Benedict Cumberbatch Really Has A Knack For Playing Weirdos
So I watched the trailer for Brexit. Benedict Cumberbatch’s latest TV project. As the title suggests, Brexit, depicts the lead up towards the 2016 referendum that prompted the United Kingdom to exit the European Union, commonly known as Brexit.
Cumberbatch plays Dominic Cummings, the Campaign Director of Vote Leave, the campaign in favour of leaving the European Union for the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016. Set up for January 19 2019 release on HBO, and you’ve guessed it… Brexit is another project in which Benedict plays a weirdo.
And after I watched the movie trailer… It hit me… He’s played plenty of variations of that same weirdo character right until now. Seriously. You don’t believe me? Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? His most recent weirdo persona was Patrick Melrose. The 5 episode drama miniseries got him his latest Golden Globe award nomination (in the Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film category), and I couldn’t help but wonder.
He really does have a knack for playing weirdows. The weirdo scale varies from project to project, but i’ve counted at least 10 such roles since starting his career in the early 2000’s. Regardless if it’s the pedo-character in Atonement, the genius but weird mathematician Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, the timid black sheep of the family in August- Ossage Country, Sherlock Holmes or you know… Doctor Strange. He can play them like no-one else.
But the weirdo characters have now transferred experientially on the small screen and Benedict is not shy about them either. Forget Sherlock for now. Patrick Melrose showed us that childhood abuse can do to a person, and now with Brexit it will show us just how dumb a person can be in leading the whole nation to leave the EU.
But, if you look at those characters you’ll find where the true talent of Benedict Cumberbatch lies. Although most of his characters are weird, aloof, complicated and damaged people not a single one is played the same by the actor. He finds new, different and intriguing ways to show different sides of the human psyche, regardless if he’s playing a real life character (like Julian Assange) or imaginary like Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy.
But that’s one of the things I adore about Benedict. He’s never boring or mundane to watch. He can play the same variation of the same character and you wouldn’t know it. However, by now, there’s one more thing I know about him. He really has a knack for playing weirdos.
Oh and i love that.
