Justin Lewis - Benedict Cumberbatch: The Biography

I n 2010, when Benedict Cumberbatch was cast in the lead role of Christopher Tietjens in the lavish television adaptation of Parades End, its American co-producers wobbled at what they felt was an audacious choice for such an major part. HBO said, Who is this Benedict Cumberbatch? recalled the director of the series, Susanna White. We said everyone will have heard of him by the time Parades End comes out. Within a few months, White would be proved correct.

After BBC1 broadcast the first episode of Sherlock on 25 July 2010, its lead actor became very famous very suddenly. But as with all supposed overnight successes, the night had been a long one for Benedict Cumberbatch. At thirty-four years of age, he had already been a professional actor for a decade, with numerous credits in theatre, television, cinema and radio. What had marked him out early, though, was a refusal to chase populist parts for their own sake. He had always opted for the route of quality work, and had never committed to long runs of a television series. This enabled him to avoid being typecast in one role.

It looked as if landing the part of Sherlock Holmes would change all that, and he would be fixed in the persona for good in the public eye. Nearly 10 million people in Britain alone watched the first series. Yet some smart career decisions have meant that he is not exclusively associated with Sherlock Holmes.

For starters, Cumberbatchs exposure as the detective is limited: the series are just three episodes at a time, every couple of years; this is the antithesis of the ongoing, never-ending soap opera, or the 24-episodes-a-year standard of American network television. By being occasional, Sherlock always feels like special television. I just want to bring people in a little bit to the idea of sitting down on a Sunday three consecutive weeks, Cumberbatch told Americas National Public Radio in 2012, and having that water-cooler moment, that really was a sort of national sensation in the UK. It was an extraordinary cultural moment.

The other reason why Benedict Cumberbatch can never be just Sherlock Holmes is that, career-wise, he will not keep still. He has portrayed Stephen Hawking, Horace Rumpole, Frankenstein, William Pitt the Younger, Julian Assange, Vincent Van Gogh, the Duke of Wellington and Khan in Star Trek. He has collaborated with creative giants as diverse as Steven Spielberg and Sir Tom Stoppard. He is in one of the funniest situation comedies of recent times, BBC Radio 4s Cabin Pressure. He has been celebrated for a great deal of theatrical work: Shakespeare, Rattigan, Ibsen.

Perusing the Cumberbatch CV, it is clear that he craves and welcomes variety in his work. He does not have one acting mode. For a while, it looked as if he had cornered the market in upper-class buffoons, but that has broadened. Ive often played men who are affable enough, if a bit silly, he once said, but denied he felt typecast. I like to do a variety of parts so that people wont get fed up seeing me.

Cumberbatch rarely discusses his private life, but there is a great deal of gossipy, fizzy approval towards him, daft but usually affectionate. Its the kind of good-humoured joshing that top pop stars receive. Theres an Internet site devoted to pictures of Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch. He has been compared to meerkats, and even the racehorse Shergar. Caitlin Moran, the Times columnist, believes he might be the first actor in history to play Sherlock Holmes who has a name more ridiculous than Sherlock Holmes.

Even when his collaborators talk about him now, its often a wry nod not just to his skills as a performer, but a tribute to just how famous he is. Hes a handsome, remote genius, offered Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat. Hes impersonating a glacier but actually hes a volcano or actually thats what I imagine his frantic and amorous female following are thinking.

Benedict Cumberbatch himself, while delighted with success, feels more ambivalent about being famous. He welcomes the fact his status gives him access to more ambitious roles, but is less sure about being public property as himself. They know you from the trail you leave with your work, he said in early 2013. They assume things about you because of who you play and how you play them, and the other scraps floating about in the ether. People try to sew together a narrative out of scant fact.

His discomfort with the excesses of the tabloids has led him to more or less dispense with discussing his own private life, and preferring to highlight his work, a preference this book mostly shares. For Cumberbatch, the work is the whole point of being a celebrity. But then, Benedict Cumberbatch is indeed that most unlikely of celebrities. He regards fame in itself as transitory. I dont want to complain or explain. Its part of a predictable pattern. Its a thing that will pass.