BENEDICT’S NEW DRAMA
The Sherlock star tells heat all about his role in a thrilling new drama
Benedict Cumberbatch has just flown in from LA and has had three hours’ sleep, but he’s fresh-faced, wryly funny and eager to discuss his new TV drama The Child In Time, which has been made for the BBC by his own production company, Sunnymarch, and in which he stars alongside Kelly Macdonald. In La La Land, he was attending the huge Disney Expo, where he met thousands of fans of his Marvel superhero character Doctor Strange. This project, an intense and thoughtful rumination on loss and love, could not be more different. Intriguingly, Cumberbatch is very clear why he was keen to play the role of children’s author Stephen. “I wanted to play someone closer to me, someone who didn’t require hours in make-up or anything,” he explains. “And it was quite nerve-wracking, because it was the first time for a while I’ve done a role where I play someone who just speaks and moves like me. I wanted to bring it close enough to me to feel totally relaxed, so much so that I wore a lot of my own clothes. I guess the starting point was me, and then it was about going to the places the character has to go.”
And those are some pretty tough places. In one key scene, adapted closely from the original novel, Cumberbatch’s Stephen thinks he glimpses his daughter (who disappeared four years previously at a supermarket), and follows her to her school. An emotional confrontation ensues. “It was pretty harrowing and very, very upsetting”, says Benedict. “There was a point where I had to say to the director, “Erm, yes I’m getting a bit too upset now…” For Kelly Macdonald, who plays Stephen’s estranged wife Julie, making the drama was an intense experience as well. “But it felt like a very safe environment,” she adds. “It was strangely enjoyable. I think when people are at the top of their game, it is an enjoyable experience, despite the subject matter. What appealed to me was that it’s a very emotional story, but it’s not depressing”.
When asked if he ever brought home the emotional baggage of playing a father who loses his child, Cumberbatch, whose second son Hal was born earlier this year, says, “You would have to ask someone from my home life if I brought it home. But I tried not to. And [his wife] Sophie hasn’t read the book or seen the script, so I guess it was an example of how we did keep things separate.”