12:06 pm - 08/22/2012
Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch returns to our television screens this week. Fresh from a stint in Hollywood filming Star Trek 2 and a period spent channelling Smaug the dragon for Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies, the British actor is taking on the lead role of Christopher Tietjens in BBC Two's Parade's End.
Digital Spy and other journalists caught up with Benedict to discuss his role in the five-part period drama, based on Ford Madox Ford's novels, and got the scoop on his new stardom and his Hollywood experience.
Was it the chance to work with Tom Stoppard that attracted you to Parade's End?
"Yeah, because his output's slowed a little bit in recent years, so yeah, it was a huge pull. I didn't know the books, but I knew of Ford Madox Ford because of [1915 novel] The Good Soldier but then I started reading the books and that really drew me in.
"I completely fell in love with Christopher Tietjens, the most adorable and long-suffering but virtuous character I think I've ever played. I really think he has many admirable qualities I'd like to siphon off into my life.
"Tom was obviously a massive pull, but also Rebecca Hall, who I've worked with before, but not opposite on such a large scale. And then [director] Susanna White as well, and the fact that it's HBO.
"Also, I do have a fascination with that era. It's a very interesting part of English history and something we all seem to be slightly obsessed with now - there's Birdsong and Downton and now this.
"We're living 100 years from where it actually began. No survivors can give us any evidence, nor will history other than what's been recorded. So storytellers like to re-examine an era where there's nobody alive to tell those stories anymore. People can't tell us a story in an interview, so it's quite nice to revisit it through a fictitious or dramatised account of reality.
"It's 100 years on, yet I think there are a lot of similarities with today. Europe is falling apart. Parade's End is about the death throes of aristocracy as told through the prism of this love triangle over the duration of the First World War. The war itself is of constant fascination to us, but it's part of the series rather than the whole reason to it. It's not like Birdsong, which is very much a war romance. I just think it's important to look at an era that's beyond our living experience."
There were reports that you had criticized Downton Abbey...
"Yes, I was sort of quoted in the press out of context. All these people [from that show] laughed when they read it. I thought the second series sort of dropped off a bit at the end, but it's still a great show that keeps you hooked. What we're doing is not supposed to be compared to that."
How would you describe the love triangle between the characters in Parade's End?
"Sylvia (Rebecca Hall) is kind of the modern woman. It's a terrible mismatch - Christopher sees her as damaged goods and is trying to do right by her and be kind and understanding of her appalling treatment of him, but really he's kind of exacerbating it and killing her with his kindness. What she wants is to be treated sternly, and they're always out of sync. That's the tragedy of it.
"And then Valentine (Adelaide Clemens) comes along in his life, who's younger than him but has this incredible old soul, and has this incredible command of language. She can challenge him. She's beautiful and promises something in the future for him. She's exciting but forbidden fruit."
Christopher is described as bulky in the novel, which clearly you're not...
"Yeah, that's what I said to Tom and everyone, 'Why do you want me to play this part so badly?' Obviously it's an economical thing about bringing an audience from Sherlock, that was obviously part of it. But Christopher is a fat blonde Yorkshireman - I didn't get it. I keep on looking at myself getting angry at the fact that I'm not fat enough! I had to eat myself into the role.
Has shooting in Hollywood for Star Trek and other films changed things for you?
"Oh yeah. Everything kind of scales up. Your hours are more weird... you're working harder to an extent. Star Trek was an action movie as well as a drama, so it involved a lot of training and I put weight on - I went up four suit sizes at one point.
"It was hard work, but you're paid to scale. The money with films is what directors get to play with, that's what you really notice. [As an actor] you can get paid more for doing TV work than you can for films.
"I could have made much more money if I'd stuck around doing plays than if I was in Star Trek. But you just get to play with bigger toys that no other schedule or budget would allow in a TV structure."
You seem to be on a career high - are you ever worried that it might come to an end?
"No, I don't think so. It hopefully won't. Maybe this drama will be the death knell. People will go, 'Is this really what Sherlock should be doing next?'
"But I'm very proud of it. I treat each job as a new experience. I'm not nervous of the work drying up. It's been great to have back-to-back, well-received work."
Do people treat you differently after the success of Sherlock?
"Yeah definitely. What's quite nice is that they're by and large an intelligent breed, so they've gone over my back catalog and got why I've done what I've done and how I've done it. Many more of them have seen [2005 BBC mini-series] To the Ends of the Earth then would have watched it originally, so that's nice."
Is it strange becoming a recognizable face?
