Benedict Cumberbatch covers the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter, mostly to promote The Power of the Dog (although he has other films coming out). The piece opens with a story which cracked me up! To learn how to play a cowboy in Montana in TPOTD, Bendy spent months working on a ranch, learning how to play the banjo, learning how to roll a cigarette with one hand, learning how to castrate a bull, and learning how to… whistle. Apparently, Bendy is not a natural whistler. Neither am I! So he had to practice and apparently, the whistling part of the role was what he kept f–king up. The cameras were rolling, everyone was mic’d up and then Bendy would just weakly blow soundless air between his lips. LMAO. The whole THR piece is pretty good, even though Bendy doesn’t talk about personal stuff:
On ‘The Power of the Dog’: “It’s a lesson in how tangled up you can become, how toxic masculinity can become if your true identity is not allowed or tolerated or celebrated or accepted.”
He would go without bathing for days to play the cowboy: While shooting, he’d also go long stretches, six days or so, without washing, as his character does, and listen to Jonny Greenwood music on his way to set — the Radiohead guitarist eventually wrote the film’s score, but Cumberbatch was listening to Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood score and other orchestral music.
On toxic masculinity: “Tenderness, surely that’s the answer and the thing that needs to be addressed… Whether that’s raising men as feminists, whether that’s understanding that there is a reason behind your emotions … Emotions need to be addressed and understood, rather than just put out there into the world in violence or language or an action that just permeates a toxic culture.”
He had his wife, children and parents with him in New Zealand as he filmed: “It was tough to watch that wave going across Europe, knowing it was going to be a sh-t show from how [the U.K.] government responded.”
He’s not going to answer questions about fatherhood: “It’s just a Trojan horse to let people point lenses at [my family] and talk to me about them or farm out quotes about them. And I’ve just got to move on from that.”
He enjoys working on Marvel movies: “I feel fortunate that I’m part of a franchise that keeps wanting more of this character I play. And I really enjoy playing that character. I don’t feel it’s ‘One for them,’ as in, ‘This is more arduous and it’s just so I can do the more esoteric art house work.’”
On Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney: “It’s sad what’s going on between the lawyers. Just the verbiage and the accusations of, ‘Put it in a global pandemic context.’ The whole thing’s just a bit of a mess. We’re trying to understand what the revenue streams should be for artists that contribute to the billion-dollar business that is Disney. And it has to be contractualized. How does an artist’s normal compensation with box office bonuses, how does it work? It’s a new paradigm, and it’s a very complex one. No one saw this coming, and no one should use hindsight to say, ‘Well, it should have been done.’ That was the first of these films that was going to get a cinematic release during the pandemic and got stalled and stalled and stalled. It’s very new territory.”
I’m surprised he answered the question about ScarJo and her lawsuit. I wonder if Disney/Marvel asked their actors (the ones still under contract) to not say anything and I wonder if Bendy just decided to sort of back Scarlett. Because that’s what he’s doing – he’s saying this sh-t needs to be worked out, not just for Scarlett, but for all actors, because the industry is in flux. It’s also gross that he didn’t shower for days on end while they were shooting – I get that it’s “realism” and “Method” and whatever, but still. I like what he says about emotions and toxic masculinity though. Bendy is always good with those kinds of conversations.
Photos courtesy of Getty, cover courtesy of THR.
