This fall, actor Benedict Cumberbatch steals scenes in “12 Years a Slave,” “August: Osage County,” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” and as Julian Assange in this Friday’s Wikileaks thriller, “The Fifth Estate.” (The Post’s Lou Lumenick says Cumberbatch “has the film’s best (and perhaps only) shot at an Oscar nomination.” Assange has called it “toxic,” but perhaps he just meant Cumberbatch’s wig.) So who is this Brit popping up everywhere with his fancy name and fancier eyes? We delve into the suddenly ubiquitous star’s dossier.
He spent a year at a monastery.
During a gap year between attending prep school and Manchester University, the London native was an English instructor at a Tibetan monastery. “He’s said it taught him a lot about patience,” says Naomi Roper, the 36-year-old London-based lawyer who runs the fan site Cumberbatchweb, which gets more than 1.5 million hits a month. (Cumberbatch recently told the Hollywood Reporter he is “philosophically Buddhist.”) It would be another decade before he broke out as an actor, with his 2004 starring role as Stephen Hawking in the TV movie “Hawking”; international acclaim came when he played Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series “Sherlock” in 2010.
People REALLY want to see him as a Star Wars villain.
Cumberbatch has already journeyed into space once, with director J.J. Abrams for “Star Trek Into Darkness” (he played iconic baddie Khan). Now the Internet is wild with talk that Abrams wants to sign him on to the “Star Wars” reboot, which Abrams is also directing. Mum’s the word, but last month the director teased, “I love that guy,” when asked about the possibility by an LA Times reporter.
His fans rival One Direction’s.
For one thing, they refer to themselves as “Cumberbitches.” For another, they put their money where their hearts are. Over the past few months, Cumberbatch has been photographed wearing a reindeer-leather braided bracelet. Artisan Margareta Lidskog, who makes a similar accessory ($69 at swedart.etsy.com), has received countless e-mails from fans wanting to know if the actor bought it from her. He did not — a Swedish friend had given it to him years ago — but now Lidskog can barely keep up with demand. She estimates she’s sold 300 or 400 of the bracelets since Cumberbatch was seen in his, and that 2013 is likely to result in her most sales ever.
Last week, Lidskog reached out to Benedict’s team to offer him one of her creations. As it turns out, Cumberbatch had just lost his, and his assistant requested one be sent right away. “I sent two!” Lidskog says with a laugh.
When it comes to politics and paparazzi, he’s like a nice-guy Sean Penn.
In August, a photo went viral of Cumberbatch — caught outside his TV trailer — holding up a piece of paper over his face that said, “Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important.”
Matthew Horwood was the paparazzo who grabbed the shot. When the moment happened, Horwood couldn’t read the actor’s sign, so it wasn’t until he got back to the office that he realized he’d struck gold.
“I thought it was quite clever, actually,” Horwood says. “He’s using his status to get a message out, but still making a picture I can sell.
“Everyone kind of benefits, as far as I saw it.”
His backup career is illustrious.
Cumberbatch attended school on an art scholarship, and he continues to flex his artistic muscles, regularly contributing his drawings to charity auctions, says Roper. He’s even done a few portraits of himself as his beloved character, Sherlock.
He has a great sense of humor about his ridiculous name.
“It sounds like a fart in a bath, doesn’t it?” the actor has joked of his moniker. “What a fluffy old name. I can never say it on a Monday morning.” Others can’t get enough of it, though: There’s even a “Benedict Cumberbatch Name Generator” Tumblr that spits out puns like “Barbituate Cankersore” or “Bentobox Concubine.”
Or you could call him the Cumberbachelor.
Take note, ladies — the actor is single. Following a 12-year relationship with British actress Olivia Poulet, he dated fashion designer Anna Jones, but the two have split. Cumberbatch seems ready to mingle — in July he was photographed holding hands with a mystery lady outside a London club, and then a few days later locking lips with model Katia Elizarova in Ibiza. But for now, he says, he’s flying solo.