Benedict Cumberbatch covers Esquire UK to promote The Power of the Dog, and judging from the interview, he’s also promoting Spiderman: No Way Home. Bendy is in his 40s now, he’s a husband and father of three and he’s matured significantly over the past five years. We all have, the past five years have been rough personally, globally, everything. What I appreciate about Bendy is that he’s not trying to convince anyone that he’s a completely new person, that no one should mention Sherlock to him, that he’s ashamed of all of the crazy energy around him years ago. He just… moved past it. That’s still part of who he is but he’s not that guy anymore. You can read the full Esquire piece here. Some highlights:
He loves horse work: “Loved it. Wonderful just to get back in the saddle.” (“Though,” he adds, “it was a Western, so it’s a different style”.)
He really didn’t bathe for ‘Dog’: “I wanted that layer of stink on me. I wanted people in the room to know what I smelt like. It was hard, though. It wasn’t just in rehearsals. I was going out to eat and meet friends of Jane and stuff. I was a bit embarrassed by the cleaner, in the place I was living.”
He stayed in character throughout the shoot: “If someone forgot, on the first day, and called me Benedict, I wouldn’t move.”
He got nicotine poisoning: There were also a lot of cigarettes to be smoked – “perfectly rolled with one-hand”, as per Savage’s text. “That was really hard,” he says. “Filterless rollies, just take after take after take. I gave myself nicotine poisoning three times. When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible.”
Filming in new Zealand during the pandemic: “[Coronavirus] was just coming and coming and coming and Boris Johnson was still going [Johnson’s voice] ‘I’m hugging everyone, I’m kissing everyone, I’m licking door handles. Oh no, I’m not – now I’m in a hazmat suit’. You could see it was going to hit very hard in the UK because of the ineptitude.”
He’s not a vegan anymore: “I was for about 18 months. I applaud people who are vegan and I enjoyed my journey with it, but it [non-vegan food] just crept back into my life.”
He likes working so much: “I really enjoy my work. When I do work, I want to work hard. It has to be worth leaving my family [his wife, the theatre director Sophie Hunter and their three boys] and home for, to do. To make them… Oh, this sounds weird but I guess to validate me not being there. And If I can get away with a new skill and call it work, lucky me, you know? That saves me a few night classes or, you know, time I don’t have.”
His childhood: “I was very inquisitive. I was very talkative. Slightly eccentric, I think. An old soul, as one of my teachers described me. I had a great amount of energy. I was an only child, so I loathed conflict.” That’s an only child thing? “Yeah, it kicks off all the time at home now. Not if you’re an only child. You’re not used to resistance. You kind of avoid it. I still don’t like conflict.”
Why he thinks people still like him: “I’m easy with promoting my failings, and that I’m just trying to do it and fail better, at whatever it is. Life principals. Advocacy work. Privacy. All of that. I don’t know. I really don’t want to say these things because it becomes about self-appraisal and it sounds like I’m blowing my own trumpet. But I try to keep a balance of certainty in who I am. And also an empathy for others, to try and be an open human being, I guess. So hopefully I keep everyone surprised and everyone, I suppose, who are that devoted… also people who are dismissive as well, there’s all sorts of voices out there, when you get to the sort of exposure I’ve had, and I’m aware of that as much as I’m aware of the devotion – I think people are loyal to me because, and maybe I say this with good intentions, but I try to improve. And like they say in the old Samuel Beckett paraphrase, fail better.”
I’m not sure if it’s actually an “only child” thing to hate conflict? I’m conflict-adverse because my parents were constantly putting me in the middle of their sh-t, but was that because I’m an only child? Eh. This is true about only children though: “You’re not used to resistance.” Yeah. We’re used to getting our way and compromising doesn’t always come easy to us! As for the nicotine poisoning… I didn’t even know that still happens in this day and age, probably because most smokers are smoking filtered cigarettes. I wonder if people who roll their own cigarettes are still getting nicotine poisoning? Gross.
Cover & IG courtesy of Esquire UK, additional photso courtesy of Avalon Red.
His sister died from cancer a few weeks ago, his niece lost her mother but yeah sure “only child”. We get it BC you are soooooppper special and different.
