It’s been a minute since I’ve read a Benedict Cumberbatch interview, and it’s been years since I was full-on Cumberstan. I read Bendy’s Variety interview and it was like catching up with an old friend – he’s still the same goofy/charming guy, and it feels like he’s grown more comfortable in his own skin in recent years, especially now that the hysteria around him has died down significantly. He’s happily married (to Sophie Hunterbatch) and they have three young sons. He barely speaks of his family life with Variety, it’s almost all work. Bendy has been running his own production company, SunnyMarch, and in between Marvel films, Bendy produces small art-house projects for himself and his friends. He’s taking his latest, The Thing With Feathers, to Sundance, and this piece is part Sundance preview and part catch-up on the past decade of Bendy’s life and work. Some highlights:
Doctor Strange will not appear in“Avengers: Doomsday.” “Is that a spoiler? F–k it!”…Cumberbatch’s absence from “Doomsday” has to do with “the character not aligning with this part of the story.” And though he probably shouldn’t be saying this, he also reveals that Doctor Strange is “in a lot” of “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which will hit theaters in 2027. “He’s quite central to where things might go,” Cumberbatch teases. And he hints that the character, last seen casting spells in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” will appear in a third stand-alone film, but is hesitant to say too much beyond praising Marvel for being collaborative. “They are very open to discussing where we go next. Who do you want to write and direct the next one? What part of the comic lore do you want to explore so that Strange can keep evolving? He’s a very rich character to play. He’s a complex, contradictory, troubled human who’s got these extraordinary abilities, so there’s potent stuff to mess about with.”
Why he produces his own small-budget films: “These are urgent stories that we feel a need to tell. I tend to appear in many of them so we can finance something that’s either about a difficult subject or is really a niche piece of art-house cinema that deserves to be seen.”
Crying on command: “…It’s a mistake to think you can force it. That’s a dead end. You have to really put your mind somewhere so you can respond to the moment. And that can mean drawing from your own life story or just your imagination. It’s harder when you’re very young. I’m 48, so I’ve lived a bit of life. I’ve experienced loss, I’ve experienced pain, I’ve experienced some of the very worst, as well as the best.”
He won’t talk about Sophie or the kids: “I long ago stopped treating interviews as therapy sessions,” he says. He’s grown more resigned to it all. “The older I get, the less of a sh-t I give. There’s this whole other audience that have these expectations of you, feelings about you, judgments of you. That’s theirs, and you can’t change that or shape it. I’m still discovering who I am. So how the f–k are they supposed to know me?”
Becoming a sex symbol because of ‘Sherlock’: “I’m not Brad, I’m not Leonardo, I’m not a typical movie star. People were scrambling for ‘Why is he at all attractive to us?’ But for me to guess and try to understand that is so f–king weirdly navel-gazing. I’m not sitting around thinking, ‘Why am I sexy?’ I worry about myself in the mirror as I age, like every other f–ker does.”
On the term “celebrity.” “It’s so derogatory, and just lumps anyone famous together. Am I a ‘celebrated’ person? Well, for what? For selling cheese? For being on a reality show? For doing something outrageous? For being an actor?”
The Thing With Feathers: “It shines a light on male grief. I haven’t seen many things that do that. You have a man facing up to his limitations as he deals with the pressure of work, life, raising kids, all while his sense of self is just brutalized by grief. There were a great many challenges there. And I love a challenge.”
He doesn’t feel like he’s slumming it at Marvel: “It’s the modern myths of our times. Yes, it’s huge and unwieldy, but Marvel is so committed to getting it right. Even when we make one of these Avengers films and it gets exponentially huger, we’re still just kids playing in the sand pit. We’re still just making sh-t up and having fun with it.”
What would it take to play Sherlock again: “A lot of money,” he says, joking, before adding, “It would take it to be better than it ever was. You leave them or yourselves wanting more. There’s always that itch to scratch, but I think it would have to be the superlative version of what we’ve already achieved.”
Becoming a father, facing mortality: “The minute you have kids this sense of time sinks in far more profoundly. My youngest is turning 6 tomorrow, and I’m like, ‘I will be in my 60s when he’s 21,’ you know? It’s crazy. It’s gone so fast. So there’s a huge shift in priorities, and it makes you value what you do with your life in a very different way. It does weigh on me. When you become a parent, your thoughts turn more towards mortality.”
