Cumberbatch - it sounds like a fart in a bath, doesn't it? What a fluffy old name. I can never say it on a Monday morning. When I became an actor, Mum wasn't keen on me keeping it. Benedict Cumberbatch More Quotes by Benedict Cumberbatch More Quotes From Benedict Cumberbatch Even though my parents experiences were different from mine. I wasn't a child actor brat; I didn't travel with them in the circuit. But I got a look into their world, so I did know what I was getting into, to an extent. And they are a constant source of grounding. Benedict Cumberbatch different parent children I don't think I could form my writing into scripts or novels. It's so sporadic. My writing's pretty poor. I often think, "Who's this for?" Sometimes it's impressions of the day or my life, or it's fiction. Sometimes it's about things I want to remember, or I try to write in really awful French. Benedict Cumberbatch writing trying thinking I don't call myself an expert because I've played experts. I know a little bit about very little. But it's very hard to not be drawn into saying something, especially if it has to do with the work. Benedict Cumberbatch There are other people who don't mind shouting from the pulpit and being judged for it, and they do a hell of a lot of good - real, on-the-ground, life-changing good. So I think it can sometimes be a balancing act. Benedict Cumberbatch real people thinking One of the first roles I had on stage was with a brilliant director in a brilliant play with a brilliant cast, but I just couldn't find my way into the heart of the character. I found myself straining a lot. When it started. I felt lost. That was the Eugène Ionesco play Rhinoceros. I don't think I was prepared for that. I don't think I had the full tool kit to do it justice. It's a very difficult play, it's an extraordinarily difficult part, and I never felt I really got it right. Far from it. To a degree, Hamlet was the same. Benedict Cumberbatch heart character thinking That's something I have to work on: to separate what really matters, to conserve energy by not worrying about what other people think. When I walk through that door, it's about home. If I didn't do that, I'd become consumed by one thing only and damage the people who love me. And it would damage the work. Benedict Cumberbatch home people thinking Laughing and crying are really similar - what happens to your body. It's a very similar process in your diaphragm. Like a musician, you have to do your scales once in a while and warm up your voice. Benedict Cumberbatch cry musician laughing The training gave me the building blocks to get through it. A production of that scale, in a theater that big, you are going to struggle to keep your voice at first-run perfectness. All that work I did - the pull-ups and pushups - helped keep my body fit. Hamlet, the show, is a cardiovascular workout of about three hours, never mind the mental, soul-crushing element of it. Benedict Cumberbatch block workout struggle I have pitfalls. I have emotional responses to things that are really not about me. They're about other people. Benedict Cumberbatch response emotional people You'd have to be pretty hard-nosed not to feel some sympathy for the guy [Doctor Strange]. Benedict Cumberbatch doctors strange guy I don't wear a mask, I don't have a suit. It's not some CG double or a stunt double. The suffering the character [Doctor Strange ] goes through is immense! Benedict Cumberbatch doctors suffering character When you see a good horseman, you're unable to tell where the instruction is coming from. It's like telepathy. Benedict Cumberbatch horsemen telepathy instruction We look at science as the ultimate answer for everything yet we are really messy organisms and when the two collide in the upper echelons of medicine you think science will prevail but it's not always that way. Benedict Cumberbatch medicine two thinking It's an interesting arc. You start with a character [Doctor Strange] who's likeable and charming but very arrogant and distant. He's funny but you can see there are massive holes in his life. It's a very painful transition and all that he becomes is tested so quickly and violently. Benedict Cumberbatch doctors character interesting It will be obvious to anyone who sees it that he [Doctor Strange] earns that cloak. You think he's doing all right and then you realise that there's one massive lesson to learn. Benedict Cumberbatch doctors lessons thinking There's a heroic amount of effort that goes into making him [Doctor Strange] a superhero by the end of the film. Benedict Cumberbatch superhero doctors effort [Doctor Strange ] is slightly more specialised than Spider-Man or Superman or Batman, but he's very loved by people who know him. Benedict Cumberbatch doctors men people I had to kiss it [ playing Hamlet] goodbye because Marvel have to plot things for the next three, four years. Benedict Cumberbatch kissing goodbye years I'm sad in a way that the character [Doctor Strange ] leaves [neurosurgery] behind. It's an amazing discipline. Benedict Cumberbatch doctors discipline character An inflated sense of self-importance? Absolutely, but I think it comes from Doctor Strange need to control things and that's what happens to all surgeons, I think. There's a huge degree of uncertainty and bafflement. Benedict Cumberbatch doctors self thinking
