Benedict Cumberbatch is taking over the world. With no less than four films coming out this fall, he’s been on the cover of every major magazine and been interviewed by every major talk show over the last year [and also stalked by millions of fans across the world]. And now, he covers Time Magazine.
One year ago, most people in the United States didn’t know who Benedict was. Sure, Sherlock was huge in the UK, but it hadn’t yet picked up steam across the Atlantic. Of course, the people who did watch Sherlock were blown away by Benedict’s acting abilities, and that happened to include director J.J. Abrams – who then went on to cast Benedict in Star Trek Into Darkness as the villain.
Without spoiling anything, I think a lot of people agree that Benedict’s villain was the best part of a movie that riddled with plot holes and story issues. As stateside audiences became more familiar with Benedict’s face, his true moment of arrival in Hollywood can be described in the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. He had three high-profile films of the festival, one opening the festival on the first night [The Fifth Estate], and the other already marked as a frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar [Twelve Years a Slave].
Of course, there’s also the fact that more fans showed up for him than practically any other star at the festival, even heavy hitters like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. And now, he has two films releasing on the same weekend: The Fifth Estate and Twelve Years a Slave [both releasing this weekend], and then he’ll have August: Osage County and The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug days apart in December. I think it’s safe to say that after this fall, nobody will forget Benedict Cumberbatch’s name.
When you think about all that, it makes complete sense that he covers Time, one of the most prestigious magazines around. The brief quote under the caption of ‘Playing Genius’ is, ‘A string if breakout roles – from Sherlock to Khan to Assange – is turning Benedict Cumberbatch into the thing he fears most: a star.’
A bit silly, no? Everybody in Hollywood wants to be a star, even for the simple reason of being able to choose your movies without worrying about financial security. And with Cumberbatch, you get the feeling that he feels as though it’s ‘art’ and therefore the celebrity aspect is not important. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s a phenomenally talented performer, but it just makes the interviews sound a bit pretentious.
Photo Credit: Time
