A Q&A with Benedict Cumberbatch; (or rather an evening with Jack White/Bill Murray/Alan Ginsberg/Laurence Olivier…and Tigger!).

Actually scrap that description above; Benedict Cumberbatch is who he is. Quite unique and quite extraordinary; an iconoclast, a rationalist, a raconteur, a satirist and both a humanist AND a cynic. (This is a bit of a long report but his Oz Comic Con panel session in Sydney last night was so layered and interesting; I want to get it all out of my head. Please bear with me & read on!).

The poor man; after 2 days of taking 2000 photographs and signing thousands and thousands of autographs came 30mins late to the last panel of his tour and looking pretty exhausted. (He said at last night’s meet & greet that he strained his arm putting his arm around so many fans; and that he had been up since 3am on Sunday morning. He was rubbing his shoulder during the Q&A…). He worked so incredibly hard the entire weekend and he did it with such love & commitment.

Everyone’s already posted brilliantly about his entrance at the Panel on here so I’ll skip the rock star intro. Except to say that that man can dance; he’s got great rhythm and did a dirty urban groove to “Doin’ it right” (Daft Punk) which brought the house immediately down. As always his agenda was strategic; he wanted us to stop using the hacked video of him dancing at that private wedding (the Thriller dance) and use this footage instead. I was surprised that Comic Con didn’t check that with him first before playing it as a warm-up.

From memory these were just a few of his answers to questions from the packed room of 1000 fans…

About Directors: He said that a good director needs to speak three languages; for the crew, for the funders and for the actors. He cited Tomas Alfredson (TTSS) as a great experience, and also working with Danny Boyle whom he described as “an engine of creativity and love” which helped him (Benedict) deal with the exhaustion and injuries throughout Frankenstein. He described Stephen Spielberg as “playful, anecdotal and avuncular” and also lauded Thea Sharrock (After the Dance) and Hattie Dalton (1st-time feature director of Third Star). He praised JJ Feild in particular as a great inspiration and support in the filming of that movie.

He mentioned Martin Tyrrell again as one of his greatest influences (Head of Drama at Harrow) and said “he made me want to keep pleasing him; a sign of a great director”… If that’s not a parable of how a great teacher can define a great person, I don’t know what is.

BC also would like to work with “the Andersons” i.e Wes and Paul Thomas; in regards to the latter spoke so eloquently about the unique West Coast America dystopian landscape that PT Anderson has created (in films like Magnolia and The Master). Also would like to work with Scorsese and Spike Jonz (me “yay!). He was asked about his dream roles and didn’t have too many; he mentioned Hamlet and Patrick Melrose by Edward St Aubyn; lots of the crowd seemed happy about that.

He spoke about the British actor Stephen Dillane (95% sure) in both panel sessions as someone he highly regards and with whom he’d like to work (amongst others which he machined-gunned off way too fast for me to remember).

About Fans: he wouldn’t divulge the craziest experiences he has had with fans which was wise. He mentioned the famous cheese question (his favourite variety is Manchega. I think…). He revealed that it was best mates Tom Hiddleston and Patrick Kennedy who sent him the riding crop anonymously in the mail after ASiP as a prank. (Cue laughter around the Clancy Theatre at that point…).

About Sherlock: He described how he has to speed up his mind and train his body before each season of Sherlock. On the day of long scenes and deductions he goes through what sounded like rigorous verbal and mental preparations; which oddly Martin Freeman would often join in on, even if Martin had no lines that day(!). When asked about what he thought the funniest episodes were, he spread the love across all three series with a special mention of TSoT. He did say he thought the motorbike scenes in TEH didn’t come out as spectacularly as he would’ve liked especially as he does ride himself (I agree! I thought they were a bit…tame, in the final cut).

About Geekdom: someone asked a perceptive question about the rise of “geeks and nerds” and the acceptance of them in contemporary culture, and how he might see a correlation between his rise to fame and the rise of the geek as ‘hero’. I get the feeling he’s trying to broaden people’s view of him in solely geeky, genius roles (“I’ve played dumb roles too!”) he did say “that geeks have always secretly ruled the world. The thing is that if you can think intelligently for yourself, then you have a moral responsibility to the world to do some good with it". He did close the answer with the adage “the chic geek is back”. Yes sir, indeed.

About Peter Guillam: in the context of imbuing idiosyncrasies (physical/costume) in a character; he said of his TTSS character that he loved the “1960s James Bond cool” of Guillam and particularly the subterfuge of having Peter dressed so overtly heterosexual to hide his closeted life as a homosexual from his Circus colleagues…

About what Fans should look out for: “Um, well, a lot!” in particular The Imitation Game. He described it as a very very special film (Benedict just exuded care and concern over this project; it just makes me so fucking excited to see it. Everyone who talks about it just seems to be struck so deeply by it..). He spoke again about the significance and tragedy of Alan Turing’s life; preferring to see his death as a tragic suicide and not as a MI6 conspiracy etc. He said he was deeply emotional (my paraphrasing) after filming the last few scenes of TIG and said it was so sad that “Turing couldn’t live with his own way of loving”; and said again that it is Turing who needs to forgive not for us/society to pardon him. (This movie will kill me. If you haven’t seen him in Turing character look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpSwP1XapTI ).

He also said Lost City of Z will HOPEFULLY begin filming in June; the word “hopefully” sent a groan around the room. Please make this happen! After the cancellation of Blood Mountain AND The Flying Horse not getting funding – please! Come on Brad work your magic…

The 1-hour(ish) Q&A felt more like an event; I have never seen so many whip-smart introverts in one room enthralled and unabashed in their celebration of someone. He’s the pied piper of nerds everywhere. He ended by cajoling us into celebrating being messy and human and embrace our beautiful differences.

And he doesn’t seem to have a single embarrassing song on his iPod even though he was furiously scrolling through it at the end dutifully trying to find one. (although he did hum “puff the magic dragon” while looking :)