OZ COMIC CON - APRIL 13TH, 2014 (SUN) As complete a summary as I can be bothered with of Benedict Cumberbatch at the Oz Comic Con Sydney event (Sunday April 13th, 2014). Some parts have been paraphrased and others left out completely, so don’t take it as gospel, more as generally what went down.
Q&A: BC appears on stage holding his iPhone up to the microphone and dancing around. Crowd goes wild.
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Q&A with Benedict Cumberbatch
Now that… is a legal bit of dancing that you’ve just heard [sic]". Which is his way of bringing up the fact that he’s actually quite annoyed (I think) over the organisers’ showing of the video intercutting Tom Hiddleston’s dancing with his own "Thriller" moves. He explains the background, which is that footage was essentially hacked from Olivia’s page, at which people laugh and cheer, to which he’s all "no, boo, boo".
1. How did he prepare to play James in Third Star? Aww. He talked to the UK Rhabdomyosarcoma cancer society, since it was what James suffered from, he met a few people who had cancer at the time, he talked to Vaughn (the screenwriter) who based some of it on a friend of his. He couldn’t do anything with his hair because he was about to play Sherlock! So he lost a lot of weight, went swimming in the ocean, ran around a lot, ate less - at this point someone brings him a glass of wine, which gets a cheer - for at least two weeks. Says nice things about JJ (yay!), that they all influenced the film because Hattie was a first-time director, he tried to help and guide her with his own work, and JJ especially helped her and he (JJ) would make a good director. Amazing story, amazing setting.
Tells crowd he’ll count to five and they should stop taking photos or he won’t be able to concentrate. Gets laughs by holding each count in a particular pose so people will have all of them and won’t need to take further photos.
2. Question about this being the age of social media, and how big he is online, and how has that affected him. “I try not to let it affect me at all, in the sense you can’t do your job thinking you’re an icon of any description, you have to concentrate solely on the work in front of you.” He doesn’t do it for the fans, or the fame, but for the love of the work. It’s a privilege to have his job, and he works very hard when he’s acting. Everything that’s happened since then is a huge compliment. Being thought sexy is a compliment to the work rather than how he looks. He didn’t make any of those lists when he was starting out. He’s grateful for the response to his work… can’t remember the second part of the question.
If he could live in any era which would he choose, or does any era appeal to him in particular? Questioner admits that wasn’t actually the question that was first asked. BC: “Sneaky.” Laughter. He’ll answer it anyway. He’s drawn to WWI, that era, but there are lots of notable eras. Also mentions the time of the industrial revolution, and the associated cultural revolution - life expectancy was low, there was “rampant disease”, a lot of poverty and so on, but also an extraordinary thirst for human endeavour, exploring the seas, in politics, in Egypt (and something about all countries on all continents). Must have been an incredible era to live through, but then possibly all eras are incredible to live through.He quite likes ours. People - “you guys” - should make sure it gets better.
3. What makes a good director and what are are the some of the best directors you have had? Someone who can work with the process that may be yours or seduce people into theirs “and not do it knowingly” (too obviously). So you don’t feel like you’re being told what to do, you’re just answering certain questions and being engaged on a certain fundamental level and being inquisitive and active. To take you away from the effect you might have on an audience and make you think about the character’s interior life and trust your judgement and your instinct and to their judgement and their instinct. And create something that’s about not achieving reviews and/or an audience reaction, but knowing that an actor’s focusing on every specific moment in that piece. And you have to be incredibly adept at imagining yourself into other people’s mind and processes, as well as the characters. You have to have that overview of course, to really understand the individual pieces of the actors and other artists involved in making that happen and on a film set to be a really good director, you almost have to speak three different languages - you have to balance technicians against fragile “mediocre artists” in front of the camera against… There’s this horrible expression “oh, talent’s stepping on” or “the artists’ change room’s over there” but it’s bullshit. Everyone who works in film is an artist, whether they’re behind the camera on in front of it doesn’t make any difference but the “talent’s stepping on” thing’s just horrible. You know, talent can often be a misogynistic term for “a fit bird”. Lots of talent in that one. So it’s a bit rude in that sense as well. “I’m not a fit bird.” But thinking seriously about it, he’s really grateful to get good directors. He’d love to direct at one point, but he’s not there yet… what was the second part to the question?
