Benedict Cumberbatch, Transition Completed

by Lynnette Porter

  The conversation was a lovely way for the son to include his father in the joy and sense of accomplishment during such a premiere (and do so by having the film’s lead take a moment to talk to his colleague’s father). It also brought The Hobbit full circle in the father-son relationship. Carlton introduced his child to the book, and the adult son thanked him by sharing a moment from the Hobbit’s European premiere featuring Cumberbatch’s performance as one of Tolkien’s most famous characters. It was perhaps a strange but an emotionally appropriate way for Carlton to participate in this celebration of the film’s release and his part in bringing Smaug to the cinema.

  104 VISO Trailers. “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - Interview with Benedict Cumberbatch/Smaug.” YouTube. 4 Dec. 2013.

  105 Gina McIntyre. “’Hobbit’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch on Smaug, His ‘Porn Star’ Dragon.” Los Angeles Times. 16 Dec. 2013.

  106 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Dir. Peter Jackson. MGM, New Line Cinema. 2013.

  107 Andrea Mandell. “Why was Cumberbatch chosen for ‘Hobbit’s’ Smaug?” USA Today. 3 Dec. 2013.

  108 Peter Howlitt. “Benedict Cumberbatch Sees Smaug as Sexy.” Star. 12 Dec. 2012.

  109 Ibid.

  110 Benedict Cumberbatch.. Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon. London: HarperCollins, 2014, p. 5.

  111 Felicia Jean Steele. “Dreaming of Dragons: Tolkien’s Impact on Heaney’s Beowulf.” Mythlore (25, 1-2). Fall/Winter 2006, p. 141.

  112 Howlitt, “Benedict Cumberbatch Sees Smaug as Sexy.”

  113 McIntyre, “’Hobbit’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch on Smaug, His ‘Porn Star’ Dragon.”

  114 Carolyn Giardina. “Benedict Cumberbatch Performs Mocap ‘Smaug’ in Making-of Video (EXCLUSIVE).” Hollywood Reporter. 21 Feb. 2014.

  115 Benedict Cumberbatch. Cheltenham Literary Festival. 6 Oct. 2012.

  116 “Hobbit Star Martin Freeman: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Voice Was in My Head Filming Desolation of Smaug.” Radio Times. 25 Oct. 2013.

  117 McIntyre, “’Hobbit’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch on Smaug, His ‘Porn Star’ Dragon.”

  118 Nick DeSimlyen. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” Empire. Dec. 2014.

  119 “Dragons Are So Hot Right Now!” Entertainment.ie. 8 July 2014.

  120 TheOneRing. “Benedict Pinches Martin.” YouTube. Dec. 2013.

  121 LizzyGMusic.. “The Hobbit European Premiere Berlin Desolation of Smaug 09.12.2013 Benedict Cumberbatch.” YouTube. 9 Dec. 2013.

  Chapter 6

  To Dragon Slayer - Sherlock

  Mycroft: He’s not a dragon for you to slay.

  Sherlock: A dragonslayer? Is that what you

  think of me? [122]

  Sherlock, “His Last Vow”

  Fans who know that Cumberbatch plays Smaug, the fearsome dragon in The Hobbit, likely consider this dialogue an inside reference to the Sherlock actor’s much-publicised role in The Desolation of Smaug, a film that, at the time “His Last Vow” was broadcast, had been released only weeks earlier. The dragon reference is also appropriate because in the middle film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, Sherlock’s Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman face off as Smaug and the titular Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.

  Yet, as will be discussed later in this chapter, Mycroft is right about his little brother: Sherlock Holmes is becoming much more of a dragonslayer - or a saviour figure - in series three, and the change may signal a new direction in the way the iconic consulting detective is portrayed throughout the rest of the BBC’s adaptation. This shift, as well as others brought about by the introduction of new characters and the evolution of familiar ones, gave Cumberbatch new material to play, and play with, in series three. The actor’s celebrity and fan image also shifted as a result of the public’s immense interest in both Sherlock and the man who plays Sherlock Holmes.

