Actors on Actors: Benedict Cumberbatch and Edward Norton - Full Video

I think that performing in a play the thing I like about it is that it's more a Zen it feels like more like as an act to me you you know your your your form is X and every day you come in and just take the brush and go like and then you kind of go like oh I kind of got that part right but not that part right you know and then the next day you come in and you just go and you try to do it again and and then it and then it evaporates you know it's gone I I did a Katie Mitchell production she's the most extraordinary director when it comes to process and it was extraordinary the first preview we did there's the first scene Hattie Morahan and myself and we were we were sort of utterly perplexed by the fact that this fourth wall didn't exist that there were people looking at what we were doing and our work and finding it funny we thought we'd got something terribly wrong and we came off of a sort of talking head what was it I mean I really thought my flies work but what was it were they just nervous and she went no I don't want you to think about why they thought it was funny I said oh is it funny I don't need to think about what I thought about you know so because it's that's such a thing you know chase a laugh or a moment of you know sort of a dramatic eye or whatever the shape of that thing that worked is I once on that play I was chasing a laugh I had a laugh from a little bit and it had grown every night and I kept increasing you know I kept leaning into the bit harder and it's just almost to see like how big can this you know laugh get and I can't think of a time I've forgotten a line on stage in my life like I just doesn't happen to me really and we were in previews on this thing and I am I leaned into this bit too much and I get this huge laugh of the truth and it and and I kind of stood up and it's kind of these coke-fueled like monologues and I let myself I let the laugh and the satisfaction just threw me off that much and I started in and Catherine Keener was looking give me this look like what and I realized I had jumped about 15 minutes forward move I had jumped about 15 minutes of the play and as I began to realize that I'd done that but you're still steaming forward I'm seeing the other actor offstage who whose entrance I have now jumped looking at me like what and finally he had the presents to just enter which broke it sent it back to at least his entrance then we get through a lot of what we missed but now here we are coming back to what I've already done like her and the sensations were so later Shay I really really I later I felt like it was one of the most interesting things that ever happened to me on stage because because you know like you're you can feel like that cell in your favor you know like yeah like it like it's like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan you can hear voices yes but your rear head is your blood feels a little bit like legend those might as well because I thought it was great I thought it was like I mean I did it to myself but um but it produced a very interesting experience the funny thing is is I didn't I never saw I only watched Sherlock recently which I really enjoyed it I just watched it straight through and a big binge you know thanks for um and and I really liked it um it's funny because I saw the film of August Osage County and I just didn't really I hadn't seen you in anything or something and I was I was totally shocked that you were from England I really was I good yeah I realize I know I thought I thought that pairing those two that couple was really tender that was my favorite part of the film but I I mean I think that my sense is like a show it's it's a very different sort of thing because it even if it takes off you're kind of in it's not like it does it and then it's like what next you yeah what was that like two or three years yeah about that yeah I mean I it's a strange one I think it sort of changed everything and nothing at the same time it's one of those because you we've worked very hard to try and get it would it was and what it is hopefully and where it will go but it was also something that we knew would have a certain amount of attention on it because he's such an iconic character but it was really bizarre I got a very but then it sort of crept up into my actual life very slowly I mean I'm thrilled that what I've done is is successful and it's going well and people love it but at the same time that's the last thing I want to do is to sort of suffocate the space I had before to be able to do that otherwise perverse against the fame then yeah kind of drowned the air you need to create the thing that made you famous in the first place you need your space you need to be able to work at a certain pace or just be an artist really rather than being just famous and that I'm still adjusting I'm still finding my way around that it's just such a different era now the currency and the collateral and the mechanisms through which people talk about work that people do or are so they're so aggressive and so so fast moving that it's almost like change the playbook I think it's like it's a you know a listicle most isn't it yeah it forces even more discipline about you know managing your your your health your personal space then I