Chapter 1: What humorous moments open the podcast with Benedict Cumberbatch?
Hey, Sean. Hey, what's up? Hey, it's me. I know it's you. You just said your name. I know. I'm just talking to you. Just relax about it. Hey, we're about to do another episode of SmartList. Hey, for Tracy, cold open. This is a cold open. Cold open is like, hey, she knows what a cold open is. Hey, shut up. I'm talking to her right now. Just give me two seconds.
I got to explain what a cold open is. She knows what a cold open is. I've said it a million times. Tracy, cold open is what you say at the beginning of an episode before you start the episode so people know you're starting the episode. I'm exhausted. Me too. Me as well. Don't forget about me. Also me. Welcome to SmartList. SmartList.
Uh-oh. What was that? I'm gone.
Oh, God. That was probably our surprise guest.
Our surprise guest. You probably just... Oh, no.
Oh, no. So, let's see. Everybody is at home base, it seems like. Willie, where are you?
I'm on Long Island.
Oh, you're back there. What are you doing back there?
Our little R&R. I just made a little quick scoot out here for a night.
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Chapter 2: How does Benedict Cumberbatch balance his roles as an actor and a father?
That's not true.
Well, you don't need lung support to swim. Again, if you swim, you don't need to hold your breath if you can actually swim.
Yeah, but the actual aerobic kind of...
movements that make your heart pump faster than you have to breathe faster i just fail really quickly at it uh-huh okay do you know what i mean i mean hang on yeah go ahead please i just want to take this one apart a little bit i can't be the only person that can't swim no you're not but but no do you you get too tired to keep yourself um from drowning that's what it is
Well, is that because you're panicking and so you're catching, you're short of breath?
No, I think maybe I just do too much too quickly. I don't realize how to, I don't know how to swim. So I paddle really fast.
Then I use up all my energy really quickly. He's in an immediate panic.
Yeah, I do. I wish people could see the motions that Shawnee's doing. Shawnee, do you, did you ever take swim lessons? Clearly not.
He's moving both hands at the same time, listener, instead of, you know, most of us rotate, right hand, left hand, right arm, left arm.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Benedict share about nature versus nurture in parenting?
Oh, sorry. No, that's a bear and a comforter. Sorry. I've confused the two. A cub and a comforter.
It's a comforter.
Scotty's going to kick my ass when he sees me next.
That's really funny.
Well, listen, that's a great cue for a guest. What if he just panned over? Just in like a snuggie.
Yeah.
What if he just walked up to Scotty, just sort of squirting French's mustard on him? And taking big bites or licks.
Here it goes. Here it goes. Guys, we got a real live one today, all right? This guest is a man with talent, looks, smarts. Uh-oh. He's got many nominations, plenty of wins, box office sock, critical respect. He's got massive dramatic range, razor sharp comedic skills, and a British accent. That's the Triple Crown. But most importantly, he's got a wife.
He's got three sons and one of the best names in the Screen Actors Guild directory. Friends, say hello to Benedict Cumberbatch. No kidding. Come on, Al.
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Chapter 4: How does Benedict describe his experience with boarding school?
And they afforded me an education where I could have gone on to be a lawyer or something of that. That was the only other thing I flirted with, which is why I say that I did for a while.
Sean flirted with a lawyer in the parking lot last night.
And then I got taken to court for it.
What do you mean? But Benedict, they wanted you to have access to opportunity to something more predictable in your life, career-wise?
I think something more stable, definitely. But the bug had bit, really, and it was very much to do with watching them in their prime doing... doing what they did. And, you know, I remember my dad in a cast of Noises Off, this amazing Michael Frame play that's about... It's a farce within a farce.
It's this amazingly kaleidoscopic, brilliant examination of a British tradition of comedy, which obviously you guys know, called farce. My mum was doing the real thing, and even the real farces that were...
Very double entendre heavy, very misogynistic and homophobic at times as well to the point I said, Mom, you really can't do another play where you walk into a room where your husband is having his pants pulled down by his male PA and it looks like fellatio. Whereas in fact, he's just trying to give him a quick change and he's stuck up.
I can't be your son and call myself proud if you keep doing this. But I do remember perversely to that embarrassment, sort of sitting in the wings and watching her go through and just be mum and sort of chatting to me and saying hello to the SM and then just kind of opening the door in this light and heat and noise of what was happening in front.
Of those flats hitting her and her just transforming just in the blink of an eye. And I thought, what is that? What just happened to my mom? Where did she go? And yeah, I kind of got a taste for that. And as an only child, I think you're kind of already locked in a bit to quite a solitary, imaginary universe.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Benedict face when transitioning from theater to film?
Just the perfect mixture of both, I'd say. The first one was amazing. I mean, I'm an only child, as I keep saying it. I had a band of brothers for the first time in my life. So that was easy street to 13. And then the whole adolescence thing, and it was a single-sex one. And it was at the sort of top of a hill looking down over the London Basin and yet so, oh, so very far away from it.
And I just thought, this isn't quite right. This isn't real. The demographic was very narrow and no girls. And I just, the school itself was extraordinary, some amazing teachers and fantastic experiences. But at that point, I was like, okay, the boarding thing, I think I'm done with. Not because I was homesick, but because I just, I guess I wanted to be part of a broader community. Sure. Mm-hmm.
But that's a healthy thing. That's also a very healthy thing to be straining away. That was me leaving the nest. I was already a home leaver, I guess, at the age of eight. I boarded when I was eight.