"Oh yeah, yeah. There's some worrying behavior. I worry for them, not for me. Any privacy in public is a hard thing to negotiate. The only thing that really pisses me off is people trying to surreptitiously take a photo of me with their phones. That really f**ks me off.
"It's not just that I feel it's invasive - it's cowardly and pathetic. Just ask me if you really want a photograph. People's response is 'I'm a bit shy' - well then don't f**king take a photograph!"
Can you tell us about your experience on The Hobbit movies?
"I'm not really allowed to talk about it. But it was great, I had a very isolated time with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh."
Is it technically the most challenging thing you've ever done?
"No, I don't think so. It's very freeing once you put the suit on, and you have to be free. Andy [Serkis] for all his brilliant work is playing a primate, something relatable to us. Whereas a serpent with cold blood who's twice the size of the Empire State Building who lives in a mountain is harder to do that with! You have to lose your s**t on a carpeted floor and imagine yourself into it."
Why do you think you've previously been cast in a lot of period dramas?
"I haven't done period dramas back-to-back, or really anything back-to-back. You get asked to do what you're most recently famed for, so I'm careful of not repeating myself. But I've got a long face... I look a bit weird... I suit period costumes, I guess!"
oh yes Hefflelumps i concur, perhaps a period piece on the life of the goblin shark with you as the shark itself.Source:http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/int
Hefflelumps CookieCrumble "My look suits a period drama"
Digital Spy and other journalists caught up with Benedict to discuss his role in the five-part period drama, based on Ford Madox Ford's novels, and got the scoop on his new stardom and his Hollywood experience.
Was it the chance to work with Tom Stoppard that attracted you to Parade's End?
"Yeah, because his output's slowed a little bit in recent years, so yeah, it was a huge pull. I didn't know the books, but I knew of Ford Madox Ford because of [1915 novel] The Good Soldier but then I started reading the books and that really drew me in.
"I completely fell in love with Christopher Tietjens, the most adorable and long-suffering but virtuous character I think I've ever played. I really think he has many admirable qualities I'd like to siphon off into my life.
"Tom was obviously a massive pull, but also Rebecca Hall, who I've worked with before, but not opposite on such a large scale. And then [director] Susanna White as well, and the fact that it's HBO.
"Also, I do have a fascination with that era. It's a very interesting part of English history and something we all seem to be slightly obsessed with now - there's Birdsong and Downton and now this.
"We're living 100 years from where it actually began. No survivors can give us any evidence, nor will history other than what's been recorded. So storytellers like to re-examine an era where there's nobody alive to tell those stories anymore. People can't tell us a story in an interview, so it's quite nice to revisit it through a fictitious or dramatised account of reality.
"It's 100 years on, yet I think there are a lot of similarities with today. Europe is falling apart. Parade's End is about the death throes of aristocracy as told through the prism of this love triangle over the duration of the First World War. The war itself is of constant fascination to us, but it's part of the series rather than the whole reason to it. It's not like Birdsong, which is very much a war romance. I just think it's important to look at an era that's beyond our living experience."
There were reports that you had criticized Downton Abbey...
"Yes, I was sort of quoted in the press out of context. All these people [from that show] laughed when they read it. I thought the second series sort of dropped off a bit at the end, but it's still a great show that keeps you hooked. What we're doing is not supposed to be compared to that."
How would you describe the love triangle between the characters in Parade's End?
"Sylvia (Rebecca Hall) is kind of the modern woman. It's a terrible mismatch - Christopher sees her as damaged goods and is trying to do right by her and be kind and understanding of her appalling treatment of him, but really he's kind of exacerbating it and killing her with his kindness. What she wants is to be treated sternly, and they're always out of sync. That's the tragedy of it.
"And then Valentine (Adelaide Clemens) comes along in his life, who's younger than him but has this incredible old soul, and has this incredible command of language. She can challenge him. She's beautiful and promises something in the future for him. She's exciting but forbidden fruit."
Christopher is described as bulky in the novel, which clearly you're not...
"Yeah, that's what I said to Tom and everyone, 'Why do you want me to play this part so badly?' Obviously it's an economical thing about bringing an audience from Sherlock, that was obviously part of it. But Christopher is a fat blonde Yorkshireman - I didn't get it. I keep on looking at myself getting angry at the fact that I'm not fat enough! I had to eat myself into the role.
Has shooting in Hollywood for Star Trek and other films changed things for you?
"Oh yeah. Everything kind of scales up. Your hours are more weird... you're working harder to an extent. Star Trek was an action movie as well as a drama, so it involved a lot of training and I put weight on - I went up four suit sizes at one point.
