Benedict Cumberbatch was all over last year's Toronto International Film Festival. From the opening night film The Fifth Estate to the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, he was the face of filmfest.

"I was TIFF-boy," he jokes during a late-afternoon interview ahead of the Canadian premiere of The Imitation Game Tuesday night. "It was a lot of fun. It was kind of extraordinary, really."

But being the main attraction didn’t mean he got to see any of the films.

"People kept asking me afterwards how I enjoyed the festival and I replied, 'I enjoyed hotel rooms and talking about my work non-stop.' It was three days straight, which is a tragedy when you come to a city like this."

It won’t be any different this time. Cumberbatch is doing wall-to-wall press for his role as mathematician and father of the modern computer Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. There’s been plenty of buzz about his performance in the film, which is based on Turning’s real life efforts to lead the Enigma code-breaking operation during World War II.

"I have to talk about it until (Tuesday)," he says between sips of iced coffee. "No weekend for this boy!"

Cumberbatch deflects any Oscar talk, except to say that he’s grateful for his good fortune as an actor.

Later this fall, the 38-year-old Sherlock star will also be seen in the final instalment of the Hobbit trilogy and Penguins of Madagascar – a spinoff of DreamWorks’ highly successful Madagascar series.

Next year, there will be a stage run of Hamlet, more Sherlock and plenty of other material he can’t talk about just yet.

Still, gazing out of an eighth floor downtown hotel window at Centre Island, Cumberbatch says he’d rather be outside exploring Toronto.

“Can we do the f---ing interview on the lake?” he laughs. “There’s an episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns does a Howard Hughes turn and he picks up this toy airplane and says, 'I found a way outta here!'

"Everyone tells me great things I can do, but I can’t do any of it. I wish I could. I would have loved to have come early and see Robert's (Downey Jr.) film, see Toronto, go to the lake. I would love to genuinely experience a bit more of your fine country and Toronto itself and the film festival."

One of things that he will get to experience these next few days in Toronto is meeting his fans – something he cherishes. Last year, after introducing 12 Years a Slave, he famously came back out of the Princess of Wales theatre to sign autographs and shake hands with hundreds of fans lining King Street.

"They'd been waiting for ages," he says recalling the experience. "My work is to help present a film to audiences who are watching it for the first time. But if there is time, I will always honour the fact that there are many devoted fans outside because it just makes people happy. It’s a great thing to do and it makes me feel good too. There’s no such thing as pure altruism; I get a kick out of it as well."

The Imitation Game screens at the Princess of Wales Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For more information visit TIFF.net.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

mark.daniell@sunmedia.ca