Benedict Cumberbatch on playing Patrick Melrose and Doctor Strange in The Avengers: Infinity War
The multitalented actor takes on a wide variety of roles and says he’s in it for the long haul
Questions about his family and “any coming Marvel movies” were off limits, I was told by Benedict Cumberbatch’s minders, as we were ushered into the Jaeger-LeCoultre meeting rooms at Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) for our interview.
“I’d been aware of the brand for a long time. Of course, it was to do with the film company and the watch company talking to one another, but it was also my choice. I could say I didn’t like that watch but I think this one is the kind of watch Stephen Strange should be wearing. I had input into the choice,” Cumberbatch says.
It’s really a combination of the heavy focus on the usual requests on a normal acting day and then these extraordinary situations of magic or whatever it may be.
“It makes sense. It makes complete sense, even though this is a luxury brand and a lot of what that story is about is a man who is trapped in a gilded cage of his own making. The watch stays with him even though it is broken after that intense car crash … because of the humanity of the watch, and the importance of time to him as the keeper of time and the master of the New York Sanctum.”
Time has become increasingly important to the heartthrob who married actress-director Sophie Hunter in 2015. The couple have two sons: Christopher Carlton, three, and Hal Auden, one.
“Time now is spent making sure I have as much time as I have with my family,” he says.