What are his good experiences (with directors)? Well the opposite of bad ones, but Tomas Alfredson (TTSS) was easy, he knew exactly where to place the camera, how to let the scene evolve, trust the actors, he was encouraging, and cool with it. Martin Tyrell, who directed him at school. “He was pretty fucking amazing.” Laughter. BC doesn’t think he was paid a single compliment while he was at school which was immensely brilliant because it just made him want to please. “Anyone who makes you want to please them is a good director.” They’re your prime audience so if you want to please them you up your game, make your craft sharp.
Danny Boyle was extraordinary, going to rehearsal in the middle of winter - it had been very snowy so BC couldn’t ride his bike in, the journey could take two hours sometimes when it should have taken 20 minutes. Every day he had cuts and bruises, headaches. At home he was cold, his heating wasn’t working properly, it was hard. Every time he’d walk into the rehearsal room wanting to pack it in but Danny would be all HI BEN HOW ARE YOU? so full of life and energy and genuine love that you’d give him the full business and the extras. Peculiar engine of creativity you’d get swept up in.
Steven Spielberg was really amazing. Very anecdotal, avuncular, caring, intrigued by their lives, and sharing about his, and his own experiences… when he was directing Indiana Jones - “wow, amazing!”. Something about trying to ride a horse in WWI fashion and fight off Germans with a saber. But Spielberg was great, a legend, he worships him, he’s really cool. Thea Sharrock in After the Dance was amazing, the work evolved as a conversation. He’s been very lucky with his directors. “I’ll speed it up a bit.” Richard Eyre - amazing (not sure if that’s the right name). David Attwood, very good (Ends of the Earth and Stuart), that Scottish guy who directed that weird SH thing he does (Paul McGuigan). Cheers. Had some good directors, but yesterday someone asked him who he’d like to work with - names a lot of people, including Scorsese.
4. What is the craziest thing a fan has ever said to you? Ums and flicks through the “box file in his head”. Someone yells “use your mind palace”. Laughter. “There are lots of doors in my mind palace marked ‘not for public consumption’.” Some strange things have happened to him but it’s hard to… innocent ones like “what’s your favourite cheese?”.Audience now wants to know. “Manchego.” Crowd goes wild. He’s completely bemused. We should all buy manchego. It’s a good question but there’s a lot he can’t share. Promises to come back to it. He’ll find an “appropriate but fun one”.
5. Thanks for coming out to Australia. Woo. How does he get into his mindset to play Sherlock Holmes? He starts by reading and re-reading (x4) the sсript, then reading and re-reading (x4) the books, especially the story the sсript is based on. Starts to learn the sсript piecemeal. Cardiovascular exercise, swimming, running, bit of yoga maybe. Tries to meditate, do other memory exercises, building mnemonics. In the first series, “I tried to do crosswords, I tried to solve crimes…” Laughter. Lots of things to try and stretch his brain. “By the end of it… it’s a fun place to be, my head.” A little bit more elastic than when he began the series, it’s a good brain workout, memory exercises the main thing, and he tries to think fast, talk fast, lots of articulation exercises and vocal warm-ups in the morning as well. “Then Martin starts doing them. Sometimes in scenes where he says nothing!” Something about Martin maybe taking the piss. (LOL. I can totally see this.) It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so he tries to take a bit of a run-up.
He’s shivering. Is it cold for anyone else up there? Crowd: Yes. “Please turn off the air-conditioning.” “Thank you. If there’s one person who’s hot I’m so sorry but I’m literally shivering, like this. It’s cooold,” he says plaintively. Aww. “Bless, he has human needs.”
