‘We All Kind Of Fell A Bit In Love With It’: How Benedict Cumberbatch And His 'Eric' Castmates Felt About The Puppeteers On Set

Interview with Benedict Cumberbatch

Transcript

00:00Now, Benedict, to your end, we not only get to see you play Vincent, but we also hear

00:05your voice as Eric, his creation, this big walk-around puppet monster.

00:11And I was very curious, what part of your previous mocap work on the Hobbit trilogy

00:15do you think best prepared you for playing a puppeteer, and what was the greatest lesson

00:19you learned while doing specific prep for Eric?

00:22None of it, because, well, a bit of voice work, I suppose, although that was vocoded

00:27or whatever you call it, that was mixed a lot, whereas mine is as deep as I can get

00:31it as Eric.

00:33And I didn't do any...

00:36The hand puppet work that you see me doing with Bug at the beginning of the show is very

00:41different to mocap work.

00:43Mocap work is a sort of extension of you via an avatar, so it is your kind of...

00:47Your movements are creating the image.

00:49This is...

00:51It sort of becomes real at the end of your arm, if that makes sense.

00:53It's just slightly different, and you're looking at your work.

00:56You're seeing it on a screen.

00:58You're aware of yourself and what it's creating.

01:01It's a slightly different sensation.

01:03So no, it didn't help at all.

01:05It felt like a new skill, and a really difficult one to master.

01:11So we did as best as we could.

01:12I mean, I have to say, my team on that show were amazing, both the real puppeteers, but

01:16also the actors playing the gang in Good Day Sunshine, they were extraordinary, and they

01:21just threw themselves into it.

01:22We all kind of fell a bit in love with it and became a bit obsessed.

01:26Simon went out with a little puppet on a couple of club nights, I hear.

01:31I wasn't part of that experience, just, you know, talking away like that.

01:37It's joyous.

01:38It is joyous, despite the rich, dark sort of depths of this shadow self that is made

01:43real in Eric of Vincent's kind of odyssey through hell, really.

01:49It is a joyous thing to be around Eric, as encapsulated by Ollie, who's actually in the

01:53suit, was a real presence.

01:55All of us were kids when he was on set.

01:57I had a wonderful repartee with him, improvising lines.

02:01He was as quick an actor as he was a puppeteer.

02:04Very, very smart, brilliant performer, brilliant actor, and also a brilliant puppeteer.

02:08So it was a real entity for me to play off, and I enjoyed that enormously.