BEING BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH
Benedict Cumberbatch: a name it’s impossible to read without wanting to say it out loud… Let’s rewind – past Hobbits, Star Trekking, War Horses and the world’s most famous sleuth – back to the very beginning. Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born on 19 July 1976, the only child of actor parents Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (professional name, Timothy Carlton), at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in Hammersmith, London (incidentally, this is also the birth place of actors Daniel Radcliffe, Mischa Barton and Dame Helen Mirren. Which begs the question: do they employ talent scouts as midwives?).
Either way, Benedict Cumberbatch had arrived. But 37 years on, just who is the man behind the name?
In his own words, it was, ‘Underwater. Mary. I was eleven. The wettest lips you could possibly kiss. I think that was definitely my first kiss. Unless I’d kissed a boy at school in a play…’
First acting experience
‘As a very bossy Joseph in the nativity play at primary school. Apparently, I pushed Mary off stage because she was taking too long.’
Earliest memory
Looking up at a ‘vision of sky’.
First word Helicopter.
‘They were the biggest things in the sky.’
Favourite scent
‘Bright citruses – bergamot, vetiver.’
Embarrassing childhood memory
‘When I was six, I got stung by a wasp in a Greek market. A widow pulled down my pants, held me upside down and rubbed an onion on my bum.’
Reading
‘Nabokov, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, William Boyd, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Nancy Mitford, AS Byatt, Beryl Bainbridge, Hilary Mantel, Andrea Levy.’
Favourite films
‘Badlands, Elephant, The Shining, Let The Right One In, Zoolander, Withnail And I, Brief Encounter, I Am Love, Michael Clayton, The Prophet, the Bourne trilogy, and anything from Michael Winterbottom and Steve Soderbergh, Kubrick and Hitchcock.’
Favourite TV shows
‘The Wire, The Office, The West Wing, Mad Men and The Sopranos – the typical clichés of great American HBO box-set drama.’
As long as there have been stars, there have been stage names. Some actors have no choice but to change their name because there’s already another showbizzer registered under the same name... Some are assigned new names by agents, in the hope it’ll make their new signings sound more memorable… Others want to sound more glamorous… Benedict on the other hand, wanted to sound more ordinary. He worried that what he refers to as his ‘fluffy old name’ would hinder his career. So he signed with his agent using the stage name Ben Carlton… However, six months on, the roles still weren’t streaming in.
‘One day, I told someone in the business what I was really called,’ he says. ‘They said, “That’s great, that’s something you can use to stand out. Why don’t you use it?”’… He agreed, against the advice of his parents, who still worried it was too strange a name for an actor. But the gamble paid off.
He has always respected the work of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, so when he heard that they were the team behind Sherlock he began to get excited. ‘I then read the script and I was blown away by it.’
He felt sure MoffGat would want to stay true to Conan Doyle’s original stories and he wasn’t disappointed, ‘[the script] was so funny, and so fastpaced and at the heart of it was just this incredible relationship with Watson. A wonderful friendship.’
Edited extract from Being Benedict Cumberbatch, by Joanna Benecke, published by Plexus, priced £14.99.
Either way, Benedict Cumberbatch had arrived. But 37 years on, just who is the man behind the name?
CHILDHOOD
First kissIn his own words, it was, ‘Underwater. Mary. I was eleven. The wettest lips you could possibly kiss. I think that was definitely my first kiss. Unless I’d kissed a boy at school in a play…’
First acting experience
‘As a very bossy Joseph in the nativity play at primary school. Apparently, I pushed Mary off stage because she was taking too long.’
Earliest memory
Looking up at a ‘vision of sky’.
First word Helicopter.
‘They were the biggest things in the sky.’
Favourite scent
‘Bright citruses – bergamot, vetiver.’
Embarrassing childhood memory
‘When I was six, I got stung by a wasp in a Greek market. A widow pulled down my pants, held me upside down and rubbed an onion on my bum.’
LOVES
Reading‘Nabokov, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, William Boyd, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Nancy Mitford, AS Byatt, Beryl Bainbridge, Hilary Mantel, Andrea Levy.’