  The Popularity of Sherlock

  Among Cumberbatch’s many big projects released during 2014 is Sherlock, the television series that helped further his already-impressive acting career and is the one that took off just as his accelerating film career propelled him into cinemas around the world. Among the many television (mini)series/movies in which Cumberbatch has starred (including the critically acclaimed Hawking, To the Ends of the Earth, Small Island, and The Last Enemy), Sherlock surely will be remembered at the top of the list decades from now.

  In many ways Sherlock set a new standard for BBC television through its limited run of high-quality episodes broadcast approximately every two years. As yet another adaptation of the iconic Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock stretched the boundaries of what a modernisation could and should be in order to become accepted, much less beloved, by the public.

  Cumberbatch now is permanently associated with the award-winning Sherlock, the BBC, and Sherlock Holmes - and the association apparently will continue until he no longer wishes to play the part. If any role spans Cumberbatch’s transition from respected working actor heading toward international fame to media-fuelled celebrity and critically acclaimed film and television star, it is Sherlock.

  On January 1, 2014, the BBC (and, within a few weeks in the U.S., PBS) broadcast the third series of Sherlock. The three-episode story arc was widely promoted, and Sherlock, along with other international favourites such as Doctor Who (broadcast in the U.S. on BBC America) and Downton Abbey (shown on U.S. PBS stations), again was one of the standouts among BBC Worldwide exports. Its high production values and a stellar cast only increased its global visibility over time, and as titular character Sherlock Holmes, Cumberbatch receives the greatest amount of attention during the promotion of a new block of episodes.

  In early 2014 publicity included not only plenty of press at home but interviews in Pasadena, California, at the Television Critics Association Press Tour (TCA), where he participated in a Sherlock/Masterpiece panel. If it had not long been a personal quirk of arriving late for appointments, Cumberbatch’s last-minute arrival at the TCA Winter TV Press Tour might have seemed like something a star-diva would pull. Instead, the near-tardiness became just another example of Cumberbatch running late and, as in Toronto at TIFF, not having time to talk with fans before he needed to talk with reporters.

  This year’s Sherlock panel felt like a family affair because of the camaraderie among partners Steven Moffat (the showrunner) and Sue Vertue (the producer) and actors Cumberbatch and Amanda Abbington, who all fielded questions and bantered with each other. The chemistry evident on screen among Sherlock characters also could be felt among the panellists. When asked to define chemistry, Cumberbatch described it as “where you feel you’re learning from those around you”.[123] When Moffat teased Cumberbatch about Sherlock’s almost-kiss with Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott), the Sherlock star protested the description, leaving Abbington laughing and warning him that he was only digging himself into a deeper conversational hole the longer he tried to correct Moffat’s impression.[124]

  One reporter admitted it was difficult to tweet during the session because of Cumberbatch’s speedy conversation and thoughtful responses amid the typical promotional comments. As he has been wont to do in past interviews before he achieved this level of fame, Cumberbatch used the F-word a few times during the panel but, wrote one journalist, “was self-aware enough to joke about his potty mouth”.[125] At least this way Cumberbatch retains his “gentleman” persona while still not being afraid to be himself; he understands how he should act during a press panel and, when he says something that might not be appropriate for a family-friendly image, he knows how to deflect criticism by finding fault with himself.

  Because Cumberbatch was the undisputed star of the TCA press tour, the question naturally arose as to when he would be too big a star to continue the television role. Many actors abandon tele
vision in favour of films as long as their movie box-office lasts or until they want to be cast in a cannot-be-missed television project. At least in 2014, Cumberbatch said “I’m going to keep going with [Sherlock]. I love it. I find it very invigorating,” and Moffat “insisted that Sherlock would ‘continue until Benedict gets too famous and he’ll refuse’”.[126] Having variety among the roles he gets to play each year is one reason why Cumberbatch sees no reason not to continue as Sherlock. “I play enough other mad people to vary the palate of what I’m scrabbling around in my head as a storyteller”.[127]

