing!
Benedict said the version of Sherlock Holmes he was most
familiar with while growing up was Jeremy Brett's portrayal in the
Granada series, who he knew from a young age, noting the incredibly
hawk like and cold quality he brought to the role, and the tragedy
of his own life imbuing the character with these elements at such
incredible cost. That familiarity led him to initially question the
validity of BBC Sherlock before he auditioned, but once he
discovered the calibre of those involved behind the scenes he lost
any misgivings. He talked about his original audition for the BBC
series, which famously took place in Beryl Vertue's flat - with
Beryl serving him tea and biscuits in a Mrs Hudson like manner -
and his subsequent reading with Martin Freeman where he noted he
felt his "game just go right up." He was full of praise for his
friend during the talk, noting that he hates the word 'sidekick'
and that the pairing is more of a double act, and saying that
Martin was actually much quicker in thinking than he was -
amusingly Benedict said he was much closer to John Watson in real
life, seeing himself as much more of a follower. Louise asked
what his favourite part of filming Sherlock was, which Benedict
found quite hard to pin down, and instead gave us a list:
- The end of filming a deduction - "a nice belt
un-tightening reliever."
- When he gets to run about and have fun and "be a bit of an
action hero."
- A nice "rat-a-tat" dialogue scene with Martin
- Portraying moments when Sherlock is wrong and has to be
brought up short
- Filming the rooftop scene between Sherlock and John in
The Reichenbach Fall,
and being able to find a vulnerability and
emotional depth for the character.
- "The coat is nice, but not in summer."
- "Driving a Land Rover as fast as you can was good!"
- Getting the dialogue right is "one of the best things in
the world"
- "And you" (to Louise)
When asked if he had a single favourite episode of the series as
a viewer, he said he didn't, but again highlighted the rooftop
scene from The Reichenbach Fall and being able to see what
Martin was doing on the ground while he was on the rooftop in the
final version of the episode.
Benedict also related the most embarrassing thing to occur to
him on set filming the series, which was the infamous scene of
Sherlock in nothing but a bedsheet inside Buckingham Palace. On one
take of Mycroft stepping on the sheet in the scene, a combination
of factors between Mark's stepping and Benedict's forward movement
lead him to fall completely flat on his face. Further joking
saw Louise reveal what was inside Molly's Christmas present to
Sherlock in A Scandal in Belgravia - a Mankini, as seen in
Borat. He also commented on his occasional frustration
with Sherlock's hair, and the time it takes to prepare and look
after it before filming can begin for the day.
Talk on his other recent projects also featured. Benedict
revealed parts of his preparation for his role in
Frankenstein at The National Theatre, attending a live
autopsy and depriving himself of sensory experiences to attempt to
understand the experience of being born anew. On Parade's
End, due to the tight production schedule he didn't have the
time to read the novels beforehand and relied upon the scripts by
Tom Stoppard, the direction of Suzanna White, and the work of his
co-stars to understand the character of Christopher Tietjens
initially, before finding the time to plunge fully into the nine
hundred odd pages of Ford Madox Ford's work. He said that of all
the characters he has played, Tietjens is his personal favourite,
and that agreed with a statement from Louise that his look and
manner made him well suited to playing period characters, but he
said that his identification with that type of role could be
attributed to his manner as 'an old soul' - something pointed out
to him by one of his teachers while at Harrow. Incidentally, his
headmaster from the school was in attendance, which led to huge
applause from the audience, and later a bit of an apology to him
when Benedict admitted to smoking and drinking whiskey in a
successful attempt to deepen his voice for a school play!
Knowing the size of that audience, Benedict also quite wisely
took the opportunity to address his recent misquoting in the press
regarding the topics of Elementary and 'posh bashing',
with two thousand pairs of ears being perhaps the best and most
unimpeachable witnesses to what he had to say. He noted that much
of this can be attributed to misinterpreted humour or even outright
fabrication, so he is now being quite guarded when giving
interviews. On Elementary, he said that it was impossible
and wrong for him to claim any form of ownership over the character
after 70 previous actors had played Holmes, and reaffirmed his
genuine best wishes for his friend Jonny Lee Miller in his
performance, wanting him to have "nothing less than rip-roaring
success" and stated how impressed he was the series after viewing
the pilot on broadcast while in the United States. On 'posh
bashing', he said he was bemused by his sudden appearance as a
mouthpiece for the privileged in the media from misquoted or even
fabricated statements, and that one of the reasons someone becomes
an actor is actually to be free of any notions of class. He is
clearly very thankful for the chances he was given by his parents
and the fame that has been afforded him though, and one of those is
his chance to become a mouthpiece for charities, and thus help give
people a second chance where they would ordinarily not be heard. He
highlighted the Palace to Palace charity bike ride he is
undertaking on behalf of The Prince's Trust on Sunday October 14
2012, cycling 45 miles from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle -
and joked he would wear the previously mentioned mankini as part of
his cycling gear. He said the greatest benefit of sudden fame is
the chance to talk about these things in front of a large audience,
and the opportunities it provides in general.
Benedict also spoke about his upcoming projects, including
August: Osage County, which he has been filming this month
alongside Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor and Chris
Cooper, and will return to the States soon to continue working on
the film. Displaying an excellent poker face, he could give
us no comment on anything relating to Star Trek Into
Darkness, but said how the film will be a fantastic experience
come May next year.
Discussion turned to Twitter late in the event, following
Benedict's query if people would like him to join the social
networking site - to huge cheers. He reaffirmed that he has no
plans to do so, and that he is not on the service at all, but also
suggested he lacked the writing ability and skill to edit necessary
to fit information into those pesky 140 characters.
Following the Q&A section of the panel - much of which we've
covered throughout this report already - the event concluded having
run over time, but even as we prepared to make our long journey
home for the night, we stopped to watch the sheer dedication of the
fans of this remarkable actor, and his response to them in turn,
going way over the allotted hour of scheduled signing to ensure
every single person queuing was able to receive his signature. It
was a fantastically fun evening in the company of Benedict and
Louise, with many moments of mucking about and humour from both
that is difficult to describe after the event - though their late
realisation that they were both being projected onto a giant screen
to the audience was a definite highlight, with Louise's shock and
Benedict's subsequent shameless mugging. It is always a tremendous
pleasure to hear actors talk about their craft, and as good as he
is on screen, Benedict is huge fun to listen to in person.
To donate to Benedict Cumberbatch's Palace to Palace Charity
Bike Ride, cycling 45 miles from Buckingham Palace to Windsor
Castle and taking place on October 14 2012, visit his sponsorship page.