Everyone’s saying you’d be a perfect Doctor Strange. Did you take that as a badge of honour or did you think, ‘Wait, why am I perfect for this role of a narcissist arrogant person’?
Benedict Cumberbatch: Oh yeah, another clever guy acting like a prick. (Laughs) Well, there is a correlation between the characteristics of a certain detective I’ve been known to play. But to be honest, the differences really attracted me. This is an American born and bred superhero in a completely different space, and also somebody who is really involved. He has fast cars, fast relationships — his psychological makeup is unlike a lot of characters.
What’s the strangest place that someone has asked you for a picture?
BC: Literally, running to the bathroom at a service station. I kept my car running for too long (Laughs). I was like, ‘This is going to get ugly, you have to move!’
Strangest adjustment you’ve had to make as a parent?
BC: All of them are wonderfully, privately strange. It’s a great thing the way it is.
What would Doctor Strange’s dance moves be?
BC: It would be a lot of hand movements, like using your hand and doing this circle-disco thing, and moving your hips at the same time (Laughs).
One time, you entered a comic book store dressed as Doctor Strange.
BC: Yeah. We were on the last day of filming in New York, and it was the very last shot — I remember the exact frame in the movie it was from. And people were nudging me and telling me, ‘You’re starting this run, right next to a comic book store, and guess what, in the window is a Doctor Strange promotion!’
So I turned to the producers and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to go in there?’ To be fair, I did that earlier in the day as well, to escape from the ever-present paparazzi — where I went into a café in Greenwich to get away from them catching me eat something, or picking my nose (laughs), and that becoming news. So I went into the store and the owners were very sweet. Yeah, the camera footage made it to the late night news. (Laughs) It was funny, they must have thought this guy is into rob the place.
Doctor Strange premieres on Star Movies on October 15 at 1 pm & 9 pm.