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Being On Set Is Quite Difficult, Because It's So Big And You've Got To Try And Relax, Which Isn't Easy When You Know You're In A Massive Film. I Was Terrified For Quite A Long Time.

-Benedict Cumberbatch

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Being On Set Is

Benedict Cumberbatch

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Being On Set Is Quite Difficult, Because It's So Big And You've Got To Try And Relax, Which Isn't Easy When You Know You're In A Massive Film. I Was Terrified For Quite A Long Time.

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Even Though My Parents Experiences Were Different From Mine. I Wasn't A Child Actor Brat; I Didn't Travel With Them In The Circuit. But I Got A Look Into Their World, So I Did Know What I Was Getting Into, To An Extent. And They Are A Constant Source Of Grounding.

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I'm Always Keen To Use My Body In My Work, So I'm Looking Forward To The Motion Capture For Smaug. Both Gollum And King Kong Were Primates, Whereas I'm Playing A Serpent, So It'll Be Interesting - I'll Have To Tie My Legs Together, Possibly, Or Else They'll Be Kind Of Splayed Out To The Side As A Reptile's Should Be.

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Sometimes When You Do Fight Scenes You Think, "oh, I'll Be Hit In The Face," Because People Get Carried Away With Their Vanity And Want To Look Too Cool To Care, But We Were All Really Careful With Each Other.

I Know He [julian Assange] Is A Man Of Fierce Determination, And Now Living Under The Strain Of House Arrest In The Ecuadorean Embassy As A "political Exile," As He Calls Himself.

It Still Makes Me Giggle That I'm Paid To Act.

If You Can't Fail, You Can Never Get Better.

Being In Front Of An Audience Makes Me Feel Alive. Being With Friends Makes Me Feel Alive. I’ve Done Some Crazy Stuff In My Time And Yet I Can Feel Infinitely Alive Curled Up On A Sofa Reading A Book. So, What Makes Me Feel Alive? I Guess It’s Realizing I Am Part Of The World Around Me.

I’m Very Excited About All The Offers And Interest And Support Pouring In Through Crowd-funding, And About Having A Lovely Gap Coming Up When I’ll Finally Be Able To Sit Down With Books And Scripts And Talk To My Partners About How We Take The Company Forward.

[season 4 Of Sherlock Holmes Will Be] Myopically Dark. You're Talking About The End Of The Universe Darkness. You Can't See In Front Of You And Would Walk Into Everything Dark.

Sometimes During A Conversation With A Journalist - Where You Are Answering Things You Never Normally Talk About, Not Even With Some Of Your Closest Friends - You End Up Being Quite Confessional, And You Don't Think About The Amplification Of That. No Matter How Fancy These Journalists Are, They Have Editors Or Political Leanings Behind Their Publications, Which Means That, Basically, They're Going To Shape What You've Said Into An Article They've Already Written. So You Have To Be Really Careful With Your Words.

I Ate Healthily, But There Was No Snacking, No Drinking, No Bread, No Sugar, No Smoking. Afterwards I Had A Pork Belly Roast.

I've Always Wanted To Play A Spy, Because It Is The Ultimate Acting Exercise. You Are Never What You Seem.

I Have An Appetite For The Normal In My Life, As Well As The Abnormal.

Animations Are Really Powerful - It's Not Just Entertainment, It's A Very Cunning Way To Get Good Ideas Across.

Sometimes Being Away, On Location, I Feel Like I'm Away For Much Of My Own Life. I Want To Be Better At Staying Connected.

Maybe It's Just Getting Older, But I Don't Want To Miss Things.

Why This Character [doctor Strange] Is Being Introduced, To Open Up The Next Chapter. A

I Drive A Motorbike, So There Is The Whiff Of The Grim Reaper Round Every Corner, Especially In London.

You Have To Sometimes Just Run With The Problem Rather Than Trying To Solve It With Hi-tech Wizardry And Lots Of Planning.

I Genuinely Don't Know Julian Assange Well. To Authenticate An Opinion, I Really Would Have To Meet Him.

I'm Aware Of The Power Of Looks. I've Wanted To Play Roles That Have Gone To Much Better-looking People And You Just Think 'oh Well, That's The Pin Up Guy's An Actor Like My Friend James Mcavoy, Who's Gorgeous On Screen. I'm Not That. But At Least I Don't Have To Worry About Taking Precious Care Of My Face Because It's My Commodity. That's A Great Freedom. I'm Not Afraid Of Being Heinous For The Sake Of A Part

I've Gone Up Two Suit Sizes. The Character I'm Playing, He's Strong, I Can Say That Much. I've Changed My Physique A Bit, So That Requires Eating Like A Foie Gras Goose, Well Beyond Your Appetite. Providing I Don't Feel Too Ill, I Then Work Out Two Hours A Day With A Phenomenal Trainer. It's The L.a. Way.

