Benjamin Secher of The Telegraph recently interviewed Benedict Cumberbatch. In today’s online edition, the Tele published a wide-ranging story where Cumberbatch speaks at length about his career to date, and his latest effort as a “repressed civil servant” in Parade’s End.
We get a bit more information on Smaug in The Hobbit, and how Cumberbatch played the role. For those just keen on reading Hobbit spoilers, highlight the bit just below!
“Filming The Hobbit brought challenges of a different kind. Although he plays two roles, a necromancer and Smaug (a fantastical villain he describes with undisguised glee as ‘a 400-year-old fire-breathing worm who lives in the middle of a mountain on top of a pile of gold, who is three or four times bigger than the Empire State Building and can fly’), he barely encountered any other members of the cast. He worked on his scenes with the director, Peter Jackson, shooting against a green screen while wearing a motion-capture suit. ‘It’s sort of a grey all-in-one jumpsuit, with a skullcap, a Madonna headset and Aboriginal-like face paint,’ he explains. ‘You feel like a tit in all that gear but Peter is so lovely you soon forget.’ ”
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