"Benedict Cumberbatch"

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Speaker 2 Rosetta Stone makes it easy to turn a few minutes a day into real language progress. Scotty and I are here in England still, right in London.

Speaker 2 And before we leave, we're talking about going to Paris while we're over here because it's like, when are we going to be over here again?

Speaker 2 And so we might take a day just to go over to Paris. And we talked about how great it would be to use Rosetta Stone to learn just a little bit of French before we go.
It's French, right?

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Speaker 1 Hey, Sean, hey, what's up? Hey, it's me.

Speaker 2 I know it's you. You just said your name.
I know I'm just talking to you.

Speaker 1 It's just relax about it.

Speaker 2 Hey, we're about to do another episode of Smartlist. Hey, for Tracy, cold open.

Speaker 1 This is a cold open. Cold open.
It's like, hey, she knows what a cold open is. Hey, shut up.
I'm talking to her right now. Just give me two seconds.
I got to explain what a cold open is.

Speaker 1 She knows what a cold opens.

Speaker 2 We've said it a million times. Oh, Tracy, cold open is what you say at the beginning of an episode before you start the episode so people know you're starting the episode.
I'm exhausted.

Speaker 1 Me too.

Speaker 2 Me as well.

Speaker 1 Don't forget about me.

Speaker 2 Also, me.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Smartless. Smart.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Let's.

Speaker 1 Uh-oh. What was that? God.
Oh, God. That was probably our surprise guest.
Our surprise guest fellow. He probably just.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. Oh, no.

Speaker 1 Where are...

Speaker 3 So let's see. Everybody is at home base, it seems like.

Speaker 3 Willie, where are you?

Speaker 1 I'm on Long Island.

Speaker 3 Oh, you're back there.

Speaker 1 What are you doing back there? Our little R ⁇ R? I just made a little quick scoot out here for a night.

Speaker 3 What did you like, forget a pair of shoes you really liked out there?

Speaker 1 No, Jason.

Speaker 3 No, but I mean, seriously, isn't it a hassle trying to figure out what you're going to keep in your second home's closet versus what's back in Los Angeles?

Speaker 1 Is it mostly winterwear out there on the island? There's a lot of winterwear. And it's chilly out here right now, so it's been really

Speaker 1 beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 1 No, I came out here with my little guy yesterday, and just to kind of stick around, we were walking around, went into town, went to the bookstore. Well, that's nice.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It cranked up the pool, even though it's cold out, which is real fun.
Yeah. And yeah, and just super nice.
Does he swim yet? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He does. You know,

Speaker 1 yes, he's he's in the process of swimming.

Speaker 3 He sinks slowly now. Slowly.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's five. So he's not, but he's come a long way.
Like he's, you know, he does that thing where like he can swim underwater.

Speaker 1 You know, so they, whatever they don't, can't do in terms of strokes, they just can do it underwater.

Speaker 3 Hey, hey, dad, that means he can't swim.

Speaker 1 Okay, no.

Speaker 3 Swimming is trying to keep yourself buoyant and above swimming. I know.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 2 I can't really swim either.

Speaker 1 Did you guys truly?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I was petrified.

Speaker 1 Are you a weak swimmer?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I can't. I don't know how to do it.
I run out of breath in like 10 seconds.

Speaker 3 No, truly.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I can't.

Speaker 2 I don't have the lung support to swim.

Speaker 1 That's not true. Well, you don't know how to do the lung support to swim.

Speaker 3 I'm just saying, if you swim, you don't need to.

Speaker 1 How do you not have the lungs?

Speaker 3 You don't need to hold your breath if you can actually swim.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but the actual aerobic kind of movements that make your heart pump faster, then you have to breathe faster.

Speaker 3 I just fail really quickly at it.

Speaker 1 Okay. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 I mean, hang on.

Speaker 1 Please, I just do this one.

Speaker 1 I just want to take this one apart a little bit.

