Benedict’s GREEN Christmas
Benedict Cumberbatch on his new role as The Grinch, and why he’s ditching plastic packaging this year
When Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as The Grinch – Dr Seuss’s iconic Christmas baddie – in the new animated film, the producers wanted him to play the part with his natural London voice.
‘I understood why,’ says the actor, who found fame playing misanthropic sleuth Sherlock Holmes. ‘I thought, “Oh yes, I suppose I have in the past played socially awkward outsiders who are occasionally rude to people in English accents...” But in respect for The Grinch’s rightful culture of origin, I said, “I’m glad you like my voice, but The Grinch isn’t English!”’
Benedict is fully English when we speak in New York, his upper lip adorned with a bristly moustache that he’s grown for his new role as Greville Wynne, a spy who helped MI6 penetrate the Soviet nuclear programme during the Cold War, in upcoming film Ironbark. It’s not the most flattering look, but it’s one up on The Grinch’s green skin, pot belly and heart three sizes too small.
In the new film, The Grinch is more rounded than in the original book, with a poignant story to explain his permanent bad mood. ‘He’s Scrooge,’ says Benedict. ‘He’s like a lot of people who act out of illogical fear and become vicious. The Grinch is an orphan and was brought up in an orphanage, so Christmas triggers trauma in him. It’s a time when everyone feels that they belong and are loved, and he doesn’t. So he resorts to defensive meanness.’
Happily, he adds, Christmas in the Cumberbatch household of his own youth was a different affair: the only child of actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, born late in their life to their delight, he admits he was the centre of attention at Christmas.
‘I was spoiled rotten!’ he says. ‘I had a half-sister from Mum’s first marriage, but she’s 18 years older than me so we never had any sibling rivalry – I was thrilled to have her around. There were sometimes cousins around and I was only too happy to be with other children. We’d visit my grandparents at Christmas. My grandmothers lived in Sussex, one in the country, the other on the coast. We had magical times with big fires, stockings, laughter and lots of games.’
He laughs. ‘One Christmas when I was very young, I woke up at 5am, ripped into my stocking and got party poppers, which I launched at my grandmother’s ceiling. It was made of old plaster and collapsed. I wasn’t too popular that year.’
He says that although he didn’t grow up with The Grinch – ‘My dad read me The Hobbit, and because he’s a fantastic actor it made a big impression on me’ – he was delighted to give voice to him.
‘In the book The Grinch is demonic, redeyed and angry. But we realised a whole film like that would be scary for children. So I lightened it up. There’s more freedom in the role when you realise The Grinch enjoys being The Grinch!’ Benedict worked alone during sessions of four to six hours in a recording booth over two years. ‘It’s a great way to work, you can schedule other stuff around it: I was able to drop in and out of it while doing Patrick Melrose and Doctor Strange, and other projects, like playing Dominic Cummings in upcoming Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War. It was quite refreshing to go back to!’
Christmas at the Cumberbatch house – he lives with wife Sophie Hunter, a theatre producer, and their sons Christopher, three, and Hal, one – has evolved from Granny’s house. ‘The Grinchiest thing I complain about is wasteful packaging. I’m quite green, so I’m vegan, drive an electric car and share transport, and avoid buying items with too much packaging. I’ve also got a couple of reusable Christmas trees, one of which is made out of Diet Coke cans. And when I get a real Christmas tree, I replant it afterwards – I don’t like bringing it in from nature and letting it die.’ What would The Grinch say?