My opinion: Bendy does sort of see the Marvel films as beneath his talent, so he scratches that dramatic itch by making barely-seen movies where he can go all-in with pathos and drama. The thing that bugs me is that no one – no director, no writer – has seen his potential as a romantic lead, something in the vein of Cary Grant or David Niven. A posh douchebag who flirts and drowns a leading lady with charm. I think he would be good at that! Alas, they really don’t make those films anymore. The thing about “being called a celebrity is derogatory” is just so… classic Bendy. He can be absurd sometimes. Ah, I’ve missed him.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of Variety.
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- Red carpet to attend a screening at the Culture Square, as part of 4th edition of Red Sea Film Festival Featuring: Benedict Cumberbatch Where: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia When: 09 Dec 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Red carpet to attend a screening at the Culture Square, as part of 4th edition of Red Sea Film Festival Featuring: Benedict Cumberbatch Where: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia When: 09 Dec 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Please don’t start tossing pillows anyone, but when I first heard about “The Thing With Feathers” without knowing anything about it, I thought — here goes Bendy Cabbagepatch, trying valiantly to get around having to pronounce “penguin”.
Penkin.
Pincan
Pengin
Penquine
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I know he’s respected, but I’ve just never enjoyed his acting. Especially when he tries on an American accent.
He has the worst American accent. Whatever movie that is where he plays a redneck is just the cringiest. But I didn’t know him from Adam when I first discovered Sherlock and dayum. I was hit hard. Ob.sessed. I don’t find him all that appealing otherwise.
He’s definitely on the list ass one of the worst attempts at a Boston accent ever, especially as there are lots and lots of videos of his character Billy Bulger speaking. Bulger prided himself on his education, his love of words, and his diction.
I think he’s a fine actor, but I only recall seeing him as Sherlock, Alan Turing, Dr Strange. Don’t remember his American accent in Power of the Dog, but that movie was irksome because it didn’t look like Montana. I’m truly grateful that he had to bow out of ‘A Complete Unknown.’ Because Edward Norton is fabulously sweet and homey as Pete Seeger. Cumberbatch would have been major downgrade as Seeger. Loved A Complete Unknown just as it is.
He’s a talented actor but tends to take himself a bit seriously – as for the comments about being a celebrity; hahahahaha – this coming from the man who was so desperate to be famous he made his wedding part of his Oscar campaign.
IKR? Like I don’t judge all the serious Shakespearean actors who hit up the Marvelverse too. Make that cash. It’s fine. Any of us would. But then embrace it too because sir you are now a celebrity.
Love him.
I haven’t been able to enjoy him as an actor since Sherlock because so much of his work involves chewing scenery and isn’t natural or organic. Sherlock was good when it focused on Holmes cleverly solving mysteries and less on dramatic histrionics. The single worst series finale I have ever seen was Sherlock and truthfully the series jumped the shark much earlier because the show became a medium for overblown dramatics instead of the clever source material.
The finale season really ruined the series for me. It was like GOT in that sense.
IIRC, Sherlock always had a problem in that the makers didn’t know if they’d be renewed until the show became a huge hit. They were playing it by ear for the first couple of seasons. That forced them to introduce Moriarty way too soon; peak too early with him—then scramble to make up for the loss. And it sounds like everyone involved was exhausted by series’ end.
Y’all, I still use the phrase “mind palace” on a regular basis.
He got a lot of female stalkers during Sherlock times. I remember they were especially nasty to his wife, making up a lot of lies about her. I don’t know if he ever received offers for romantic lead, but considering the level of harassment he received even after his non-romantic roles, I would understand he wouldn’t go for it.
“The thing that bugs me is that no one – no director, no writer – has seen his potential as a romantic lead, something in the vein of Cary Grant or David Niven. A posh douchebag who flirts and drowns a leading lady with charm.”
But Hugh Grant is still in there pitching, so there’s that…🤣🤣🤣😈
Sorry all i think about is his family wealth from slave plantations in the Caribbean. And his worry about reparations (or his families’). No thanks.