Speaker 2 You can't be the only person.

Speaker 1 That can't swim? No, you're not. But

Speaker 1 do you

Speaker 3 feel too tired to keep yourself

Speaker 1 from drowning? That's what it is.

Speaker 1 Well, is that because you're panicking and so you're catching your short of breath?

Speaker 2 No, I think maybe I just do too much too quickly. I don't realize how to, I don't know how to swim.

Speaker 1 So I paddle really fast.

Speaker 2 Did you ever use up all my energy really?

Speaker 3 It's in an immediate panic.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I wish people could see the motions that Shawnee's doing. Shawnee, did you ever take swim lessons?

Speaker 1 Clearly not.

Speaker 3 He's moving both hands at the same time, listener, instead of, you know, most of us rotate right hand, left hand, right arm, left arm.

Speaker 1 I only nod at the bottom. But Shawnee, you exercise and you don't run out of breath.

Speaker 2 I know. I I don't understand it.

Speaker 3 What about like walking up a bunch of steps? Like, if you walk up too many stairs, you don't just like collapse and roll down the stairs, right?

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, I don't.

Speaker 2 I don't know what it is about the swimming or the pool. You just go slower up the stairs.

Speaker 1 So you make it. Are you swimming? Have you got a corn dog? Like, I don't float.
Right. Well, none of us do.
That's surprising. Do you, I mean,

Speaker 1 have you got like a corn dog in your hand? What's going on?

Speaker 1 By the way, I love a corn dog. dog, it should be noted in the pool.
I love a corn dog.

Speaker 3 I really, I do too, and I feel like they've kind of um gone by the way of like the bungee jumping and things like that.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, I'd

Speaker 1 know if I put the stretch limousines,

Speaker 3 I want to know where all the stretch limousines and the corn dogs have gone.

Speaker 1 You get some you get a corn dog, you get a corn dog and you dip it in some just yellow French's mustard.

Speaker 3 Yes, that's the best ever.

Speaker 1 Forget it, I know. What about some of the

Speaker 3 little cheese dip?

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 Throw it in. I'll take a cheese dip.
A little tub of cheese. Yeah.
I'll do that.

Speaker 3 Yeah. A hot dog on a stick

Speaker 3 was a big spot out here with the funny multicolored hats.

Speaker 3 How do you guys do it?

Speaker 1 Where was that? No, never heard of it.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we had a bunch of those like in the valley. There were some out at the beach.
Sean, I'm surprised you're not a hot dog on a stick guy.

Speaker 2 I don't.

Speaker 1 Who says I'm not? I try it. I'll try it.

Speaker 3 No, no, no. But I mean, that was like, that was a famous, that was a great spot.

Speaker 1 What about it? What about a? I had this discussion with somebody. What about a pig in a blanket? Yeah.

Speaker 3 I do enjoy those. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And a puff of pastry, anything like that? Speaking of which, I have not seen Scotty in a long time. Yeah, he's just around this car.

Speaker 1 Oh, he's all tidied up on the couch. Oh, sorry.
No, that's a bear and a comforter. Sorry.

Speaker 1 I've confused the two.

Speaker 3 A cub and a comforter.

Speaker 1 Oh, my

Speaker 1 comforter.

Speaker 3 Scotty's going to kick my ass or something.

Speaker 1 That's really funny.

Speaker 3 Well, listen, that's a great cue.

Speaker 1 What if you just panned over? And he's on the couch, just in like a snuggie. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What if you just walked up to Scotty, just started squirting French's mustard on him

Speaker 3 and taking big bites or licks?

Speaker 1 Here goes. Here goes.

Speaker 3 Guys, we got a real live one today.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 3 This guest is a man with talent,

Speaker 1 looks,

Speaker 1 smarts.

Speaker 3 He's got many nominations, plenty of wins, box office sock, critical respect. He's got massive dramatic range, razor-sharp comedic skills, and a British accent.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. That's the triple crown.

