We’re so excited British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is getting so much attention these days. He deserves it. We loved him in the BBC’s Sherlock and now he’s going to be in not one, but TWO genre films we were already dying to see; Star Trek 2 and The Hobbit. The latter has been filming for quite a while, and although Cumberbatch is playing two roles in the two-part Tolkien epic, he just recently began shooting. And well, he had trouble containing himself when his Sherlock co-star, Martin Freeman, came on set as hairy-footed Bilbo Baggins.

“It was great. I got to hang out with him, and I kept a straight face for a bit and then I started giggling because I know Martin, I don’t know Bilbo,” Cumberbatch told MTV. “For Martin to be sitting there playing Bilbo is amazing. He’s going to be amazing, he’s going to be fantastic in this film.”

We like to think this is what he saw…

And Cumberbatch was like…

Besides laughing it up with an old pal on set, Cumberbatch spent a good majority of his time without any other actors for his Hobbit performances. He’s voicing both Necromancer and Smaug in the film, as well as doing motion capture work.

Cumberbatch also told MTV he felt very lucky to have worked with director Peter Jackson. “As far as the experience, what an extraordinary one it was because at the time I was in my work; I was in isolation with him and this incredible tag team. And at the very cool place with that technology doing mo-cap for two characters, Smaug the dragon and another character, which will remain nameless, and it was an awful lot of fun.”

Unfortunately he hasn’t been able to see what any of his work will look like in the final cut but from his perspective, it’s going to be great. “It’s a sort of wonderful ongoing process. I spent a lot of time recording voice as well as doing movements. So, it was sort of freeing; it was fun. It was like playing a game,” he said. “It’s going to be an amazing film; it’s going to be a real treat. I watched The Lord of the Rings again before I started working, and the way those films grow in depth of craft on every level are extraordinary. Their mark is for that.”

(via Blastr)

Previously in Cumberbatch

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com