I love British Actors. They ignore the circus that is Hollywood, they care about the 'craft'/artistry of acting and are better trained, and because of both of these are also more interesting because the best of them aren't necessarily the 'prettiest' of them. Case in point: the brilliance that is Benedict Cumberbatch. As if his name weren't enough fun on it's own (say it 5 times fast) he's crazy talented, impossible to type cast and in all honesty, has one of the strangest/most intriguing faces I've ever seen on screen. I first noticed him in Amazing Grace where he played Prime Minister Pitt alongside Ioan Gruffud's William Wilberforce and thought he was great. But as everyone has been noticing, Cumberbatch seems to be everywhere and in everything lately. My favorite at the moment is still his version of Sherlock Holmes in BBC's Sherlock, where they play with the legendary character's protagonist/anti-protagonist nuance ("I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath, get it right!). My biggest pet peeve with actors is when they DON'T EMOTE, which usually looks like them not moving their face at all. Cumberbatch, however, has the ability (along with only a FEW other actors, I can maybe count the rest on one hand) to express SO much with those crazy eyes of his alone. I swear the bottom half of his face barely moves at all. All of that to say, when I saw THIS today, I squealed out loud:
Not that I'm a big Trekkie or anything (I never really watched much of it growing up) and tend to only like Sci-Fi that has good writing about real human emotions/dynamics and a fair dollop of humor to keep me from laughing AT the 'Live long and prosper' stuff, (ie Doctor Who, which I'll come back to in a moment), but because I've been wanting to see him play a villain. I think he's going to be terrifying, and perhaps hilarious, depending on how they play it. His casting is a stroke of genius.
My new theory is also that he would be a fanstastic next Doctor. He has, as my psychology teacher once so aptly put it, "one foot over the crazy line" and can both convey deep, deep empathy and dark, dark coldness when called upon. This to me means he could more than easily pull off our favorite Time Lord. I think after Matt Smith we will all be wanting a darker Doctor anyway, someone with a lot more gravitas. Did you hear that, Steven Moffat? :D
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