Speaker 3 But most importantly, he's got a wife. He's got three sons and one of the best names in the Screen Actors Guild directory.
Friends, say hello to Benedict Cumberbatch.

Speaker 1 No kidding.

Speaker 3 Come on, Al. I was going to say that.

Speaker 1 I was going to say. Two middle names, too.
Two middle names. What are they? What are they?

Speaker 1 As if it wasn't enough. Benedict Timothy Carlton.
Timothy Carlton.

Speaker 3 It gets better.

Speaker 1 I use them on off days. No, that's dad's name.
It's just, it's a thing of just trying to squeeze the whole family into one small child's life.

Speaker 2 Benedict Timothy Carlton.

Speaker 1 What is it again? Carlton.

Speaker 1 Carlton Cumberbatch. Yeah.
Fabulous. Yeah.

Speaker 1 How are you? So nice to meet you again, you guys. I'm good.
I mean, I'm already, I mean,

Speaker 1 I can't, I've got a rictus grin on my face. I can hardly speak, not only because of that absurdly nice introduction, but

Speaker 1 it's a real privilege to listen to the top of the show as your surprise guest.

Speaker 1 And I was panicking it, oh, Christ. If I laugh, if I laugh, will they hear me laugh?

Speaker 1 Are you completely mused by me at the beginning of the moment?

Speaker 3 If Bennett and Rob were on the stick, they'd have your mic down before we introduce you. And instead, we're hearing you dropping shit.

Speaker 1 Bennett, Rob. God damn it.
No, there was a sound like my body dropping with shock at being your surprised guest. And that was that I am in my house with my wife and the aforementioned three kids.

Speaker 1 So that was probably the wind catching a door. Let's hope it's not a tamper-tantrum.
It's home that might not be a good idea. How old are we? We're an intruder.
They are.

Speaker 1 Yeah, guys, I've got to go. This is quite serious.

Speaker 1 Don't get murdered on the show.

Speaker 1 No, that'd be great, great. I would be first.
Ratings.

Speaker 3 The boys are how old?

Speaker 1 Six, eight, and ten.

Speaker 1 Eight and ten. Well planned.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Jesus. Was that on purpose? Kind of.
Let's do two years apart.

Speaker 1 Kind of, yes. We just wanted, we did want to get on with it.
Yeah. And Sophie's a trooper.
She's amazing.

Speaker 3 Good thinking. I didn't, for some reason, you know, because

Speaker 3 people know I'm super bright.

Speaker 3 I missed it.

Speaker 3 I wanted three and I just didn't plan it well. And there's a five-year gap between the two.
And then we just got to, we just aged out.

Speaker 1 Couldn't have a third, you know?

Speaker 1 Oh, great story. Anyway, hey,

Speaker 1 what's up?

Speaker 1 By the way, or you could do what I did. Just have the gap anyway.
And then just, you know.

Speaker 3 Oh, and just reload.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Sorry, hang on.
There's a better way to say that. There's a better way to say that.
So to say, guys, speak. Still rolling.
Unload.

Speaker 3 Let's reset.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Oh, Jesus. Benedict, is that something?

Speaker 2 The three kids, is it something that, is it like, did you guys agree to a a number or is it just like, well, we're living life and this is what happened?

Speaker 1 Sophie comes from three. And no, I'm an only child, so I panicked when our second was on the way.
And, you know, what do you do? Do you divide yourself?

Speaker 1 How do you love as much both things without necessarily having more time to do that? And,

Speaker 1 you know, there are the odd moments when you're on a kind of solo date with them, with one of them, and you kind of go, God, am I already cheating you out of a lot of this?

Speaker 1 But then you see them when they're not trying to kill each other, getting on as friends and think, no, I've given you the gift of a lifetime that'll outlast me.

Speaker 1 You have three, you have two people in your life that will always be there, yeah, whether you want it or not at times. But you know, it's it's amazing.