think even when I started off kind of in the business I think it's very different now point is I think is even different now than it was 15 20 years ago and I feel like I learned a lot even watching it's a crazy thing to say but like if you watch those old like interviews with Bob Dylan when he's 20 years old or you know if you that there's people like like have you ever seen the Maysles brothers documentary called meet Marlon Brando no none of those did you know they made they made all those famous documentaries like Grey Gardens and things like that and their very first one is this documentary called meet Marlon Brando it's only 29 minutes long and they followed Brando on a junket yeah for a movie that he didn't really like and is this an incredible portrait of a guy really really trying to maintain a grounded authenticity through this completely insane process and ever watching it just thinking like you know there's there's a lot of you can be a little that you can learn a lot seeing what other people absolutely gone through opposite you kind of I've started to look to that a little bit you know it's really helpful to see how past masters have done it and just just understand that you can remain sane in the insanity of it all it's one of the supreme ironies they think of all these things films and plays and all of it is a certain glamour gets attached to the event of these things but the truth is of the doing of it is it's not that glamorous it's a very I find it to be a very pleasingly working-class kind of working less than three word but but it's a work at you know it's a big working done yeah it's not it's not all its is hundreds of people involved in it's a very tight community of people and and and it's often very humbling it's it's the work itself never normalizes yeah Rosen I did not say there's nothing better than just working so I kind of think um I kind of think that's the best antidote yeah you know I'm just a time to have some fun with that side of things and not take it too seriously and within work yeah it's wonderful to flex your muscles and show that you've got a comedic side or you know you could you can examine things that are very close to you in a very honest way even though you're still getting dressed up and you know going to a you know that wasn't edwin orton that was that was your character but it touched on loads of things which i think you know the sort of acting community industries just i think it's all the reasons the film is just extraordinary is it's so raw Lyanna stability of what we do and print any brilliant performed i admire very very much let's call it like the um-hmm you know in the farthest end of the spectrum you have sort of the bob dylan's the JD Salinger's guys like Daniel day-lewis who I admire enormously enormously not just as an actor but he lives his life in terms of his commitment to firewalling yeah there's a distinct value I think to the depth of the impact the work as an F of an actor can have if you don't see them very often yeah and you don't know much about them you know otherwise I kind of screwed I love you know I was born into I mean with the way above me into it's a pretty hot spotlight and it wasn't it is you're talking about the extraordinary degrees of extraction from from the worker from the process and I'd love to be in the position that Dino day-lewis's and come in and and work for four years for one project and then not be slain and but that's what I'm saying is I think one of those I gotta publicist is to do this to make them stop I can stop the focus my can stop all of this it's it's what I would call you know the wise detachment but also healthy engagement you know it's like one part of the brain says don't be too precious about this you're not a doctor in Liberia helping a below patients you're an actor you're an entertainer you know and and and if you can show up to help a good cause like do it and if you can have a little fun laughing at yourself do it you know and the other half is yeah I suppose being artist isn't supposed to be some kind of preserving this junk about what we do exactly and the continual kind of examination of it on every kind of media is sort of saturating any and corrosive to doing a worker really impact you know I creepy and to by the way the fact that it's just again and it is sort of a poor man's about but the the brain says I need to work I want to work actors the lack of autonomy that actors have in their early careers sets up a paradigm where you said well if I'm getting a job I should take the job you know yeah and and there's a great strength from realizing that it doesn't all stop if you say no I know and and those but those those balances are tricky those are tricky they're just I find you seem to do it very well that's a it's a constant ongoing debate in my own head about the value of discipline versus the value of having fun yeah and not taking it all too seriously and having having fun with it and but I agree that I think it's much healthier thing to do that within work you know you

Channel: Variety

Views: 903,894

Rating: 4.9563041 out of 5

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, Benedict Cumberbatch (Musical Artist), Edward Norton (Celebrity), Film (Media Genre)

Id: mTsrheWUG50

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 10 2014