BENEDICT
There are few actors in Hollywood today quite as polarizing as Benedict Cumberbatch. While some audience members fall madly in love with his accent and unique cheekbones, others openly cannot find him even remotely appealing. And that’s not even taking his curious name into consideration.
Recently, there was uproar on the Internet when it was rumored that Cumberbatch was selected to be the titular surgeon-turned-wizard in Marvel’s long-anticipated movie, Doctor Strange. Fans were quick to bash the actor — and not for his lack of talent or out of any sort of loyalty to the source comics. Instead, most of the individuals who loudly disapproved of this decision seemed to protest purely on the grounds of a personal distaste for Cumberbatch.
While it’s hard to deny that Cumberbatch has several physical traits that might appear similar to an extraterrestrial, he has demonstrated time and again that he is a remarkable actor, and arguably one of the best of our time.
While many Americans are probably most familiar with Cumberbatch from his role on BBC’s Sherlock as the sardonic, sociopathic detective, he has performed in countless other movies and TV shows and played a variety of different characters. Sherlock Holmes comes across as a very cold, logical character a la Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock, which doesn’t give Cumberbatch a chance to show off his impressive range.
However, in a few episodes of the show, Sherlock Holmes acts out while on the case, giving audiences a glimpse of Cumberbatch’s talent. The contrast between Cumberbatch as Holmes and Cumberbatch as Holmes pretending to be a recently mugged priest shows just what the actor is capable of.
Many moviegoers might not even realize how many films Cumberbatch has been in. After years starring in British television shows, one of his stateside breakout roles was in 2007’s Atonement, an Oscar-winning historical drama set in England in the early years of World War II. It’s astonishing to realize that Cumberbatch was even in that movie, but his performance is unforgettable in a deeply troubling way: He played Paul Marshall, a candy baron who (spoiler alert) is revealed at the end of the film to have raped a young girl. Cumberbatch manages to cultivate a subtle sense of discomfort surrounding the character that creeps under your skin as you watch.
From show-stopping performances in highbrow films including 12 Years a Slave and War Horse to villains in popcorn fare such as Star Trek Into Darkness or The Hobbit trilogy, there is almost no limit to what roles Cumberbatch can tackle. Recently, a video has been circling the Internet of him performing a variety of impressions, including those of his contemporaries, such as Matthew McConaughey and Tom Hiddleston. But perhaps what is most unique to Cumberbatch is his proclivity toward playing others: Despite his unique appearance, he has played multiple historical figures in biopics.
Early in his acting career, Cumberbatch played physicist Stephen Hawking in the BBC television movie Hawking. This portrayal helped him earn several award nominations relatively early in his career. Despite the mediocre reviews the film The Fifth Estate received, Cumberbatch garnered critical acclaim for his performance as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Later this week, Cumberbatch’s latest film The Imitation Game will be released, featuring the actor as British computer scientist Alan Turing, who was among the Allied scientists responsible for breaking the German’s Enigma code during World War II. If the trailers are any indication, Cumberbatch will deliver another convincing performance in this film, one that will rival the legendary Derek Jacobi’s earlier portrayal of the scientist in Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code.
Sure, his cheekbones might be a bit scary and his name a bit silly, but there are few actors of his generation as talented and accomplished as Cumberbatch. It might be easy to write him off as pretentious, but he has tackled a variety of roles in films both highbrow and low and never sticks to one genre.
Love him or hate him, at the very least, you can’t say that Benedict Cumberbatch is ordinary.