Favourite films
‘Badlands, Elephant, The Shining, Let The Right One In, Zoolander, Withnail And I, Brief Encounter, I Am Love, Michael Clayton, The Prophet, the Bourne trilogy, and anything from Michael Winterbottom and Steve Soderbergh, Kubrick and Hitchcock.’
Favourite TV shows
‘The Wire, The Office, The West Wing, Mad Men and The Sopranos – the typical clichés of great American HBO box-set drama.’
THE NAME
Seldom has a name attracted so much attention as his. Love or hate it, it definitely sticks in the mind. When Metro enquired as to the story behind his ‘fantastic name’, he revealed, ‘There’s a sort of debate about that. Cumberbatch could be Welsh for a small valley dweller. The “cum” in Cumberbatch is “hill”. I need to look into it. Benedict means “blessed”. My parents liked the sound of the name and felt slightly blessed because they’d been trying for a child for a very long time…’As long as there have been stars, there have been stage names. Some actors have no choice but to change their name because there’s already another showbizzer registered under the same name... Some are assigned new names by agents, in the hope it’ll make their new signings sound more memorable… Others want to sound more glamorous… Benedict on the other hand, wanted to sound more ordinary. He worried that what he refers to as his ‘fluffy old name’ would hinder his career. So he signed with his agent using the stage name Ben Carlton… However, six months on, the roles still weren’t streaming in.
‘One day, I told someone in the business what I was really called,’ he says. ‘They said, “That’s great, that’s something you can use to stand out. Why don’t you use it?”’… He agreed, against the advice of his parents, who still worried it was too strange a name for an actor. But the gamble paid off.
BECOMING SHERLOCK
When Benedict first heard that Conan Doyle’s famous deerstalkered detective was to be given a modern makeover, he didn’t jump for joy and reach for the nearest trench coat and magnifying glass. He was deeply sceptical and rather dismissive: ‘I thought, why fix something that ain’t broke? I was very dubious about how cute it would be and what the purpose of using him was. Launch a franchise, get viewing figures, make money.’He has always respected the work of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, so when he heard that they were the team behind Sherlock he began to get excited. ‘I then read the script and I was blown away by it.’
He felt sure MoffGat would want to stay true to Conan Doyle’s original stories and he wasn’t disappointed, ‘[the script] was so funny, and so fastpaced and at the heart of it was just this incredible relationship with Watson. A wonderful friendship.’
Edited extract from Being Benedict Cumberbatch, by Joanna Benecke, published by Plexus, priced £14.99.
4 AMAZING CUMBERFACTS
- He keeps a collection of stuffed owls. In his boudoir.
- He was once held at gunpoint by a gang of would-be kidnappers, in one of the deadliest districts of South Africa.
- He’s the star of some pretty steamy fan fiction from China and Japan – in the form of homoerotic manga.
- He wishes that he’d never learned to play the trumpet – Benedict started playing the trumpet at around age 10.
5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SHERLOCK
- Despite the fact that Holmes is the most frequently portrayed human literary character on screen, the meeting between Holmes and Watson had never been captured on film prior to A Study In Pink, episode 1 of series 1 of the television series starring Cumberbatch. (According to the Guinness Book Of World Records, Sherlock beats the runner-up, Hamlet, by 48 portrayals. The most frequently filmed literary character – if we include nonhumans – is Bram Stoker’s Dracula.)
- In the episode The Blind Banker, Benedict aced that astounding pen-toss-catch on the first take. Unfortunately there was a camera issue so it had to be reshot. It took him another three attempts to get it right.
- During filming, several Belstaff Milford wool tweed coats were used. Mark Gatiss bought the original one used in the pilot and gave it to Benedict Cumberbatch as a gift.
- To create Sherlock’s look, Benedict goes on a 5:2 diet in the run-up to production. During filming, his workouts include swimming and Bikram yoga. He also tries to lay off smoking and drinking during shoots.
- Speedy’s Cafe exists! It’s in North Gower Street in London (which stands in for Baker Street in the show) and Sherlock fans now flock there from around the globe. Something the management caters for: fans can enjoy specially created Shersnacks, like the tasty ‘Sherlock Wrap’.