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 look in a mirror and I see all the faults I’ve lived with for 35 years and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me. It’s not me being humble. I just think it’s weird.
Kevin Feige said to me: “I don’t think we’ve ever put an actor through quite as much as this, physically and mentally.” I’ll wear that as a badge of honour. It was endless.
I had a very sparse comic upbringing – not because I was being whipped into reading Chekhov and Dickens, but I read Asterix on holidays when I was a kid, and Tin Tin was featured, I remember, for a few years.
I think now with fundamentalists, people who treat belief with a total lack of humor or empathy for any other viewpoint than their own – they, to me, are the enemy. And those people are born out of desperate extremes.
This is an odd profession, and sometimes people get jealous, but I haven’t really experienced any of that. Everyone’s been really happy for me, which is really, really great.
There’s another weight of us being in the public eye, which is this presumption that, because your work and your promotion work is very public, your private life should be, too.
We’re living through a time where we are fighting wars fostered by politics, admittedly not on the same scale as the First World War, but with equally tragic realities for our soldiers and their families.
[on BBC’s Sherlock] It’s a rare challenge, both for the audience and an actor, to take part in something with this level of intelligence and wit. You have to really enjoy it. It’s a form of mental and physical gymnastics.
I understand from those who adore him, he [Julian Assange] has a great sense of humor which rarely gets an airing because he’s dealing with such serious issues.
I was very keen to work on the script with Scott Derrickson and [C. Robert] Cargill, and working out the important story beats, changing lines, upping the comedy, changing the pace, all of that was great fun.
Sherlock [Holmes] is on the side of the angels, but don’t think he’s one of them. He uses similar means, but it seems to be for a better purpose, one would hope.
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - I’ve never been front and centre as an iconic American character [like in Doctor Strange]. Day to day, you know you’re painting on a very big canvas.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/ive-never-been-front-and-centre-as-an-iconic-ameri.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - You’d have to be pretty hard-nosed not to feel some sympathy for the guy [Doctor Strange].](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/youd-have-to-be-pretty-hard-nosed-not-to-feel-some.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - I had to kiss it [ playing Hamlet] goodbye because Marvel have to plot things for the next three, four years.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/i-had-to-kiss-it-playing-hamlet-goodbye-because-ma.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - [on BBC’s Sherlock] It’s a rare challenge, both for the audience and an actor, to take part in something with this level of intelligence and wit. You have to really enjoy it. It’s a form of mental and physical gymnastics.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/on-bbcs-sherlock-its-a-rare-challenge-both-for-the.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - I understand from those who adore him, he [Julian Assange] has a great sense of humor which rarely gets an airing because he’s dealing with such serious issues.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/i-understand-from-those-who-adore-him-he-julian-as.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - I’ve done a bit of live action before but the fight sequences, the wire work and the physical regime were taken to another level [ in Doctor Strange].](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/ive-done-a-bit-of-live-action-before-but-the-fight.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - I was very keen to work on the script with Scott Derrickson and [C. Robert] Cargill, and working out the important story beats, changing lines, upping the comedy, changing the pace, all of that was great fun.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/i-was-very-keen-to-work-on-the-script-with-scott-d.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch Quote - Sherlock [Holmes] is on the side of the angels, but don’t think he’s one of them. He uses similar means, but it seems to be for a better purpose, one would hope.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/sherlock-holmes-is-on-the-side-of-the-angels-but-d.jpg)