Before anyone excuses him with he grew up alone, age gap, interview was done before her death. He previously gave interviews talking about how she was his childminder when he was young, she fought cancer for seven years and he can’t respect her.
I guess I don’t think it’s that weird? If there was an age gap and she helped take care of him, he may think of her as an aunt, rather than a sibling. And I also don’t think his sister’s passing is any of the public’s business.
Yes, I would think so too. My brother is 10 years younger than me and he thinks of me more as a second mother than a sister (not healthy btw).
I don’t think his mom’s daughter from her first marriage lived with him when he was growing up, so he was raised as an only child.
Odd way for him to phrase that. My sons are 13 years apart, and I imagine both of them largely think of themselves as “only children” as they’ve both spent years of their life as the only child in the house – but they’re obviously aware of each other’s existence and also spent years together in our household. So yeah … calling yourself an “only child” when you have a sibling is … awkward, at best. I’d be very disappointed to hear one of them say that.
It’s really not weird. My oldest is 16yrs older than my second child and 19yrs older than the last. They’re brothers but he was raised as an only child, he loves his brothers but it’s two different groups. He says he grew up as an only child.
Tracy was his older half-sister. His mom’s daughter. He didn’t grow up with her in a sibling dynamic. I have a half-sister and brother too. Both 20 years older. Definitely grew up like an only child. I’ll explain if there’s a chance too, so it’s not a case of not acknowledging them. And our relationship is practically non-existent. He’s always acknowledged his half-sister as well. No idea why people are calling him out.
No mention of his sister that died of cancer a weeks ago, after a seven year battle with illness?
Was just going to ask the same, doesn’t he have a sister? Sorry to hear she died.
I was going to post about the sister too. I have five siblings. I don’t speak to two of them (crazy Trumpsters) but I still say I have five siblings.
I wonder how Benedict’s mother feels about that.
His half sister was much older than him so they didn’t grow up together ie he was the only young person in the house growing up, so didn’t have to wrangle with, negotiate with other children at home as a kid.
So why not just say that, why deny her existence? She must have spent her life feeling like the poor relation, she was his childminder when he was growing up. Now her daughter works as his pa, but he describes himself as an “only” child. Maybe this is another one of his mother’s strategies like when she advised him to not use his real last name incase people came looking for reparations.
His sister is 18 years older than him. They didn’t grow up together. If she minded him, it was probably when he was an infant. A lot of people project their ish (trauma, pain, insecurities) on celebrities. It’s weird AF.
I must have missed something, because people are getting waaaay bent out of shape over nothing. What is going on? It sounds like when he grew up, he was the only minor child in the house, so I don’t see what he said that is “denying her existence”.
He’s never denied having a sister. I think because he never saw her a child and he never saw her treated as such (his earliest memories of her must be when she was in her early 20s) so it’s not weird for him to think of himself as an only child
I was one of 7 kids. Trust me, bendy, I didn’t like conflict either. But that was because I was fighting for an actual meal, and a bath, unlike you, we literally had nothing. And while I was looking after my siblings, my brother got hit by a car. I was 8. So screw bendy and his only child bs . These comments suck
I’m a middle kid (and oldest daughter), parents argued a lot… trust me, I’m a master of tuning out (or physically removing myself if I can’t tune out) to avoid the conflict. I abhor conflict. I’m getting a *little* better at dealing with it, but it still makes me so uncomfortable. Wonder if that’s why I’m such a people pleaser?
Oof – I identify so much with this. I grew up with an angry father. My brother and I got along really well (apart from a few squabbles). He grew up completely indifferent to the opinions of others and doesn’t shy away from conflict. I’m still a people pleaser (working on this in therapy) and avoid conflict like the plague. It’s fascinating how 2 people can grow up in the same household and have such wildly different experiences.
This comment is very full-on. He’s just talking about his own life, not invalidating your experiences. He never said that someone in a larger family couldn’t hate conflict,
I think he’s aging well. Call me crazy if you will but I think he is attractive and his voice is sexy.
His voice is sexy AF. But I cringe when he plays American parts. Posh Brit is what I find entertaining about him. I haven’t seen Dog yet. Been busy. But I’m guessing I won’t find him sexy in it. Which is fine. That’s not a requirement for solid acting.