"It was hard work, but you're paid to scale. The money with films is what directors get to play with, that's what you really notice. [As an actor] you can get paid more for doing TV work than you can for films.
"I could have made much more money if I'd stuck around doing plays than if I was in Star Trek. But you just get to play with bigger toys that no other schedule or budget would allow in a TV structure."
You seem to be on a career high - are you ever worried that it might come to an end?
"No, I don't think so. It hopefully won't. Maybe this drama will be the death knell. People will go, 'Is this really what Sherlock should be doing next?'
"But I'm very proud of it. I treat each job as a new experience. I'm not nervous of the work drying up. It's been great to have back-to-back, well-received work."
Do people treat you differently after the success of Sherlock?
"Yeah definitely. What's quite nice is that they're by and large an intelligent breed, so they've gone over my back catalog and got why I've done what I've done and how I've done it. Many more of them have seen [2005 BBC mini-series] To the Ends of the Earth then would have watched it originally, so that's nice."
Is it strange becoming a recognizable face?
"Oh yeah, yeah. There's some worrying behavior. I worry for them, not for me. Any privacy in public is a hard thing to negotiate. The only thing that really pisses me off is people trying to surreptitiously take a photo of me with their phones. That really f**ks me off.
"It's not just that I feel it's invasive - it's cowardly and pathetic. Just ask me if you really want a photograph. People's response is 'I'm a bit shy' - well then don't f**king take a photograph!"
Can you tell us about your experience on The Hobbit movies?
"I'm not really allowed to talk about it. But it was great, I had a very isolated time with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh."
Is it technically the most challenging thing you've ever done?
"No, I don't think so. It's very freeing once you put the suit on, and you have to be free. Andy [Serkis] for all his brilliant work is playing a primate, something relatable to us. Whereas a serpent with cold blood who's twice the size of the Empire State Building who lives in a mountain is harder to do that with! You have to lose your s**t on a carpeted floor and imagine yourself into it."
Why do you think you've previously been cast in a lot of period dramas?
"I haven't done period dramas back-to-back, or really anything back-to-back. You get asked to do what you're most recently famed for, so I'm careful of not repeating myself. But I've got a long face... I look a bit weird... I suit period costumes, I guess!"
oh yes Hefflelumps i concur, perhaps a period piece on the life of the goblin shark with you as the shark itself.
If you read some of his old interviews it's clear he wanted to get into the big leagues of actors so he could have a variety of challenging roles. Like, there was one in 2005 where he said he wanted Gary Oldman's career. He definitely didn't want all the fame and fangirls that Sherlock brought him though. Above all, he wanted respect. I took what Brett Spiner thing said as a sign of how ambitious he is, actually, since he was asking if Star Trek would be good for him in the long run. But you know, it came out very awkward lol.
And yeah, these haters don't realize that this man is not just going to be some passing fad... He's been in the entertainment business for over 10 years already- another 10 will be like nothing. With his ambitiousness, I don't think any ridiculous thing that spews out of his mouth will stop him from getting where he wants to be.
I disagree somewhat.
I think he was somewhat envious of the attention friends like James McAvoy were getting (he said as much in an interview without specifying which famous friends he was talking about but the clues lead to McAvoy), not just in terms of work being offered due to fame but the sheer ton of stuff and totty he was getting. He wondered, "Hey, everybody else I know of my age group is getting famous, why not me?" Which is a natural thing for an actor, I think.
It's nice to think of him being all high-minded about the 'work' and I think he is more interested in it that the fame.
But he wanted to see what it was like for himself.
More to the point, I believe that he wanted to see if he could do it, too.
So now he's had the model/actress/famewhore girlfriend, the walk in the fashion show, the tours of sets, the parties he never would have been invited to a couple of years ago, and the respect of people he never thought he'd get to meet much less work with.
Being that he's in his thirties, I think he'll revel in this for another year or so and then he'll be back on the quiet path where one gets considered for top roles as a matter of course (like Oldman) and not just because one is the latest shiny toy boy actor.
Let's fact it, he isn't getting any younger. So he knows the stage will always be his friend.
In older articles I've read about him he seemed pretty happy that he was able to live as a respected actor for quite a while while not in the spotlight. He has always been nervous about paparazzi and wanted to live life as normal as possible. But it's clear that he was always itching to have bigger and better roles- you're right, he was definitely envious of his peers.
I've read so many fangirls saying that they're worried that fame is going to change him. Hell, even people on ONTD think that fame has changed him into some pompous snob! But he's going to be 40 in a few years- he's not this impressionable teenager! So yeah, I think you're right with what you said: He's going to bask in the craziness of fame for another year or so and then everything is going to slow down.