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Andrews UK - Lynnette Porter

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143 pages

English

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Hobbit trilogy, Twelve Years a Slave, August: Osage County, The Fifth Estate; Hedda Gabler, After the Dance, Frankenstein; Hawking, To the Ends of the Earth, The Last Enemy, Parade's End, and, of course, Sherlock. For most actors, these stellar cinematic, theatrical, and television events would be the highlights of a lifetime's work. On Benedict Cumberbatch's resume they are only a few of many entries. Especially since 2010, his performances have garnered a plethora of best actor awards, both in the theatre (Evening Standard Theatre Award, Critics Circle Theatre Award, and Olivier Award), by playing the dual roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature in the National Theatre's Frankenstein, and on television (Broadcasting Press Guild Award, Critics Choice Television Award, Crime Thriller Award, and TV Choice Award), by starring as the titular Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock. Add these and other recent accolades to nearly a decade's nominations and awards (such as the Golden Nymph as best actor in Hawking), and it's easy to see why Benedict Cumberbatch is often hailed as the actor of his generation. Cumberbatch's body of work further includes indie films, radio plays and series, television documentaries, live dramatic readings, multimedia advertisements, and even the occasional stint as a fashion model. He often shares an intriguing perspective on his profession, as evidenced in sometimes controversial interviews. He has become so much in demand that online box offices crash when tickets for his performances go on sale, and, before a Cheltenham Literature Festival Q&A session, fans overwhelmed Twitter when so many responded immediately to a call for questions. Cumberbatch consistently is a top name on lists ranging from sex appeal to global influence. In 2012 he beat David Beckham in the former and U.S. President Barack Obama in the latter. Increasingly, part of Cumberbatch's job involves the role of celebrity. Benedict Cumberbatch is at a pivotal point in his profession, and his career trajectory especially as documented in entertainment media permits a closer examination of just what it means to be a celebrity or star in Britain or the U.S. and how an actor may be perceived very differently in London or Hollywood. This performance biography is an analysis of a man in transition from working actor to multimedia star, as well as the balance between actor and celebrity. It looks at what makes this actor so well suited to play one of popular culture's iconic characters, Sherlock Holmes, and how Sherlock is so well suited to propel Cumberbatch toward greater global fame.

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Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	03 juin 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781780924373
Langue	English

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BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, IN TRANSITION
An Unauthorised Performance Biography
Lynnette Porter

Publisher Information
First edition published in 2013 by MX Publishing
335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive,
London, N11 3GX
www.mxpublishing.com
Digital Edition converted and distributed in 2013 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
© Copyright 2013 Lynnette Porter
The right of Lynnette Porter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not of MX Publishing.
Cover design by Jules Coomber.

Foreword
For us, of course, it all started with Sherlock.
Or rather, with the reaction to that first trailer that aired on the BBC in the mid-summer of 2010, which took the form of “Why have they got the creepy guy from Atonement to play Sherlock Holmes?”
As is often the case, knee jerk first impressions and, indeed, preconceptions are very bad things. He may have a name that delights certain sections of the media, an unmistakable appearance, and a voice that can weaken knees, but the ultimate reason for the continued rise of Benedict Cumberbatch is his supreme focus on performance as an actor and artist. Be it a biographical drama of scientist, painter, or counter-culturist; an often frantic airline captain; creature/creator; repressed spy; ‘intergalactic terrorist’; or the greatest detective the world has ever known, Cumberbatch is not a man to sit still or allow himself to fit into any particular mould.
It’s fitting then, that this book may not be what you are expecting. Lynnette Porter has written not a typical celebrity biography, obsessed with every little nugget of personal information that feeds many a tabloid column inch, but instead a serious, analytical study of an actor’s craft, intensively researched from almost every source imaginable. In this age where gossip reigns supreme and social media can twist words contextually, it’s refreshing to see the professional rather than the personal handled in this manner. What the book also does though, and rather astutely, is quietly disseminate the culture of celebrity in both traditional media and the burgeoning online world, effectively using Benedict as a case study of how those column inches treat actors throughout their careers.
It is foolhardy to assume you can ever know someone you see on the stage or screen on anything other than their own terms, and your preconceptions of them based upon those performances are always likely to be wrong. As we personally realised with that jump from Atonement to Sherlock, an actor is someone who, by choice, pretends, and is not a person to pigeon hole into your own imagined thoughts of him. The work actors give us for our entertainment may often be all they are willing to share of their life, and ultimately that work is always the most important thing.
But for us, of course, it all started with Sherlock, a fixed point that his career seems to have thus far rotated around, leading us to his superb earlier work while eagerly awaiting what is to come. Writing this mere weeks ahead of the opening of Star Trek: Into Darkness , where servers in the UK buckled under the strain of demand for pre-booking cinema tickets online, and seeing Cumberbatch forming the film’s marketing push in bus stops across much of the world, it’s easy to see that fixed point on the verge of shifting, with this book as a fitting retrospective of a possible first stage in a career that is about to slingshot away into superstardom.
SHERLOCKOLOGY
www.sherlockology.com