Speaker 1 So I swung around to the idea pretty quickly, and I love it. I love

Speaker 1 a kind of tribe of cubs rolling.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you sort of like you started to go there a bit on, like, as I thought about that.

Speaker 3 When I had my second kid, I was like, oh, wait, am I going to be able to love this one as much as I love the first one?

Speaker 1 And you're like, are you an only child?

Speaker 3 No, I have a son.

Speaker 1 So he just acts like one. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What are you saying?

Speaker 3 But no, like when I had, when we had Maple, wait, we already had Franny, and five years later, we have Maple. And I was so crazy about Franny.
And then here comes Maple, right?

Speaker 3 A stranger comes in the house, brand new baby, and you're just like, well, I can't wait to get to know you. I hope I love you as much as the first one.

Speaker 1 And like, what you, it's a tall order because

Speaker 1 she'll be talking about it in therapy.

Speaker 3 No, I don't know. I think a lot of parents probably go through that, right? Whether you're aware of it or not.

Speaker 1 I think it's a very natural reaction because the first time you have a child, it is that, oh, your entire, all of it changes.

Speaker 1 The orbit of the world, the way you see your parents, your place in that whole thing is just utterly realized at a very real moment.

Speaker 1 And that is it is what I'm trying to say. You think, oh, this is it.
This is what life's about. And you go, oh, no, but it's until the next one.
It has to be the same. And it is.
But it's weird.

Speaker 1 It's the same as women forgetting most of the time, but you know, that physiologically forget, apparently, the birth pain about what women go through.

Speaker 1 I can't imagine. Otherwise, why would your human body even want to be able to be impregnated?

Speaker 1 It's just the whole thing. Or where heels focuses on this

Speaker 1 heels. And sure.

Speaker 1 We're just, you know. Go ahead, Will.
No, I'm not expanding on that. I don't know.
You really don't want to touch that one, please. No, I don't want to touch any of it.

Speaker 1 But it is funny. And what's amazing, too, is

Speaker 1 how different, and God, I'm like the quadrillionth person to bring this up. But I also have three boys, Benedict, and how entirely different they are from each other.

Speaker 1 Even my boys who are less than two years apart are so vastly different personality-wise.

Speaker 1 And had virtually the same experience growing up.

Speaker 3 And I've said this before.

Speaker 3 What's your take on this, Benedict? How much do you think is nature? How much do you think is nurture, right? Because these three boys,

Speaker 1 it's all nature, right? I mean, you can nurture.

Speaker 3 I think here we go, answering the question for the guest again, which I'd love to do. Um, I think it's like five or ten percent you can move your kid, good or bad.

Speaker 3 Otherwise, you just get what you get. If they're going to be fantastic, they're fantastic.
If they're going to be a challenge, they're going to be a challenge.

Speaker 3 You can have the best parents in the world, and it's just you get what you get.

Speaker 1 What do you think?

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 I don't know. I think you're right about they arrive with something that's beyond our understanding, really.

Speaker 1 There is this thing which, if you're really open to it, especially those first sort of five, seven years,

Speaker 1 and you present the world as a thing that's open and full of wonder and a safe place and full of magic, as we very much know sometimes in reality it isn't.

Speaker 1 But if you give them that space just to be themselves, you do see these extraordinary creatures just become something of their own accord. But I think it does need a lot of nurture and love.

Speaker 1 However, you know, you're right, within that, they do things which are certainly to do with nature, because how can a child give you love in a time of need as an adult, which I've experienced in my family and

Speaker 1 it's partly to do with the film we're going to talk about at some point, but you know, it feels like it is, they are capable, in the words of Max Porter in the novel, of giving something

Speaker 1 back that isn't

Speaker 1 it's not asked for. It's not caused by anything other than them having an empathy or a link or an understanding of what love is.
Yeah, that human instinct

Speaker 1 you're innately born with. And yeah, and I think without getting too wishy-washy about it, if I haven't already,

Speaker 1 that is nature. That is

Speaker 1 sent from somebody.

