londonphile:

lensherr-xavier:

(This is my first translation of something EVER. Not fluent in English nor in Japanese, but I try at least for the fandom :P Tmrw I’m gonna do the whole Johnlock-section. NEVER has a magazine shipped them harder than this one. Surprised it didn’t have doujinshi tbh.)

Cumberbatch talks about the latest movie “Star Trek – Into the Darkness”

“I project a bit of myself in this character… but well, of course it’s the same with Sherlock.”

Because of the PR for “Star Trek; Into the Darkness”, going into cinemas in Japan in September, Benedict Cumberbatch, popular even in Japan thanks to the TV-series “Sherlock”, visited Japan for the first time last year in December. This man, with a history of success in theatre as well as having starred in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” among other movies, is this time around playing the role of the evil John Harrison. During the interview, Benedict’s friendly and in a good mood. Just as his character Sherlock, he speaks just as quickly as he thinks and when his answers tend to get too long, he slaps himself lightly, making this (event) covering a very amusing one.


Please explain to us as much as you can about this new role you’re playing.

I can talk about if it’s just a little. This evil “John Harrison” I’m playing is a man who is unbelievably violent. The terror acts he commits are extremely frightening. His acts are not for a political reason to take over the world with force,  nor are they to rebel against controlling powers. No, the reasons for his actions are entirely personal. The wonderful thing with this movie is how it, on the parts of it being a human drama, precisely depicts each and every character’s connections, what kind of intention and goal everyone are carrying and in what way they act/behave. I can’t speak about it in too great lengths, but the evil character I’m playing has a really complex aspect and has been challenging to do.

You also have a lot of action scenes, don’t you? Did you have any kind of special training when it came to building your body for it?

I think that no matter what role or what play, the body’s training/discipline is important. Since I think that acting is not only from the neck and up but it’s also how your whole body portrays it, I really try, as well as in the play “Frankenstein” as in “Sherlock”, to really act with my whole body. Especially for this movie I had a lot of action stunt performances, and also 3-4 hand-to-hand fighting scenes, so intense training and practice was necessary. I received guidance from my friend (actor) Tom Hardy’s trainer Patrick Monroe about the body building training, but because I continuously had to have five meals every day and had to work out for 2 hours, my size in costumes got 3-4 sizes bigger. (laughs) But thanks to this I was able to really enjoy this action movie. Since I’m a fan of J.J. Abraham’s action, I felt like I had become the test pilot of a new fun vehicle and with this feeling I was very thrilled being at the scene (filming).

Do you have any similarities between you and this role you’re playing?

Up until now I’ve played lots of different roles and in every one of them I’ve projected a bit of myself. The challenge this time around was for me, as an actor, to portray a unique character who everyone can sympathize with at the same time as I make it carry the entertainment-part with it. Every actor is the same, but everyone are carrying a limited palette with them and with this, if you add a part of imagination – of it becoming yourself – I think the character’s substance becomes even richer. That’s why it was so fun to portray Sherlock, because projecting a part of myself is great like that. But if more guys like him being a nuisance existed in reality it’d be really bothersome, right? (laughs)


Up until now, have you imagined yourself to ever be in a blockbuster like this one?

When I was a child, I loved to watch  “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars”, among other huge production movies. I thought that those kind of world really existed and I was happy and it was a lot of fun to be able to immerse myself into those kind of stories. After I became a professional actor, I thought it would be wonderful if I one day too was able to star in a big production movie like the ones from my childhood. And although this is the same sensation as being in a play or in TV (series), I was overjoyed when my part in this movie was decided. Not only that the thing I dreamed about during my childhood became reality, but also because what I had prayed for as a professional actor had come true!

(From Screen magazine, Japan, 2013.04 edition.)