Introduction
Head and Heart
“I’ve never really made a head-over-heart decision like that before.” [1]
Benedict Cumberbatch, 2011
Benedict Cumberbatch is having a remarkable career, especially since 2010. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse, The Hobbit, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Parade’s End - not a bad list to add to a resume, especially within a single year. BAFTA-winning Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (best British film of the year) and Academy Award-nominated War Horse started 2012 on the red carpet. Next came roles in two of the biggest franchises ever - Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films, building on the cinematic legacy of The Lord of the Rings, and J. J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek .
After filming these potential blockbusters in early 2012, the publicity machine kicked in later that year in preparation for cinematic releases in 2013, when Cumberbatch would be revealed to the world as the next great Star Trek villain and, a few months later, would be heard as Smaug in the Hobbit ’s middle film, The Desolation of Smaug. The HBO-BBC period piece Parade’s End, broadcast in the U.K. in August/ September 2012 and in the U.S. in February 2013, was compared to critically acclaimed Downton Abbey and received the most Broadcasting Press Guild nominations by a single project and won four awards, including best drama . (Cumberbatch received two best actor nominations - pitting himself as Parade’s End ’s Christopher Tietjens and as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock - and was named “best actor” for both. [2] )
Then there are the stage roles. The National Theatre’s Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle in 2011, sold out performances so quickly that patrons lined up at 4 a.m. in hopes of getting one of the coveted day tickets held back from regular sales. National Theatre Live’s global broadcasts of Frankenstein proved to be so popular in spring 2011 that they were rebroadcast in theatres around the world in summer 2012. Although alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature surely provided Cumberbatch satisfaction in meeting a rather daunting acting challenge, receiving an Olivier Award as best actor - the highest accolade in the British theatre - is a fine reward for a job well done.
2013 began in a similar high-profile way, with roles lined up or being discussed in several feature films, including biographies of Julian Assange, Alan Turing, and Brian Epstein; a new series of BBC radio’s Cabin Pressure; and, on the awards front, Golden Globe and National Television Award nominations. In January 2013, Forbes named Cumberbatch one of the new stars to watch. [3] In March 2013, as previously mentioned, he was honoured as best actor by the Broadcasting Press Guild. As the LA Times wrote in their 9 May 2012 feature, Benedict Cumberbatch “lights it up” - with roles on radio, television, film, and stage - but the spark igniting Cumberbatch’s recent career and international fame is one role, one series: Sherlock.
In the U.K., the BBC series won the BAFTA as best drama in 2011. Sherlock has also been named best drama at the BAFTA Cymru awards; best terrestrial show by the Edinburgh International Television Festival; and, in Canada, best continuing series at the Banff Rockie Awards. It continues to receive, for example, National Television, Emmy, and Satellite award nominations, and among its many trophies, won as best series or best drama at the RTS (Royal Television Society), Television and Radio Industries Club, Television Critics Association, TV Quick, and Peabody Awards. In 2012, the Crime Thriller Awards, the first to present Sherlock with an award in recognition of its excellent initial series, again rewarded the programme’s outstanding second series. Additionally, the Crime Thriller Awards named the leads - Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (John Watson) as, respectively, best actor and best supporting actor. 2013 began on a similar note for the series: Sherlock received Royal Television Society awards for best drama series and best drama writer (Steven Moffat). [4]
Through the years, “Sherlock” Cumberbatch has won or been nominated as best actor by BAFTA, the Broadcasting Press Guild, TV Quick, Satellite, National Television Awards, Golden Globe, and Emmy Awards - and those are only for his television work. Perhaps he can’t win them all, but he at least is nominated, year after year, for the most prestigious awards.
In 2013, around the time that Cumberbatch received a Golden Globe nomination as best actor in a television movie or miniseries and, a few weeks earlier, won a Satellite award, also for Sherlock, the media again questioned whether series’ leads Cumberbatch and Freeman had outgrown their now-famous television roles. After all, filming of the third series was delayed from January to March (and the shooting schedule compressed) in deference to the actors’ extremely busy professional calendars. Nevertheless, both actors seemed committed to the show that, although it had not launched their careers internationally, at least had given them a substantial boost. A frequently quoted comment by Cumberbatch is that “Making [ Sherlock ] is all about availability. Martin Freeman has the same kind of pressures on him now. [The show is] a thing of quality not quantity.” [5] In a separate interview, Freeman noted that “ Sherlock is one of the best written things I’ll ever do. If I live to 100, I won’t do many things that are better written than Sherlock ,” [6] which seems a positive indicator that he would be willing to continue as John Watson. Certainly the actors’ fan bases, spanning the wo