Speaker 3 If you start crying in the first 15 minutes, we're going to have a problem.

Speaker 1 Jason, real quick, empathy is

Speaker 1 a problem.

Speaker 3 No, I think it's, yeah,

Speaker 3 it's a mind-blower.

Speaker 1 It is a mind-blower. It is a mind-blower.

Speaker 1 And I could could have 12 kids if i could yeah i i think they they are here to teach us really so like you say i think it is i don't know about percentiles but it's mostly nature yeah they are inertly innately not inertly and very much actively wonderful let's uh let's go let's go back there with you benedict and ask about your childhood so you say you say you were

Speaker 1 an only child and you were born to two actors yes mom and dad mom and dad wander ventham and timothy colton That's amazing, right?

Speaker 2 It's so common on our show, too, when we have somebody as prolific as you that it seems like they always come from an artist's family.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but rarely two actors, though, right? Usually they're sculptors or poets or something like that. But so then

Speaker 3 I'm sure the answer would be no to the question of was there pressure to become an actor?

Speaker 3 It was probably just something that you were just naturally interested in because you saw your two first heroes doing that?

Speaker 1 A little. And also, I was, if anything, pressured the other way, like, don't do what we're doing.
It's a stupid way to spend a life.

Speaker 1 Look how peripatetic and useless we are at other things, and how family life is a chaotic jumble of loose-end commitments that have to be abandoned at the last minute because dad's got an advert audition.

Speaker 1 I mean, it was just,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 they did really, really well in their careers. Mum, especially commercially, dad brilliantly as well in the theater.

Speaker 1 He did a lot of the Royal Court in the early days of kitchen sink drama drama there.

Speaker 1 But the point is, you know, they wanted me to have the opportunities that they didn't, or that they didn't have in their life as my parents.

Speaker 1 And they afforded me an education where I could have gone on to be a lawyer or something of that. That was the only other thing I flirted with, which is why I say that I did for a while.

Speaker 1 Sean flirted with a lawyer in the parking lot last night.

Speaker 1 Nice. And then I got taken to court for it.
So what do you mean?

Speaker 3 They wanted, but Benedict, they wanted you to have access to opportunity to something

Speaker 3 more predictable

Speaker 3 in your life,

Speaker 1 career-wise? I think something more stable, definitely.

Speaker 1 But the bug had bit really, and it was very much to do with watching them and their prime doing

Speaker 1 what they did. And I remember my dad in

Speaker 1 cast of Noises Off this amazing Michael Frame play that's about it's a farce within a farce.

Speaker 1 It's this amazingly kaleidoscopic, brilliant examination of a British tradition of comedy, which obviously you guys know called farce.

Speaker 1 My mum was doing the real thing, and even the real farces that were

Speaker 1 very double entendre-heavy, very misogynistic and homophobic at times as well, to the point I said, Mum, you really can't do another play where you walk into a room where your husband is having his pants pulled down by his male PA and it looks like fellatio,

Speaker 1 whereas in fact he's just trying to give him a quick change and his dress is stuck. I can't, I can't be your son and call myself proud if you keep doing this.

Speaker 1 But I do remember perversely to that embarrassment, sort of sitting in the wings and watching her go through and just be mum and sort of chatting to me and saying hello to the SM and then just kind of opening the door in this light and heat and noise of what was happening in front of those flats hitting her and her just transforming just in the blink of an eye.

Speaker 1 And I thought, what is that? What just happened to my mum? Where did she go?

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, I kind of got a taste for that. And as an only child, I think you're kind of already locked in a bit to quite a solitary, imaginary universe.

Speaker 3 When was it that you understood what they were kind of talking about when it comes to the

Speaker 3 career that you can't really count on? Like, how young were you? And do you remember that moment of going, yeah, but I get it's unpredictable, but I still want to go for it and try it?

