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Benedict Cumberbatch talks isolated Hobbit shoot


Benedict Cumberbatch is undoubtedly on the rise. Coming off of his continued success as the titular hero on the BBC series Sherlock and a role in Steven Spielberg‘s War Horse, audiences may soon find it difficult to avoid the British actor at all. In addition to his upcoming role in Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a […]

Benedict Cumberbatch is undoubtedly on the rise. Coming off of his continued success as the titular hero on the BBC series Sherlock and a role in Steven Spielberg‘s War Horse, audiences may soon find it difficult to avoid the British actor at all. In addition to his upcoming role in Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave, Cumberbatch will also be seen playing the mysterious villain in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2. More interestingly, however, is his dual villainous role in Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit trilogy, which will see him cast as both the Necromancer and Smaug the Dragon. That’s right – the man who brought Sherlock Holmes to the 21st century with such thespian grandeur will be crawling around on the floor in a tight, grey one-piece. “It’s sort of a grey all-in-one jumpsuit, with a skullcap, a Madonna headset and Aboriginal-like face paint,” Cumberbatch explains to The Telegraph, trying to accurately describe the motion-capture suits that are now becoming so commonplace in Hollywood. “You feel like a tit in all that gear but Peter is so lovely you soon forget.”

What was unique for Cumberbatch was that, while shooting a trilogy with such a massive cast, he almost never encountered any of the other actors; most of his time was spent alone on a motion-capture stage, attempting to bring the warlock and dragon to life. Smaug – whom the actor describes as “a 400-year-old fire-breathing worm who lives in the middle of a mountain on top of a pile of gold, who is three or four times bigger than the Empire State Building and can fly” – is the key antagonist in our hero’s journey, and the story of The Hobbit is built around trying to reach him. That means that it’s possible that Cumberbatch’s performances might not even show up until the second or even third installment of the trilogy, but there’s always a chance he might make an appearance in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.~Devin Garabedian

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