Benedict Cumberbatch may be Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Cumberbatch needed a doctor himself after poisoning himself three times for his acclaimed performance in The Power of the Dog.
Cumberbatch’s character, Phil Burbank, in the upcoming western is a noxious man of many bad habits. The actor picked up some of these habits as part of his method acting. The most hazardous to his health was all of the smoking, which he did with actual tobacco as opposed to the prop cigarettes typically used in film productions. Speaking to Esquire, Cumberbatch described the experience saying, “That was really hard… Filterless rollies, just take after take after take. I gave myself nicotine poisoning three times. When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible.”
Heavy smoking was not the only off-putting aspect of Burbank’s character for Cumberbatch to portray. Burbank asserts his dominance and hypermasculinity through his intense body odor, so Cumberbatch did away with hygiene throughout the shoot. This wasn’t something he could turn off when off the set — he had to live with the foul smell. “I wanted that layer of stink on me,” said Cumberbatch. “I wanted people in the room to know what I smelt like. It was hard, though. It wasn’t just in rehearsals. I was going out to eat and meet friends of Jane [Campion, the director] and stuff. I was a bit embarrassed by the cleaner, in the place I was living.”
Cumberbatch’s extreme acting methods have paid off well with critics, and likely with awards bodies as well. With a score of 90 on Metacritic, The Power of the Dog is by far one of the best-reviewed American films of the year and is widely predicted to earn multiple Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cumberbatch.
CBR’s positive review of the movie from the Toronto International Film Festival made some criticisms of Cumberbatch’s accent, describing it as “shifting between a gruff Western drawl and the generic American accent he uses for Doctor Strange.” The review also praised his physicality and emotion: “So much about what makes Phil tick is left unspoken, and the subtle movements of his facial expressions can tell viewers more about him than words ever could.”
The Power of the Dog opens in a limited theatrical release on Nov. 17 and will be available to stream on Netflix starting Dec. 1.
Source: Esquire
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