[doctor Strange] Is Difficult, He's Arrogant, But He's Kind Of Brilliant And Charming And You'd Think, "yeah, I'd Want Him On My Head If I Needed Brain Surgery." He's Good Enough To Warrant His Arrogance And He Respects Other People But Not When He Thinks He's Right And He'll Just Do What He Deems Needs To Be Done When He Knows Or Feels That He's Right And The Problem From Humility's Point Of View Is That He Is Right, He's Really Really Good At His Job.

People Always Want To Knock You When You're Up.

Marvel Always Make It Fresh So You Can Give It Your Personal Twist.

Mystique Is Rare Now, Isn't It? There Aren't That Many Enigmas In This Modern World.

You Can Perfect Genius Because Genius Is Not Perfection. On His Level And His Practice And His Methodology, It's Almost Inhuman. So, That's Been A Fantastic Arc To Play, And Boy Does It Go Somewhere In This Series.

I Feel That Tv And Film Feed Off Each Other Well. It's More In The Perception Of The Viewer Than It Is Of The Actor.

New York City Is Crazy And Beautiful And Really Close To My Heart, And I've Always Had Dear Friends Here - Family, Actually, I Would Say.

I'm Not One For Doing The Children's Party Version: "hi, I'm A Character In A Movie And Now I'm In Reality!" I Was Doing The Last Shot Of The Film Before Reshoots Outside Their Shop. I Was Starting My Run Into The Frame And I Thought, "you Are Literally Ending Where This Began. The Loop Of Serendipity's Too Much To Not Go In And Acknowledge It." I Just Wanted To See The Look On Their Faces.

I Try To Work Hard. I'm Really Proud Of What I Get To Do As A Living. I Still Pinch Myself. But I Also Know It's A Craft, And I Can Get Better At It And Learn Every Time I Do It. So I Try To Work Hard No Matter What The Task Is.

It's Always Important To Have The Blessing.

I Know That Might Sound Perverse Because I Played Julian Assange But, Honestly, I Don't Think It Would Be Fair For Me To Judge The Man. I Realize That Makes Me A Bit Of A Hypocrite Because I Was Portraying Him A Certain Way, But We Were Always Open To The Fact That This Was An Interpretation, Not Any Kind Of Exact Evidence Of Who The Man Was.

Doctors And Nurses Do Crazy Hours And Keep An Ideal Afloat Through The Love And Care That They Have For Their Craft And Their Patients And The Institution Of The Nhs. We Should Be Very Proud Of It.

[doctor Strange] Gets Scraped Off The Floor And Then Thrown Right Down To Hell Again And Then Slowly Pulls Himself Back Up.

Look At You Lot, You're All So Vacant, Is It Nice Not Being Me It Must Be So Relaxing.

Pull The Hair On My Head The Wrong Way, And I Would Be On My Knees Begging For Mercy. I Have Very Sensitive Follicles.

I've Turned Up To Costume Parties In The Wrong Costume. I've Made Social Faux Pas A Plenty. I've Put One Foot In Front Of The Other And Fallen Over.

I've Been Very Lucky At What's Happened In My Career To Date, But Playing Something As Far From Me As Possible Is An Ambition Of Mine - Anything From A Mutated Baddy In A Comic Book Action Thriller, To A Detective. If Anything, I'd Like Gary Oldman's Career: He's The Perfect Example Of It. I've Love To Have A Really Broad Sweep Of Characters - To Be Able To Do Something Edgy, Surprising And Unfashionable.

We Have A Lot More Unlikely Heroes Now. It’s Not Just The Guy With Guns—it’s The Guy With Brains.

Maybe It's Because I Was An Only Child, But I've Always Wanted Kids.

My Mum And Dad Had Worked Incredibly Hard To Afford Me An Education.

There's Still Nearly The Same Amount Of Slavery, If Not More, In The World Today, As There Was At The Height Of The Slave Trade.

I Think What I Loved In Cinema - And What I Mean By Cinema Is Not Just Films, But Proper, Classical Cinema - Are The Extraordinary Moments That Can Occur On Screen. At The Same Time, I Do Feel That Cinema And Theater Feed Each Other. I Feel Like You Can Do Close-up On Stage And You Can Do Something Very Bold And Highly Characterized - And, Dare I Say, Theatrical - On Camera. I Think The Cameras And The Viewpoints Shift Depending On The Intensity And Integrity Of Your Intention And Focus On That.

I Don't Wear A Mask, I Don't Have A Suit. It's Not Some Cg Double Or A Stunt Double. The Suffering The Character [doctor Strange ] Goes Through Is Immense!