6. What’s your favourite episode of Sherlock? Someone shouts… something. “Oh, you want to answer that question, do you? Did you record it?” The second one of the third series (ie TSOT) was good fun in that he had the “completely unique challenge” of that rant in the middle of the wedding speech. Like a one-man play but with a lovely audience of actors and extras, very rewarding as an actor, lots of meat to chew, about 30 pages, 39 (?) pages. Loved bits in all of them. He also liked riding the motorbike, since he likes… riding motorbikes. Likes the fight scenes, especially the Vatican Cameos one, although he was very tired. it was near the end of the shoot which was done backwards for the second series. All the dreamscape stuff with Irene Adler, great fun, even though there were midges, fun to imagine it going backwards, the physicality of him that isn’t in the books, difficult to single out a single episode.
7. What’s your favourite song at the moment? Elbow’s new album. [My] Sad Captains is a fantastic song. Keeps flipping through iPhone, muttering to himself, “recently played”, singing under his breath. “You can talk amongst yourselves, it’s fine.” He wants to play it in the background. Amazing band, Guy Garvey’s a friend of his, and he’s a “vocal lyricist”. No, wait. “Lyrical genius. He’s a beautiful modern poet, and he’s a very deeply profoundly lovely human being and soul and I think his music and his words reflect all of that. I love this song.” Plays it for a while. Quotes: “We only pass this way but once/What a perfect waste of time”. Lots of Elbow. He thinks it’s a pretty beautiful motto for life.
8. Question about nerds and geeks becoming cool and how that has helped his career (implying he mainly plays geeks): “Was Khan a geek?” “Is Smaug a geek?” “Sherlock’s obviously a geek.” “What, because geeks are cool my work is cool?” He knows what she means, doesn’t think that much of a cultural shift, believe geeks have always secretly ruled. Crowd goes wild. “Brainy is the new sexy sort of thing.” Crowd goes wild. Incredible, and should be encouraged, beyond smugness about what you are able to achieve as an intelligent person in this world. If you can think for yourself and care about other people, you have a lot of responsibility. So do good things, sensible logical things that have a moral core, and that means everything, from being really careful about what you buy, and how you donate, how you use the resources, the ever-precious and unrenewable resources of this world, how you treat others in this world, it’s about being a good person, really… wandering off topic a little bit… but I think it isn’t really, I think people who really are smart should do good with their smarts, and if that’s celebrated in any other field like culture or industry or even politics or any other field where that kind of impact matters, then it’s a good thing, because it can bring about good.
Having said that he’s played some ignorant people, people who aren’t necessarily capable of caring or moral judgements or moral understanding. He’s played bullies, people who’ve been bullied. Psychopaths. Crowd: high-functioning sociopath! “Yeah, and a high functioning sociopath.” It’s tremendous, a good time, for chic geek [sic] is back, basically.
9. Any novel or play you’d like to be made into a movie, what would it be and who would you like to be in it? The Patrick Melrose novels are brilliant, would like to play him, but then so would “any other posh English actor” and there are lots of them. “Which is good.” Might not make a great film, but maybe a good series. Five books. Gets nervous about books he’s precious about, he’s equally precious a fan of books he likes, loves original writing as well, not just adaptations, doesn’t have a bucket list on that one. That’s what’s playing in his head constantly, more as TV ideas than two-hour features.
Doesn’t want to talk about some he might be optioning with a production company he’s built. Crowd: ooh! BC (sounding just like Steven Moffatt): Yeah! ”Not just a fucking actor.” Yesterday it was “aww”, today it’s “ooh”. Have to keep those under wraps. Asks the fan: ”Do you have one?” Answer is “Horatio Lyle”, gets Karen (his publicist) to remember it. Remembers someone else gave him a particular book to sign, wants to know what it was, whoever it was please shout it out. “Riddley Walker”. Gets Karen to remember that too. “Sorry to embarrass you.” He’s not Sherlock, he won’t remember after the next question.