We'll be right back. And now, back to the show. Wait, so Benedict, you were eight when you went away, yeah? Yeah. Yeah. How old were you? I was 12, but my roommate had come from, when I was 12, I was in seventh grade, my roommate had just come from boarding school in England, and he'd been there since he was seven.
Yeah. I bet you it's easier when you go younger, right, Will, than when you're older because you just, you've created those relationships once you were way younger.
Yes, I mean, I'll sort of jump on what Benedict said, which is you do create, now I have siblings. I have two older sisters and a younger brother.
Quick, what are their names?
Fuck.
Target, Tesco, and British Petroleum. Tannis. Tannis and Shanley are my sisters, and my brother's name is Chuck, a.k.a. Charles. So anyway, I was at boarding school, but I went when I was 12, and you do have, and I'm still friends with some of those guys that I went to school with because in those four Yeah. And I also was just an all boys. When I went, it was all boys. It's now co-ed. Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How does Benedict Cumberbatch prepare for complex roles?
And I hear your stupid fucking GMC voice every morning when I roll up my sleeves. Getting down to business. Stupid fuck.
All right. How long have you two known each other? Was that when you two first met on Arrested Development? I think so. Too long.
Yeah. And now we're stuck on this podcast.
I know. So, now you must have loved... You guys, it's such a blast being here. I have to say, I'm a huge, huge fan of this show. And it's just, it's one of these things one of my best friends put me on to. He said, you've got to hear the... I mean, I love all of your work individually, but the... Yeah, it's a very good thing you've got going here. It's fantastic.
Now listen, back to you. You must have enjoyed the education at the boarding school enough. You've become a teacher yourself. And you teach English in a Tibetan community.
What?
Untrue. Just outside of Dajarling, India. Huh?
Yeah. Yes? I like that. Especially the pronunciation, de-jarling. Is it? No, I was... How do you say it? How do you say that? We should all now say it, dajarling.
Wait, what is it?
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of the crow in 'Grief is the Thing with Feathers'?
No, they don't have showers. They don't change the linens? No, they don't change the linens. You can't use sanitizer.
There's no ring to that.
That would be scary.
But, all right, so that was... The landscape did have a pull, in all seriousness.
Of course it did. It's such an extraordinary bit of geography, that whole area. And this is in the foothills, so going towards Darjeeling, and it's a little hill station town called Sanada. And it was a converted Nepali house, and at the top was this monastery, this prayer room. Below was the monks' accommodation. the eating area, and then a small teaching area.
And I might have got the height or numbers of levels wrong, but I was basically very much on the bottom. And it was really, we were high up in what, 4,000 meters, something like that. And you open the window and it was sort of coming into autumn and winter there. So the clouds would literally roll in like dry ice through the window. And it was absolutely extraordinary. Wow. Wow. And pretty basic.
My dad reminded me, his panic, this is pre-cell phones, I'm that old, and the internet as well, I'm that old. And it was a moment where I'd written in tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny scrawl on a blue airmail letter home one weekend. Don't worry, Dad, all the cold is solved now in my room as I have a gas heater and I've managed to block all the vents.
And he was reading it going, oh my God, he's going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Yeah. I didn't, but you know, might explain a few brain cells less that I have now, but it was very basic, but very romantic, very hard, very lonely, very elating, very inspiring, and spiritually mind-blowing, and utterly mundane.
How do you clean yourself?
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Chapter 8: What future projects is Benedict Cumberbatch excited about?
God, Olivia did this when she was talking to you about Devon and... No, Devon and Dorset. It's Devon, by the way. That's what we film. See, I do listen to your show. And I just remember being very nervous on Heartbeat set. I do remember that very, very well. And just wondering... Am I any good? I don't know what I'm doing. And I know there's something capturing everything I'm doing.
I'm like an audience which has this kind of multi-camera perspective. And you can't watch yourself back, but you can. And I really wanted to, but I didn't. But I kind of wanted to know, what the fuck am I doing? Am I doing too much, too little?
Because you didn't get any feedback as you were used to from like an audience? You know, from doing theater? Was that it? No?
No.
No, none, because it's just a very, you know, well-oiled machine, a crew that have been doing it for literally decades. And, yeah, it was just very kind of, oh, well, I hope that's all right. I hope I get to work again, you know. And it was the first job I got. I was still at drama school, so I had to ask permission. I was only at Lambda for one year, but I had to ask permission to do the job.
You're not supposed to work if you're still at a drama school. Yeah. I don't know if that's changed. I hope it has in many ways, but...
And now you mentioned not being able to see yourself back. I ask actors this. Do you watch yourself act? And if so, have you treated yourself to looking at your older work and do you see a big difference between how you used to act versus today? Do you applaud yourself for having gotten better, different, how so, smaller, bigger? Do you do that? Do you watch yourself?
No, no. I'm not my own sort of crazy fan. And I don't mean that in a sort of, it's only vanity that does that. That could be an incredibly useful thing to do, but I'm not quite that. For me, it is, yeah. I'm not a precision tool in that way. I kind of... No, I'm not going to compare myself to what I have done. It's always about where I'm at at the moment. And...
the need to see some reflection of what is going on. Is it registering? And also to have that conversation with the director going, no, no, I think I know what you wanted and I was trying to do something else. Can we go again so I can try and give you something nearer what you want? I've seen now that that doesn't quite fit it. And... For the character and the movement and whatever it is.
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