Into the dark: Benedict Cumberbatch switches to villainy as intergalactic terrorist John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness.
Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch moves to the dark side in Star Trek.
HE has gone from War Horse to war machine, and Benedict Cumberbatch is revelling in his journey to the dark side.
The 36-year-old Englishman, who takes on the role of super-villain John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness, says that he has enjoyed indulging his inner monster.
“I have played action roles before, but not quite on this scale and not with that beautiful, almost ballet-esque, kungfu fighting that sells punches and hits for the camera,” says the actor, who is perhaps best known for inhabiting the titular role in the hit BBC television series Sherlock, as well as for his role in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.
To play an intergalactic terrorist in the new Star Trek movie, he was clad in a futuristic onesie and became several kilos heavier than usual – a man transformed for his journey to new frontiers.
He says of the look: “It was important to me that he had an incredibly strong physical presence and it was believable that he was capable of doing what he is supposed to be doing.
“I wasn’t a violent 10-year-old, but the 10-year-old in me wants to throw people through walls,” he continues, laughing.
“The action-packed thrill of it was really good fun to play and very different from the more cerebral roles I’ve played.”
Those cerebral roles include turns as the eponymous and brilliant scientist in Hawking, as the tortured artist in the TV movie Van Gogh: Painted With Words, and as Julian Assange in the forthcoming WikiLeaks film The Fifth Estate.
He is widely considered one of Britain’s hottest acting properties.
“Benedict is a genius,” says Star Trek Into Darkness director JJ Abrams.
“He will never say this about himself, but he really is. I watched Sherlock and my jaw dropped to the floor.
“We had found the person who could not only play someone who was as sinister and intimidating and physical, but also do that thing which is to me the definition of a great villain – and that is to play it in such a way that we start to sympathise and care for the person. To pull that off is a minor miracle.”
Cumberbatch, who is reported to be dating an actress, is flattered but also palpably embarrassed by his director’s praise, temporarily conforming to the stereotype of the bumbling Englishman as he mumbles “Thank you”.
He is the son of British television actors and enjoyed an upper-class education at Harrow School in London before honing his dramatic skills at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His recent performances include the key role of MI6 black operations agent Peter Guillam in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and he provided the motion-capture and voice parts for Smaug the dragon in Peter Jackson’s films on The Hobbit.
“This is all a bit bizarre,” he says of his rise to greater fame, “but I am adjusting to it.”
Given the international prominence attached to a new Star Trek movie, he had better make the adjustment soon. –The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network
留言列表
留言列表