10. How do you go about creating gestures and mannerisms? Research, instincts, adopting vocal qualities such as consonant stress? Depends on the project - he’ll talk about Frankenstein, Assange, Guillam. Frankenstein - the Creature was from the outside in. From the audition he was already trying to imagine what it was like to be in the adult form he had but to never have experienced gravity, or centre of gravity, touch, taste, bodily senses or articulating speech or understanding “light wave stimulus” to the senses. So that was a very physical process for him being the Creature. And the synchronicity with the creator, with Frankenstein, that was more from the books, because there was more in the book than in the sсript, which really contracted [Victor’s] story to his disadvantage. It was a long show, and an extraordinary exploration of what the Creature’s life force and experience was. For Victor he went from the books to something much more physical, which was manhandling, lifting, cutting, sewing, and trying to recreate life from corpses. What that would do to his sense of smell, and ideas of light and life and how it disconnected with any kind of normality. They were both quite physical, those two roles. Took advantage of a wicked rehearsal, all sorts of physical stimulus from designers, costume designers, a very sensual experience.
Guillam was from the book, mainly, also searching out photographs of the era, to create someone who had that James Bond, black kit and tie, large lapels of that era cool - everything about him should read as being heterosexual, so that his sexuality was at complete odds with his public persona and the way he projects himself in the environment of his work.
Julian - Julian was difficult - that’s someone who exists. He’s not creating the physicality or personal tics or vocal tics or temperature (possibly he meant temperament) or pace of movement - all of that is there, it’s writ large in all of his interviews on the internet. But that’s really just the public projection of him, what goes on behind closed doors, what goes on when he’s not in control of himself as much as he’d like to be… you have to go a little bit on your intuition, and your imagination and reading what people have described, who have met him, and obviously reams and reams of footage. And you become confused in that process because he’s so seductive, his message…he started to fall into the trap of listening to what Julian was saying and trying to understand everything Julian’s about, what he stood for with Wikileaks, and that was obviously part of what the job encompassed but it blurred the lines a bit. Going for one thing (the accent/manner) and slipping into the other (the understanding). So that was a very intellectual process, the two approaches were confusing because of how extraordinary Julian is, you want to listen to what he has to say.
11. What advice would you give to an actor starting out? Keep fit for the sake of your body but more importantly for your mind, don’t worry about your body image, just keep your brain oxygenated. Read a lot, watch a lot, listen to a lot, look at a lot, do good observations, look at people’s behaviour, just be that person on the bus, or the tram, or the taxi looking out the window at other people. Be actively engaged in the culture that you want to be a part of, go and see as much as you can. Just keep at it, keep at it. Rehearse stuff for yourself but try and get together with friends as much as you can afford to, supplement your income when you’re just starting out so you have something stable so you can afford stretches of not working. Work on what you have to offer. Don’t be frightened of your limitations, those are not limitations but what make you unique, so go ahead with the full confidence you have something to offer the world which no one else does and that’s not your precious snowflake stuff like he said yesterday, that’s truthful, it really is. And just be open to learning all the time. You’re going to have to take criticism and understand what your weaknesses are to get better, what your strength is, but it’s only going to make you better in the long run. Keep at it and very good luck.
12. His favourite childhood movie? Ghostbusters. Woo. The “asymmetrical comedic genius” of Bill Murray should have evaded him at the age he watched it at, but Murray’s extraordinarily brilliant, and there was something that made him go back to the film a lot. He liked that bit where the creepy music came in and the ghouls were just colliding into Manhattan, and loved that they were contained on this island, and at the centre of it was Peter Venkman. All three of them were brilliant. It was a fantastic creation. The idea for a kid that ghosts could be funny and scary was extraordinary. The dogs that guarded her were pretty terrifying, yet when Rick Moranis squeaks down the wall everyone carries on eating. It was very funny. “You should ask my mum this question.” She’s not in here today, but you should ask her. He wasn’t a geek, not too obsessive, but loved Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Woo. Quite liked Bond - he saw his first one, Octopussy, at quite a young age. Didn’t quite understand the seduction of beautiful women, but he liked the gadgets, was a typical boy in that sense. Indiana Jones was really cool.
