As we discussed earlier this week, Benedict Cumberbatch covers the new issue of Vanity Fair. I’m still trying to understand what they did to him and why he looks so young in these photos. Is it just aggressive Photoshop? Or something else? Anyway, Benedict also participated in a funny/charming video for VF. Benedict Strange does a “magic trick” involving a bottle of water. The best part of this is that he looks infinitely LESS creepy in motion and he narrates everything with his silky alien-otter voice.
It’s cute, right? It almost made me like him again. Not that I hate him now, I’m just sort of over him. There’s also this behind-the-scenes video of the VF shoot for the die-hard Bendybitches.
Meanwhile, it feels like forever and a day since Benedict was ever associated – however loosely – with the Great James Bond Search. I seem to remember that his name got a few mentions years ago, but most people justifiably scoffed, just as I continue to scoff at Tom Hiddleston’s alleged Bond thirst. Apparently, Benedict was asked about Bond in his British GQ interview, and this is what he had to say:
“I think people are obsessed with other people being Bond at the moment, so the heat’s off me… I can wear a suit and I can fight. I can raise my eyebrow, but that’s not what it takes to play Bond. They might want to go in very different directions, who knows? It would be fun though.”
I hate to say it, Dragonflies, but this is how you’re supposed to brush off the rumors. Do it with a shrug! Don’t actively campaign. While I don’t believe Benedict is on any shortlist, I do think Benedict’s chance at playing Bond is a lot better than Tom Hiddleston’s.
Last thing: Benedict is still very much attached to play Thomas Edison in The Current War, all about Edison, George Westinghouse and Nikolai Tesla. Michael Shannon was recently announced for Westinghouse, and now it’s looking like Nicholas Hoult will play Tesla. That actually sounds like a great movie, although… I do feel like Cumberbatch in particular is stuck in a rut of playing weird geniuses, you know?
Photos courtesy of Vanity Fair.
He should appear in the next Bond movie but as a villain.
Oooo! Yes.
p.s. this was a science experiment, not a magic trick!
You do realize that all magic tricks are science tricks, right?
Yes! He did very well in that Star Trek film.
Bond villain?
He should appear in a Troma horror movie as the monster. No need for makeup, by the way.
Cumberbatch would be atrocious as Bond.
And The Current War? Yet another emotionally repressed genius?
Redmayne is in pre-production for a similar movie! The Last Days of Night – “A rivalry forms between American entrepreneurs George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison.”
Is this gonna be The Jungle Book ordeal all over again?
I’m a bit annoyed at Redmayne’s casting BC has been attached for a while to the CW & its gonna set off more silly comparisons. As for playing genius he is fabulous as the monstrous RIII in the Hollow Crown
He was FANTASTIC in the Hollow Crown II. I attended a private screening when it premiered in my country and everyone was amazed by it to the point almost no one recognised him.
@lightpurple
not quite. it makes me wonder how people are going to receive this movie because it’s more how that really went down and less the myth history feeds us. Edison was a charming, social businessman who…well, stole a lot of his “inventions.” Not an emotionally repressed genius at all but an outgoing, confident entrepreneur (*cough* con man *cough* LOL).
I didn’t read the book Redmayne’s movie is based on but that’s more about the court stuff, from westinghouse’s attorney’s point of view. Sounded a little dry for a movie but who knows.
Well, Billy Bulger is quite charming, intelligent, and social as well but not in Cumberbatch’s interpretation of him.
im honestly not sure how you can gauge all that. not even being remotely snarky, billy’s in black mass for all of 5 minutes and when he is, the scenes don’t call for a display of any of those qualities. it’s all about whitey
I dont even want him to play himself. I thought I was alone. Felt so cold in here.
I can’t see him on the role and I seriously doubt he’s being considered, but it’s true he’d be a thousand times better than Hiddles.
I went back to liking him. His ridiculous Oscar campaign left a sour taste in my mouth for a loooooong while, but now it’s worn off and I can appreciate him again. Never found him hot, though.
He’s stuck with genius cause he’s not as versatile as he thinks he is.
I don’t get cumberbatch, I don’t get the attraction. I guess I could watch and read his interviews to figure it out but he is just not appealing at first glance.
I don’t want him to play Bond. No thanks.
