Boy Wonder
Rising young acting star Benedict Cumberbatch
is our new favourite leading man
By Rebecca
Broadley
Benedict
Cumberbatch is shovelling in mousfuls of
banofee pie as though he hasn’t eaten for weeks, and there’s a stack of
unopened post peeking out of his satchel. He has been busy, ‘bushy-eyed’, he
says, rather then bushy-tailed. But it’s not long before he is charming us with
quick-fire mimicry (of Withnail, Gene Hunt, Laurence Olivier and Madonna), and
running up the walls like Donald O’Connor in Singin’ in the Rain.
Warm and
well-mennered, he’s an unguarded and engaging storyteller. It’s very un-Sherlock
– his brooding sleuth in the BBC’s re-imagining of the Arthur Conan Doyle
tales, who seduced us with his whippet-quick mind and swooping Belstaff coat.
But after witnessing the young actor both on-screen and in person , we’ve been
completely Cumberbatch.
For the
twice Bafta-nominated actor, it’s been non-stop. He has had a two-month summer
run at the National as the lead in Terence Rattigan’s period piece After the Dance with a daily commute ‘pop-popping’
over Waterloo Bridge in his 600cc Honda. He has undergone daily riding practice
(with a dash of saddle-sore) and a peroxide hair tint (‘Steven wanted it sandy&rsquo
for the Spielberg adaptation, due out next summer, of Michael Morpurgo’s
award-winning War Horse (he plays the
kindly Major Stewart), shooting on Salisbury Plain. And, somewhere between all
of that, he turned 34 and Sherlock hit
our screens . Cumberbatch hardly noticed
the collective swoon. Hearing whispers of ‘It’s Sherlock!’ in public just makes
him smother giggles.
If there
was any doubt about his pin-up status (‘I have an ET-sized head’ he says),
finding an Ann Summers riding crop in his fan mail couldn’t be better proof. Just
wait until next year’s Bond-esque turn in the John Le Carre classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with Gary
Oldman, one of his acting heroes. ‘He’s so instinctive, but giggly too.’ That
should keep us going until the next series of Sherlock; and from his hints, I deduce, there may be a few hounds on the loose.
To see an exclusive Q&A video with Benedict
Cumberbatch, visit harpersbazaar.co.uk
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