  During and after the panel, Cumberbatch sought to acknowledge all his fans - not only those to whom he felt a responsibility to say hello because they waited for him to finish the press interviews. When asked about the group outside hoping to see him, Cumberbatch worried that he rushed past because he was behind schedule, but he planned to return (and did) to greet fans later. He called fandom both “extraordinary” and “a little unnerving” but thinks that “it has to be acknowledged”. Even if briefly talking with those who wait for him “feeds the whole thing,” Cumberbatch feels the need to recognise that his fans are “so devoted and committed, and by and large intelligent and, for the most part, normal”.[128]

  The fans who queue for hours to get an autograph or selfie are not the only ones Cumberbatch mentioned to the press. “It also means a lot to me that there aren’t people camped outside who will sit down,... wherever they are in the world” to watch Sherlock. “That Sunday-night feeling, that sort of around-the-television feeling - that’s the audience that I get a kick from”. During the first series, Cumberbatch was thrilled to see sales of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels dramatically increase.[129] The fact that many viewers, enjoying what they saw on Sherlock, turned to Conan Doyle’s works seems to please him far more than the fact that people now recognise him everywhere he goes or hang on his every word.

  During the week of the TCA panels, a head shot of Cumberbatch as Sherlock graced the cover of Entertainment Weekly, one of many covers featuring the actor in the past year. However, this one (as well as a Time international edition and a Hollywood Reporter cover) indicates the change in the actor’s global status, not only because of Sherlock, but certainly helped by the BBC series’ appeal. That Cumberbatch-as-Sherlock was on the cover of a leading entertainment magazine during the week when television critics met with actors and showrunners to discuss new episodes or programs indicates Cumberbatch’s and Sherlock’s marketing and advertising power, along with their perceived entertainment value and audiences’ and critics’ high (perhaps excessively so) expectations.

  Because of the long hiatuses between series (only nine episodes between 2010 and 2014), Sherlock is a television event, and Cumberbatch and the series are widely promoted but also especially scrutinised. In fact, fans have been known to share isolated screencaps of his or another character’s facial expression in order to discuss exactly what is going on in a scene. Whereas critics may review the whole performance, fans dissect each scene, line, expression, or movement to debate the plot and characterisation.

  Whether within fandom or the television industry, the quality of a series is a double-edged blade. It allows a programme with an exclusive reputation to cut through the competition simply on name recognition alone. Sherlock, for example, is always assumed to be high-quality programming; its past successes increase the expectation that it will continue to be award-winning television. However, a series also can be stabbed in the back if it fails to meet audience or critical expectations.

  From the first, PBS realised that Sherlock could help the public television network rebrand its image for a younger audience and still retain viewership of the faithful. Rebecca Eaton, the executive producer of Masterpiece, the PBS umbrella series that includes Sherlock among its many British imports for broadcast in the U.S., wrote in her autobiography that she was immediately drawn to the quality of scripts when deciding whether to broadcast Sherlock. These scripts were “the cleverest and most modern work I’d seen in ages. Eventually, the actual production of them, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the irascible, brilliant Sherlock and Martin Freeman as his flatmate Dr. John Watson, newly returned from the Afghan war, took them up even higher”.[130] Eaton attributes PBS’ ability to attract a younger audience to Sherlock, with its fresh take on characters and, especially, Sherlock’s use of technology. She also claims that Cumberbatch himself is a big draw, because his fans “follow [his] every personal move”.[131]

  Perhaps naively, Eaton assumed that Cumberbatch or Sherlock fans would patiently wait for PBS to broadcast series two episodes, no matter that they arrived in the U.S. months after their U.K. broadcast. She wrote of her shock at the Sherlock event held in New York to promote “A Scandal in Belgravia”[132] in 2012. She quickly discovered that the fans already had seen the latest series. Her awareness of “pirates” gave her a new appreciation of U.S. fans’ determination to see Sherlock as soon as episodes become available in the U.K.[133] Although PBS (and many other networks worldwide) were not able to broadcast Sherlock simultaneously with the BBC’s broadcasts, the lag time in the U.S. was greatly reduced for series three.