It is a matter of personal taste. We aren’t all attracted to the same things. Some find him handsome, charming with a silky voice. Others find him to be a mumbling cross between a t-Rex and a chinless space alien who is quite full of himself. He does have talent within his range, which is not as broad as that of his peers like Hardy, Chiwetel, Cillian, MacAvoy or Fassy.
I enjoy laughing at him
I thought I was alone. Felt so cold in here.
These photos are so odd, between as someone said the “Titanic sofa posing” and the “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” hair/face and the “upper-body Twister” contortions and the “There’s an itch right above my elbow, oops sorry.”
It’s hard enough having normal snaps taken at celebrations … can’t imagine what it’s like having to bend yourself into a pretzel for arty magazine photographers.
Such a pretty shoot – all the blue tones.
When was the heat *ever* on him?
Never, he has not the Bond look, nor the charisma.
He’s definitely stuck in odd geniuses’ roles, it’s not even funny anymore.
He’s being typecast or he’s seriously in the mood to play the same character over and over again. Is he even versatile? We don’t know.
They really outdid the photoshop for this shoot. They erased his expression lines.
See Frankenstein, Parades End, The Hollow Crown or listen to Cabin Pressure – he is completely different. You always know what McAvoy & Cillian are going to look like. Even in the Imitation Game he looked nothing like Sherlock
Frankenstein = arrogant genius
Parades End = repressed highly intelligent man
Cabin Pressure = idiot not really funny outclassed by Roger Allen and Stephanie Cole.
Yes, such versatility.
“Even in the Imitation Game he looked nothing like Sherlock” I should hope not. He was playing a historical figure. A mediocre actor would have trouble getting jobs if they couldn’t create a discernible difference between a prior role as a fictional character, and their portrayal of an actual person who lived in the past century. Cumberbatch isn’t mediocre, but he doesn’t have a huge catalog of leading roles in theatrical films. Let’s see what roles he accepts over a few more years.
I’ve seen Frankenstein, Parade’s End, Atonement, War Horse, The Other Boleyn Girl, STID, Black Mass, 12YAS, August:Osage County, The Imitation Game, The Fifth Estate, The Hobbits, and Hamlet. Looking different can be achieved through makeup, putting forth almost the same performance in every film, as he does, speaks to the actor’s range.
I’ve seen most of his repertoire but have not heard Cabin Pressure nor seen Starter for 10 or something like that.
Most of his characteres are cut form the same cloth, even that one in Stuart: A Life Backwards. I would like to see him in a comedy or just playing an average person without any discerning qualities (his character in August was “special”)
I must confress that I did not like his Alan Turing because to me he sounded too much like Sherlock. Also, he is very bad with accents.
I can’t see how being typecasted as he is is something he would want.
However I thought he was very good as Richard III and was glad to see something different. I became a fan of his with Atonement because he was so creepy. He showed his talent in those few scenes.
Starter for 10 – emotionally repressed, posh buffoon played for laughs. Plus MacAvoy and Dominic Cooper.
I thought his RIII was beyond awful (the worst RIII I have ever seen and then some), but I loved him in Cabin Pressure and Starter for 10.
I’m missing something here (still) how did Tom actively campaign? He kept being asked questions and tried to be diplomatic until he got fed up and said it wasn’t going to be him. Not the same as actively.
Spidey, you are being rational again.
Tee hee. What drinks are you offering today, and can I have nibbles too?
He did a shitton of campaigning behind the scenes.
Seriously I know there’s some fan thing about him not being interested in the role, but literally since he was like 14 he’s made no secret of that being his ultimate ambition. What’s wrong with being ambitious? Craig isn’t leaving for a while yet, who knows, it may still happen.
@ Spiderpig “He did a shitton of campaigning behind the scenes.”
Can you enlarge on that? Not saying he didn’t but is it true or hearsay? And how do you come up with the idea that the Bond role has been his ambition since he was 14?
He looks like one of the male “models” on those websites that advertise for you know… …
Maybe it is going to be is new line of work, if Doctor Strange fails. LOL
The Current War is in pre-production right now (their first day of filming is 6th Dec) and yes Benedict is playing the lead, unless he gets eaten by a giant otter or something in the next few weeks. They’re currently casting child actors who look like him to play Edison’s two kids, who both have significant roles in the script.
Tbh his fans/nans/sceptic wars are a lot more interesting that he is right now.
Has anyone heard that Susanne Bier, director of the NIght Manager starring Tom HIddleston, might direct Bond?
I’ve heard it but not from any sources I consider credible.