He isn’t sexy in Dog, but it’s a very good performance. His accent is definitely weird in it. He kind of creates an accent that’s particular to the character who is eccentric. He doesn’t sound like the other people around him but it sort of works. Good movie, though I mostly enjoyed it for the Jesse Plemmons, Kirsten Dunst and the wonderful young actor who plays her son.
Me too. Some people find him weird-looking. He kind of is, but that’s a bonus in my eyes. I like people who are not just attractive but also have unique faces. Also, he is incredibly charismatic onscreen, and there’s nothing sexier than charisma.
Method actors are exhausting. I feel for the cast and crew who had to deal with him and his stench. As Olivier wisely said, “why don’t you just try acting?”
It was Jane Campion the director who suggested he remain in character while on set and he didn’t remain in character off set. It wasn’t Jared Leto Joker nonsense.
An actor whom I love in films and loathe in interviews. Any time he opens his mouth he irritates me – self-involved is an adjective made for him.
I loved Sherlock — why would he not want people to mention it?
He’s super cool and pretty sexy, and I dont get the hate here.
I like him too. Who can hate Bendy when Sean Penn has opened his mouth?
Ugh, right?
My partner and I both grew up as only children and he found out at about 30 that his father had another son before he married (now divorced) his mom. He of course considers himself and only..he is better at conflict than I but I can co sign what Bendy says here about conflict.
I don’t mind his interviews but that statement about being an “only child” when he previously said his half- sister lived with them is typically hamfisted and awkward.
I checked Wiki and she was 13 years years older when he said she was “childminding” him while they were living together as a family. So, he’s kinda opened up the issue to what even was their family dynamic about.
It’s like his early complaints about ‘posh-bashing’ being typecast as posh and/or sociopathic …I mean, he went Brambletye School boarding school and then he finished at Harrow! These may be not the very absolute fanciest schools but they are prob the top 2% type of fancy schools. So many of those privileged tykes complain about how hard they have it while they run the social and political circles of Britain. That said, he gave a really good performance 🎭 in Power of the Dog, he just should just talk less about stuff lol
I was one of three and I loathed conflict. Still do.
Bro, I’m the youngest of 3 and I also loathe conflict. Thanks to my boomer parents who were also raised with the concept of “we don’t talk about that” in their families. I hope I can do better by my daughter.
I’m an only child but from a single-parent family. Personally, I am terrified of conflict but I think that comes more from being bullied than just not having siblings and I actually find compromise quite easy because I would always rather that than conflict.
Agree 100%! I’m also an only child. I never had a problem sharing toys or crayolas or whatever; if you want it, NBD…I’ll just play with it later. I never knew how to deal with a kid who would bark, “You have to SHARE!” while ripping a toy out of my hands that I had just picked up. It was difficult to navigate friends’ houses where siblings were so aggressively territorial about everything, but as a teenager, I found that other families’ chaos was fascinating to observe because I didn’t have that at home. I do think only children view the world from a different angle than siblings.
The usual conflict between siblings is not like actual conflict. It’s more like childish bickering and nonsense fighting and you forget about it five minutes later.
I’m an only child and I totally get where he’s coming from. It took me awhile to parse what was a discussion vs conflict vs outright argument. Not having siblings means any conflict you’ve got is with someone (parent) at a higher power level than you. It’s a completely different dynamic. Fortunately I’ve got a patient husband who came from a big family. But there was definitely a learning curve there.
I’m an only child and understand what he’s saying about conflict. I sent two of my children to therapy when they were about 10 for them to learn to handle their conflicts. Looking back their behavior was normal for their age. I was the one who couldn’t deal with it.
Totally agree with Lila and Athena, same thing here. As an only child, I am dumbstruck by the best friend/worst enemy dynamic of my two kids, who can turn on a dime from shrieking at each other to conspiring against their parents. There was no conflict (ok, minimal communication period) in my single parent home growing up, I just don’t get it!
I REALLY loved Power of the Dog. Of all of the contenders so far this year, I think it is at the top of my list for Best Picture and Best Actor. It surprised me, and it was such a delight to be surprised.
I kind of dragged my feet to watch it, but it was on Netflix, so I watched to get it over with and couldn’t have been more wrong.