“Rebecca is extraordinary as Sylvia. I have never worked opposite an actress who has such an extraordinary command of her character. She hits the ground running, every single time. There is a lot of Christopher that listens and watches and is an audience to it because he would rather die than be a book that you can read. He is the opposite of Sylvia. She describes him as an infuriating lump, a block of wood, which makes her incandescent with rage. So there is an awful lot which required me to be a still, observing eye in her storm which was hard because it was so mesmerising to watch. I often fell into the trap of being her primary audience and friend, going ‘wow’! For a bored, over privileged lady from family Sylvia becomes wild and destructive in her near bi-polarity. She would probably be labelled in the post Freudian era as a manic depressive but here she’s talked of as someone ‘pulling the strings of the shower bath’ ie dousing those in her company with the cold water shock and provocation of her behaviour. And while all of her incredibly self centred, monstrous behaviour is wildly entertaining it could make for unlikeable character in the wrong hands. But Rebecca has pulled off the trick of creating someone who behaves in extremes but is so deeply drawn and profoundly in love with her husband (as he is with her) that you have sympathy for her in equal measure to her ‘victims’ for want of a better word. I mean, it’s almost an impossible task, only to be marred, I suppose by my character being heroic, because he does so little in some senses, but is heroic. And so, between the two of them, it is a tragedy. They do love each other. We have known each other for a long time, Rebecca and I, we have been friends for 10 years, which did help an awful lot. And, just having such a good and trusted friend on set every day is another reason to pinch yourself that your being payed to do this!”
- Benedict Cumberbatch [x] (via lestrade)
- Benedict Cumberbatch [x] (via lestrade)