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Cumberbatch is known for his energy and boundless loquaciousness, and will go on for many uninterrupted minutes turning over all sides of a question. What most comes across talking to Cumberbatch, the only child of actors Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton, is his thoroughness. To craft Assange, he pored over YouTube footage of him, talked with Assange colleagues and worked with a dialect coach to specify Assange's droll Australian accent. "It's an excuse for one of the gifts of our job, which is further education," he says. "Within that, I always get embroiled in the detail. ... I believe in the intelligence of audiences and I also believe they deserve hard work." "Fifth Estate" director Bill Condon says Cumberbatch was meticulous in piecing together Assange. "With an actor like that, it's just making sure that all of the levels of complexity are communicated," Condon says. "That's his great gift. There are moments when he can express something that's a moment of great intelligence combined with some cruelty and also vulnerability." Often, Cumberbatch found himself flip-flopping on Assange, judging him cantankerous in an interview, then re-watching and seeing the unfair bias of the interviewer. "It was very difficult to compartmentalize the work in building toward him," says Cumberbatch. "Every single moment had a huge deal of potential interpretation."
He's clearly still enraptured by the contradiction of Assange, whom he analyzes with nearly Sherlock-like precision. Yet Cumberbatch says he doesn't feel similar to the fast-thinking detective, whom he says is "a real effort to work up to." Still, it can be hard to slow Cumberbatch once he gets going. He recalls an interview where he gave a short answer that led to a quiet pause of confusion before he explained that he had indeed stopped talking. "I do do that sometimes," he says.
[Associated
Press;
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