Speaker 1 Numerous occasions. I'm too old to really remember.

Speaker 1 Still today.

Speaker 1 It's still today, today, is actually right for all of us. No,

Speaker 1 I think a bit, yeah. Am I really doing this? Do you know? I am doing it.
You know, there were moments when I thought, okay, sage advice from ones who know, but I'm going to do it differently.

Speaker 1 I think I've got a different way into this.

Speaker 1 And I don't know that it will be different. And in fact, really, all I wanted was what they have, which is...
a career and respect from their peers and having a good time doing a job they love.

Speaker 1 You know, and that's what a great way to live your life. Yeah, yeah.
You were chasing the right. So, you know, my way of doing it differently was perhaps going, okay, well,

Speaker 1 the things that you've done in your life, maybe, I don't know, I don't know. But

Speaker 1 I knew I was throwing it to the wind and I knew I was chancing it. But I think the moment I thought I can't really not do this

Speaker 1 is when I got serious about A-levels before going to college.

Speaker 1 at university in England, obviously. And

Speaker 1 yeah, I met a lot of lawyers who were saying, look, turn back now. People who are doing bar exams or people who'd made it into

Speaker 1 being part of a chambers or even people practicing going, it's just, it's really pretty hard. It's an oversubscribed profession.
It's very people.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're only as good as your last case. I thought, that sounds very familiar.
Yeah, right. Why am I doing this? Which would have required an inordinate amount of work on my part.

Speaker 1 I'm not that smart at all. And I would have had to work so hard for what?

Speaker 1 For as big a risk.

Speaker 3 At least the credentials,

Speaker 3 the stuff you come out of college with, you are somewhat guaranteed a base salary

Speaker 3 and some future to it. Whereas with anything in the arts,

Speaker 3 you don't have that. And so

Speaker 3 if one or two or three of your boys said, hey, I want to go into acting,

Speaker 3 what would you, as a father, would you recommend that they dedicate? the requisite number of years needed to kind of build a base? Or would you say, ah, let's have a backup be more.

Speaker 3 Or put that time into something that is a bit more um predictable where there's a guarantee you can count on yeah

Speaker 1 as a parent of course yeah yeah because you worry about what the world will be let alone what their talent will be or won't be recognized as and where their ambitions and dreams are and and their expectations and what the reality is and the gap between that you know you never know that you're going to get to where you want to be certainly i just tell i tell my kids all the time roll the dice i'm always like just roll the dice just

Speaker 1 yeah yeah i'm afraid you know i did it i did it. So, yeah.
Well,

Speaker 1 how can I turn them away from something that I know ends up doing?

Speaker 1 Actually, you know what's funny? You know what's funny, though? I will say the difference now is, well, one of my sons, I think, is going to likely pursue something in the arts.

Speaker 1 And the other one is, yeah,

Speaker 1 and he's sort of leaning that way. And the other one is not.

Speaker 1 And he was talking about some areas. And here's the thing that they're talking about amongst their friends.

Speaker 1 It's my eldest son.

Speaker 1 He's a junior in high school here, so he's 17. He says, I said, they have to talk about

Speaker 1 what are the jobs out there going forward that are going to be affected by AI.

Speaker 1 And so kids are thinking about like, you know, they don't want to become computer programmers or they're not going to become, you know, things like graphic design.

Speaker 1 Well, by the way, go down, lawyers as well, paralygal work, all that stuff is going to be handled by AI. So now you're not competing against other kids.
You're competing against

Speaker 1 the computers of the world. Right, right,

Speaker 3 I know, I know, I know.

Speaker 3 I don't envy them right now.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 we're avoiding the fact that AI is massively in our industry as well.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Of course, it is.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what's safe?

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Before we get, it's evening here.

Speaker 1 Can you see? I can't. It just got really dark there.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It got really, really dark.
It's very moody.

Speaker 3 It's very nice. It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 Oh, nice.

