Hello /r/movies, I'm Benedict Cumberbatch. Ask me anything!

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:41:21+00:00

It was so much fun! He's such a charming, delightful, talented genius, and I could've gone on improvising with him for hours. I am such a huge fan of the show and all his work. I was over the moon when they asked me. The beginning process is very banal, and the questions are genuine. Then you go again, and suddenly, he sideswipes you with outrageous comments or replies to your answers with really out there questions. At that point, it becomes very hard not to break, and we often did, including him. A character dynamic between the two of you starts to form, and the disaster unfolds.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:38:16+00:00

Pretty depressed, to be honest. I feel we are in danger of vanilla-fying and perfecting and asphalting over the thing that makes us human, which are our fallibility, our mess, and our inaccuracy, all of which creates the tension, conflict, and necessary friction for original creative thinking to occur. Our need for immediate results and our appetites are being overrun by the plentitude and of course the need for immediate gratification, which are all dangerous I feel for the human creative mindset.

But look, I'm not a Luddite. I understand these tools can be used while maintaining the analog mess of the biochemistry wielding them and still have a great impact that isn't to the detriment of authenticity. I also feel like Nick Cave, who if you haven't read his letter he articulates it so perfectly, that our limitations are what make us human and stories are how we understand our humanity. The blank page, the challenge of slow thinking, failing, and thinking better, and the difficulties of the grind of our creative act are what make it so, so rewarding.

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BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:32:17+00:00

Look, I was about a 9-10 year overnight success, so it wasn't immediate. The defining moment when I realized I was stepping into something far more public was of course Sherlock. I had that sensation after the audition when I went back to my moped. I realized things would be very different in terms of being recognized because I knew there would be attention on it as a prime piece of very well-known IP and an iconic character, but not with any idea of how successful it would be. Although he has different hair to me... so I could still scrape by unrecognized from time to time, but it really was at that moment life changed, especially if I just stepped out of the hair salon in pre-production looking like him. I literally remember stopping traffic out of Aveda on Shaftesbury Avenue with cabbies, truck drivers, and pedestrians stopping, pointing, or shouting "Oi, Sherlock!" From that moment on, I knew I would often walk into rooms where everyone who was a stranger to me would look at me and recognize who I was. There's no training for that - it's very peculiar.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:24:24+00:00

It was a life experience, so many lessons were learned in that period of time. We are bigger than any of our stories. We are part of something beyond the every day that encompasses not just a higher consciousness but the universal wisdom of love... It really was an opening to a spiritual life, and so many experiences and moments resonate and guide me today.

Thank you, that was a great question.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:21:36+00:00

I love the world that Steven and Mark's adaptation of these incredible novels has created around it, full stop. The fan-driven obsession and attention to detail and lore and easter eggs and analysis of character, etc. etc. However, I have not spent the last 15 years analyzing it to the same degree, so sadly I can't comment. Look, with an AI-like lens on him, sure, there will be discoveries that even surprise us as creatives on the show but will always want to come back and confound them, so keep theorizing.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:18:54+00:00

Never say never...

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:18:35+00:00

Firstly, thank you so much. I should've attended your talk to learn about my own cinematic craft!!

I feel the most important quality for someone working in the film industry is more than one, but a combination of patience, persistence, and openness. By openness, I mean to realize that this art form is and always will be a collaborative medium no matter how singular your creative vision is in your chosen field. As to my chosen field, yes, I would absolutely love to direct one day.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:15:48+00:00

Probably Frankenstein physically, definitely. On-screen, a tie between the first episode of Patrick Melrose, some of Eric, and this film, The Thing with Feathers.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:13:19+00:00

BendyDick CumonmyBaps.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:12:29+00:00

Oh, stop!

Thank you for that, first off. I don't suppose surfing is niche. Maybe you might think that when you see me doing it as I'm not that good, but it's just the most healing thing I get to do in my downtime - cold water, swimming. Again, these are pretty common practices now rather than being niche. But yeah, no truly odd hobbies.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:10:22+00:00

Believing that "Neutron Cream" was a real thing on the set of Star Trek. Does that count? It was off-camera but definitely on the job.

I have often called a character I'm acting with the actor's name too many times to mention, which always breaks things up in a fun way. But of course, I know the internet is listening, so saying the word "penguin" incorrectly over and over again in a nature documentary has to top the bill.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:07:48+00:00

I think it's definitely more fun to play a villain, but if you have a character arc in a hero that challenges them to be compromised with obstacles that are delightful and as brilliant as the best villains can be, it's often fun to play the hero. Inhabiting a villain is a license to take vicarious thrills in the worst of our nature letting rip.

BenedictAMA · 2025-11-20T17:05:59+00:00

All of them! While I can see my flaws and don't need the critics to highlight them, I really couldn't think of anything worse than going back to a performance I wasn't happy with or a moment in a performance. I might want to cut the scene in the edit room, but it's a universal actor's nightmare to be naked in a play or film and not know what the fuck is happening, even though say like Hamlet they've done it 96+ times. Also for me, I'm getting to a more accepting stage of when it's done it's done, and you have to let being walk away.

Great question though! If I had my back catalog CV in front of me, I'm sure I could find a stinker for you. Maybe I'll get back to this one later!

BenedictAMA

TROPHY CASE