My First Agent Dissuaded Me From Calling Myself 'cumberbatch.' I Had Six Months Of Not Very Productive Time With Her, So I Changed Agents. The New One Said, 'why Aren't You Using Your Family Name? It's A Real Attention-grabber.' I Worried, 'how Much Is It Going To Cost To Put My Name In Lights?' But Then I Decided That's Not My Problem.

Enjoy The Journey Of Life And Not Just The Endgame.

Only When Stephen Strange Has His Accident And Everything That He's Ever Had In His Life Falls Apart That He Becomes Pretty Monstrous. It's The Self-loathing Rage Of A Wounded Animal And He Doesn't Have A Coping Mechanism At All. It Ties In With The Discipline And The Magic Of This World.

I Got Live Tweeted Once By Someone Who Was Opposite My Home In Some Rented Accommodation. He Was Actually Describing On Twitter What I Was Doing. 'i Took A Shirt Off, I Went To The Window, I Put A Shirt Back On... ' And I've Got Blinds In My Flat!

I Had To Imagine Myself Into Certain Aspects Of [julian Assange] Character For Our Version Of Events. That Involved Extrapolating Based On Clues In His Biography, His Public Persona, Photographs, And Other Accounts Of Him By People Who Encountered Him During That Extraordinary Period From 2007 To 2010 That We Charted In The Film [the Fifth Estate]. So, It Involved A Lot Of Research But, Sadly, No Contact With The Man Himself.

I Think I'm A Very Good Driver. Apparently, The Cause Of Road Rage - As With Most Anger - Is Some Kind Of Superiority Complex, Which, God Knows, Cars Foster.

My Dad Read The Hobbit To Me Originally When I Was Young. So, It Was The First Imaginary Landscape I Ever Had In My Head From The Written Word. It Gave Me A Passion For Reading, Thanks To My Dad's Performance Of The Book.

If I'd Had Fame Early On, I'd Have Been Able To Abuse It In The Way That A Young Man Should.

Do I Like Being Thought Of As Attractive? I Don't Know Anyone On Earth Who Doesn't, But I Do Find It Funny.

I Really Cannot Get Over The Generosity Of Our Tibetian Teacher. He Said, "don't Punish Yourself. You're Going To Be A Student At A University In The North Of England. You Need To Have Your Experiences And Have Your Fun, And Not Judge Yourself. Don't Live In Guilt And Regret."

[sherlock Holmes] Has Moved From Being Someone Who Was Sociopathic, Work-obsessed And Slightly Amoral, Into Being Someone Who Has A Certain Degree Of A Private Life, Which Is Very, Very Private, With The Woman, Or Irene Adler.

It's An Interesting Arc. You Start With A Character [doctor Strange] Who's Likeable And Charming But Very Arrogant And Distant. He's Funny But You Can See There Are Massive Holes In His Life. It's A Very Painful Transition And All That He Becomes Is Tested So Quickly And Violently.

I Am Shortsighted. I Need Glasses For Watching Movies Or Concerts. It's Not A Hipster Affectation; I Do Have Poor Eyesight. This Is How Ridiculous My Life Is: I've Had The Test For Contact Lenses, But I Haven't Found A Half-day Where I Can Go To The Optician.

Being A Posh Actor In England You Cannot Escape The Class-typing From Whatever Side You Look At It.

I'm Very Proud Of The Work I Do, But I Genuinely Can't Involve Myself With An Audience As Early As Somebody Who's Not Part Of The Film Can. So There's That Side Of Theater That Appeals To Me, Where You Give Something And The Response To What You've Created Is A Communion Between You And The Dark That Contains However Many People. It's Thrilling Not Having A Reflection Other Than Through The People You're Communicating With. But People Ask, "what Do You Prefer?" And I Don't Have A Preference. I Love Them Both. I Really Do.

[doctor Strange] Is A Really Rich Character. It's An Easy Thing To Have A Good Old Meal Every Day. It's Great. Yeah, I'm Excited.

I Don't Want To Miss Things.

I'm A High-functioning Sociopath, Do Your Research.

I Remember Very Clearly Someone Saying, 'don't Shake Hands With The Cactus,' And I Thought, 'well, Why Not? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?' Shaking Hands Is A Friendly Gesture.

When You Start Getting Jobs, And See Your Mates From Drama School, You Don't Really Want To Talk About It, Because You Have This Innate Sense Of Guilt That It's Not Fair That Others Aren't Doing Exactly What You're Doing. I Do Have That.

Even The Cerebral Characters I Play Seem To Have Physical Quirks. They're All "physically Inhabited," For Lack Off A Better Expression. For Instance, Sherlock Holmes Has Very Particular Physical Gestures Which Are Drawn Out In Such Detail.

It Does Get Strange When You Realize People Will Hang Around For Hours To Get A Glimpse Of You Doing Scenes Outside.

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