Goes into story about a rope swing at his prep school. Two wooden platforms to either side and “the log in the bog” in the middle which they thought was “veerrry funnny” (the way he said it was hilarious, very high-pitched and excitable) at that age (ie toilet humour). There was a rope swing that hung over the log, and when it was stopped in the middle it was difficult to jump for, which they called “going for an Indy” *he sings theme music* When he had “train tracks” on his top set of teeth he jumped for it, and this guy, a tall and gangly Nigerian fellow jumped behind right him. They jumped and landed on the log in the bog, and it would have been hilarious except that the guy landed on his head and “my lip then got impaled on my brace”. He went up to his best friend, Dougie, all “wasstha matta I can’t move my lip” and Dougie went “oh, god”. Discussed that incident the other day with a “good friend of his”, Jamie Watson (…I know), who lives in Adelaide and who went to the comic con. In the autograph line a picture of BC at school was pushed in front of him and a voice went “yeah, can you sign this” and BC is “ahhh… bit creepy. How did… how have you got this?” “‘Cause I’m in it with you.” And then he looked up and it was him. He nearly cried - he hadn’t seen him for over 20 years.
13. "Khan" (female, came in cosplay) asks about him playing characters on the autism spectrum, citing Sherlock and the Creature and says he gets it perfectly right, and what’s his process? It’s there in the writing, really. The Creature is born without empathy, but builds it as he lives, the cruelty of his evolution is that the world treats him so badly. He evolves into a creature of revenge and fear and terror - creating terror. That’s the story of what we must be careful of. We must guard the innocents, take care and cherish people who are in a position where they can’t understand (the way the world works), if you give them the wrong instructions, the wrong understanding, you’re answerable for it.
Went to two schools for children who are autistic, but he disagrees the Creature is autistic because of the progression he makes, but it touches on it. The people had such huge difficulties and it was profoundly upsetting and affecting that there were 19-year-olds who didn’t know anything beyond their bodily functions and “they’d become ghosts in modern society”. Didn’t have the usual concerns of that age - exams, graduating, job, mortgage, marriage, taxes, having children, being a functioning piece of the machine we call society - they can’t. What they suffer and what we portrayed are worlds apart.
With Sherlock I think he’s become that way, I don’t necessarily think he began life that way which again makes a difference. Without doubt I think that’s how it could be perceived but I think what we’re trying to explain is that it’s possible still to be part of the world, but a brilliant part of the world and he’s still capable of learning and exploring a different side. He’ll never have the heart or sentiment that Watson has, but that doesn’t make him devoid of those feelings. He cut himself off from that in order to pursue the rigid focus and discipline that he needs to do this. I think it’s conscious, like magicians who practice their skills, who function in society but have absurd levels of retentive memory and discipline in their work, who can marry the two things to create extraordinary illusions and tricks of the mind and piece together the most seemingly disparate and unrelated incidents or evidence to create a narrative. It takes a special skill and people with Asperger’s or autism can have that focus. It’s great you can see him as a hero and for his ability and to realise because of that actually we’re all different but we’re all different in different ways if that makes sense - which kind of makes us all the same.
14. What future projects should we look out for (apart from continuations such as The Hobbit and Sherlock)? Talks about The Imitation Game, which is set in Bletchley Park during the war and 1950s Manchester after the war. He hopes it’ll be a special film. Alan Turing is a brilliant hero of our time who basically invented the computer. The Turing machine was the basic prototype, a piece of hardware which you could feed a program to - which in those days were just marked squares on a piece of paper - to a mechanism which could read that as an instruction (Wikipedia note: it’s actually more of a hypothetical construct of that idea). Software coming into a piece of hardware. Beyond that Turing helped redesign calculating machines from the Polish genius who came up with the original Enigma codebreaking machines. Extraordinary work to advance codebreaking during WWII, and by many people’s estimations he was part of the effort that ended the war two years earlier than it would have done, effectively saving millions of lives.
