Benedict Cumberbatch covers one of W Magazine’s Best Performances covers, and W actually gave him one of the longest interviews. I wonder if that was even their choice! Benedict does go on and on, he will truly talk anyone’s ear off. Bendy is here because of The Power of the Dog, a truly excellent movie, and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (which I still haven’t seen). You can read the full piece here. He talks about cats! Some highlights:
Being an only child, playing a man with a brother in Power: “It’s very weird, not having had a brother, to manifest that, but at the same time, the dynamic of their relationship is so specifically about two diametrically opposed human beings who are lumped together, and it’s an odd-couple friendship relationship. The filial part of it was something that had to be filled in. Jane was brilliant. She had us do crazy exercises of proximity, like waltzing together so that we could hold each other, smell each other, be very close to each other’s bodies as we would’ve done in a very visceral way as brothers for all of our lives. And these are two men who slept in the same room, until [Phil’s brother] George finds love and goes next door to the parents’ bedroom with Rose. It’s very Freudian. You’d want Jesse [Plemons] as a brother. Phil’s a mean bitch to him; he’s just vile.
How he got involved in Power: “I heard that Jane Campion wanted to meet. I heard what the project was called. I read the book, I read the script, and then I met her. I was always going to say yes, no matter what the ask was, to be frank. I just think she’s truly a living icon, an extraordinary filmmaker, and I was less concerned or aware that it was her first film in 11 years or her first male protagonist. That didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to work with her.
Playing the first male protagonist in Jane Campion’s oeuvre: “I think it’s so important that she’s the one who tells this story. It started in that first conversation, the sensuality she wanted to crack open in this very macho, toxic masculine world. The layers of delicacy to this complex character that she wanted to reveal. How she wanted to do that, how she wanted to signify it as a very visually orientated, sensually oriented filmmaker, through her lens and her idea of that era and what subverts type and stereotype, and archetype most importantly, was fascinating.
Learning new skills: “I think it was integral to convince and authenticate how lived an experience it was for him to do that, to manage the animals, the men, the land, the weather, the braiding, the cigarette rolling, the whittling. I never quite mastered the one-hand cigarette rolling. It’s harder than most people think. It’s pretty damn hard to do it as it’s described in the book; it’s fine to roll a really big fat doobie that falls apart in your first take and gets in your mouth and burns a hole in your chaps. That’s great, and I did that lots, for real. But he’s described as rolling rail thin, tight cigarettes. Everything about him is controlled and buttoned up, but also with great dexterity, as well as strength.
Working with cats in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain: “Cats are harder to herd than cattle, I’ll tell you that much.”
Whether he’s ever had cats: “No, I’ve had my grandmother’s and friend’s, but never my own. I was an only child who went to boarding school. It’s time to start playing the smallest violin in the world for me right now. I was very lucky because I had other people’s pets. I was like an uncle or godparent. You get all the benefits without any of the trauma. We had animals at school that we tended to, I don’t know how they survived. I didn’t go through the trauma of seeing them as babies and then going through their life cycle with them and the inevitable end. I love, love, love, love, love dogs. Cats, on the other hand… Don’t ever do a film with them. They just wander around looking really unimpressed with everything. I love them, but working with them is really tough.
I love cats but I would never want to “work” with them in any sense. Like, cats don’t care about hitting a mark. Cats don’t care about schedules or lighting or unions. Cats have their own kitty unions and they have mob hours. I can’t even imagine what it was like for Bendy to work with lots of cats. I bet they loved him though? He seems like he has the kind of energy cats would love. But alas, he claims he’s a dog person. As for what he says about The Power of the Dog… he’s very proud of the film, as he should be. His performance was great too. He’s probably going to get another Oscar nomination.
Cover courtesy of W Magazine, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