  Yet Eaton’s concerns about fandom also are evident and understandable. Like many who schedule television series, she realises that today’s fans, while just as passionate as earlier generations’, think of television very differently than their parents do. Eaton noted that she was “thrilled” with the fan response to the New York PBS screening of “A Scandal in Belgravia”; fans “were screaming with excitement by the time the episode started. When Benedict, Steven [Moffat], and Sue [Vertue] came out on stage afterward, they went as nuts as their mothers had for the Beatles, or their grannies for Frank Sinatra”.[134] She described the Sherlock fandom at this event as mostly young women from all over the U.S. who lighted up “the blogosphere and Twitterland” with their messages on the day of the screening. What most troubled Eaton is that these fans “had only a vague awareness of Masterpiece, and it’s possible that there wasn’t a television set owner among them”.[135]

  Although the image of “public television” differs in the U.S. from the U.K., finding innovative ways to promote Sherlock and increase anticipation for new episodes is a universal marketing concern. The BBC’s teasers leading to the U.K.’s January 2014 premiere of series three cannily showed less of Sherlock than fans wanted or expected. A seven-minute video released on Christmas Eve became a frequently watched holiday gift, for all that it failed to explain what had happened to Sherlock following his fall from St. Bart’s roof. It does show him promising John that “I’ll be seeing you again very soon”.[136]

  The teaser gave fans an update on Anderson, Mrs. Hudson, Detective Inspector Lestrade (who shares a Sherlock-made video with John), and John, who needs a drink before he can watch it. Sherlock, as ever, remains mysterious, leaving fans even more eager to see the reunion of Sherlock and John.

  Ratings for that first post-fall episode, “The Empty Hearse,” surpassed the previous two series’ first episodes, with 9.2 million viewers in the U.K. (making it the most-watched Sherlock episode to date) and nearly 4 million in the U.S.,[137] despite being aired on a Sunday after Downton Abbey (which should be a ratings plus) but not ending until close to midnight (which should be a minus, given that many viewers have to be up early for jobs or classes on Monday morning).

  Yet for all the anticipation leading into series three, new episodes following the post-“Reichenbach Fall” return of Sherlock Holmes did not meet everyone’s expectations. Although the cast’s acting usually was not faulted, the directions their characters took often were. Co-creator Mark Gatiss noted that ending up at Reichenbach (the canon death of Holmes before Conan Doyle was compelled to bring him back years later) at the end of series two could have been problematic; however, “[i]t doesn’t mean that there’s nowhere to go after he’s back, you just have to think of new directions. And the whole of this third season
[has] a different feel to it, because it has to”.[138]

  The new directions include Sherlock meeting John’s future wife, Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington); becoming best man at their wedding; revealing a great deal more about his childhood and family; and making an important vow that suggests further evolution of the Sherlock-John-Mary relationship in forthcoming series. Part of the problem is that, with a large international fanbase, Sherlock cannot possibly please everyone. One critic suggested that the series “spend less time on Sherlock’s bromance with Dr. Watson next season and again shift its focus to developing intricate and fascinating cases as it had in the first two seasons,”[139] whereas fans who want more bromance worried that the classic Holmes-Watson friendship would suffer with the introduction of Morstan. Although ratings remained high, British media ran articles with titles like “Sherlock is Terrible, Decide Sherlock Fans”[140] and published tweets from dissatisfied viewers. Nevertheless, the demand for series four and beyond continued unabated, if only to see how the series could “fix” past mistakes or expand the characters in new ways.

  Months after series three was first broadcast in the U.K. and U.S., the award nominations started coming in. In the U.S., the Critics’ Choice Television Awards nominated Sherlock as a PBS movie/miniseries in four categories: Best Actor, Cumberbatch; Best Supporting Actor, Freeman; Best Supporting Actress, Abbington; and Best Movie, “His Last Vow”. Only “His Last Vow,” the finale of series three, was considered in the nominations. An interesting point is that Freeman was included in the same Best Actor category as Cumberbatch - but for Fargo, a series that earned five nominations.[141] Unfortunately for the Sherlock team, the awards went to other series, but the nominations were just beginning for “His Last Vow”.