Real hero, but because Turing was homosexual in the 50s he lived during a time of fear, real fear of communism and everything else, Cambridge spies, most of whom were also homosexual. Horrible prejudice against that, and he was offered the choice between imprisonment or chemical castration, which involved being given the hormone oestrogen. Turing chose the latter, so he could carry on working on his computer. He died under suspicious circumstances, speculation about suicide, MI6, accident, but BC thinks he took his own life. Turing was ruled by brilliance and destroyed by the country that he practiced that brilliance in because politics at that time, people at that time couldn’t deal with his way of loving, his way of being. For that reason we lost a great hero. He’s had apologies from the Queen and other people, but Turing is the only one who can really forgive the people who did him an injustice. Not anyone else. He’s a hero. BC hopes he can do him justice, it’s a great, great story.
He’s also doing Richard III for the BBC (woo!) and hoping to do Lost City of Z, which should start filming in June.
15. If he could steal one of Alan Rickman’s roles, which one would he choose and why? “Yippi-ki-ay, motherfucker.” Woo. Rather soppily for a 14-year-old loved Truly, Madly, Deeply. Rickman’s a great actor, fantastic. Woo! “Yeah, woo! He is, he is. I woo with you.” He came up to me and said: “[Alan Rickman voice - something about hearing about him and Tom Hiddleston doing competing impersonations?]”. Very funny and generous about the whole thing, lovely man, got such a distinctive and unique voice. Like James Mason. Everybody loves James Mason because these people are unique.
Announcement: “This is the last question.” Aww.
"It’s not, she’s lying, I’m going to talk for ages. That’s not her fault, by the way."
16. What negative aspect of humanity would he like to portray? [Greatly abbreviated answer.] The greed of power. There are people meeting in boardrooms around the world with potentially disastrous outcomes for the rest of us, need to be guarded against that.
Gets told it really really is the last question. “Is an orchestra coming here or something?”
17. He’ll just waffle some more and answer a lot of questions all at once. It’s why he always gets fucked up by journalists. What is the most embarrassing song on his ipod? He sings Puff the Magic Dragon and keeps searching. Gets reminded he still hasn’t answered the question about the weirdest fan question. Once he got a whole bag of used clothes from “this country” he won’t name. Is distracted by woman leaving the auditorium wheeling luggage. Bye. Bye. He comments she looks like she’s running to catch a flight. Oh, she is! Bye! The clothes were of all shapes and sizes, and came in a bin bag, and that’s pretty much how they left his house. “You should know some [stories] as well.” “Riding crop!” He did get sent a riding crop, but that was Tom Hiddleston and Patrick Kennedy (old school friend)! He thought it was a fan, but no.
18. “What role would you kill for?” “I wouldn’t kill for any role.”
19. "Could Sherlock be played by a girl?" No.
20. "Why do you always wear the same shirt?" Because I have the luxury of picking hotels where they do dry cleaning. Doesn’t want to see people jealous that there’s photographs of him in lots of different shirts when they like one shirt more than others.
21. "What’s your favourite thing about Australia?" “The rude questions I’ve been asked.” No, the landscape and the people, and the food. He’s jumped out of planes, gone surfing, swum a bit, visited vineyards. Seen extraordinary views of Sydney and Adelaide and Melbourne. He knows people are here from different parts of Australia, but he hasn’t visited those.
22. Someone begins with: so, (on the subject of) “Sherlock”. “I’m called Ben.” “If people say hey, Sherlock I’m not going to turn around.” Joking. He knew what was meant. What was it like acting with his parents? Nerve wracking, it was the first day back, they were nervous, and “of an age”, lot of nerves himself, whole bag of nerves, but it was fun. Filmed it the right way this time (with the episodes in order). By the episode in the cottage at Christmas it felt like a weird version of his own family Christmas, only with a whole camera crew, and actors he likes to work with every now and again from the show Sherlock. And his mum and dad. All but for the jingly socks [his dad] wears or the flashing reindeer horns [sic] on his head, it was pretty much his dad’s mode of operating. And his mum was the same.
He really, really has to go now. General chaos. Oh, and someone asks him to dance like Tom Hiddleston, but he refuses. “I’m not a performing monkey.”
And that’s it! I know there are a few things I’ve missed or skimmed over, but I’m sure you realise he could pretty much talk for England. Hope you enjoyed 
part 1 part 2
@темы:
Benedict Cumberbatch,
OzComicCon, Sydney