Speaker 2 Now it's a good idea. There we go.

Speaker 1 Is that better?

Speaker 1 Oh, Benedict. Lovely.
Got it. Oh, it's very

Speaker 1 Oh, it's Benedict cover badge.

Speaker 3 All right. So like Sweet Willie Arnett, you did some time in boarding school.
Was that a positive experience or was it challenging? Because I get homesick real easy. That would be tough for me.

Speaker 1 How long have we got?

Speaker 1 Just the perfect mixture of both, I'd say. The first one was amazing.
I mean, I'm an only child, as I keep saying it. I had a band of brothers for the first time in my life so that was

Speaker 1 yeah that was easy street to 13 and then the 30 the whole adolescence thing and it was a single sex one and it was at the sort of top of a hill looking down over the London basin and yet so oh so very far away from it and I just thought this isn't quite right this isn't real the demographic was very narrow and no girls and I just I the school itself was extraordinary some amazing teachers and fantastic experiences but at that point I was like okay the boarding thing I think I'm done with not because I was homesick but because I just, I guess I wanted to be part of a broader community.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 1 But that's a healthy thing. That's also a very healthy thing to be straining away.
It was that was me leaving the nest. I was already a home leaver, I guess, at the age of eight.

Speaker 1 I boarded when I was eight.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 250 years ago, a promise was made to connect families and friends near and far. And during the holidays, that promise is more important than ever.

Speaker 2 That's why USPS is building a better network to meet your needs with timely deliveries, easy and affordable ways to ship, and everything you need to make your season full of holiday cheer.

Speaker 2 Their purpose is delivering your peace of mind, knowing your love will arrive, bringing joy to all. The United States Postal Service.
Learn more at usps.com slash holidays.

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Speaker 1 And now back to the show.

Speaker 1 Wait, so Bennett, you were eight when you went away, yeah? Yeah. Yeah.
I will leave.

Speaker 1 I was 12, but my roommate had come from,

Speaker 1 when I was 12, I was in seventh grade. My roommate had just come from boarding school in England, and he'd been there since he was seven.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I bet you it's easier when you go younger, right, Will, than when you're older because you just, you've, you've, you've, you've created those relationships once you were way younger.

Speaker 1 Yes, I mean, I'll sort of

Speaker 1 jump on what Benedict said, which is you do create, now I have siblings. I have two older sisters and a younger brother.
Quick, what are their names?

Speaker 1 Fuck.

Speaker 1 Fucking Gary.

Speaker 1 What's else I know they were?

Speaker 1 Target, Tesco, and

Speaker 1 Tannis and Shanley are my sisters, and my brother's name is Chuck, a.k.a. Charles.
So anyway, I was at Born.

Speaker 1 But I went when I was 12, and you do have, and I am still friends with some of those guys that I went to school with because in those formative years, you know,

Speaker 1 and I also was just an all boys. When I went, it was all boys.
It's now co-ed.

Speaker 1 But it is, you know, when I look back on it now, and I don't know how you feel about it, Benedict, but

Speaker 1 the idea of my boys going away, there's no fucking way. Right.

Speaker 3 I know, I couldn't. I couldn't stand up.

Speaker 1 No, not unless they really want to, but no way, no way, no way. And Sophie's the same mindset.
You know, we do, yeah, and selfishly, I want them around. I want to be

Speaker 1 able to do that. Even whatever, whatever, dad, however pushed away I am, I still want to be there in case the call comes, the fall happens, the need.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so can I ask a question to the group here? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because I don't have kids.

Speaker 1 Just one.

Speaker 1 Let me look at the clock real quick. Okay.
Yeah. If you make it quick, yes.
Yeah, Benedict, get comfortable. This is going to be a long question.
Oh, God.

Speaker 1 It took his face. Just coat off him.
When you asked a question.

Speaker 1 It's a hot one here.

Speaker 2 No, is what is the, because I don't know about boarding school. Why would a parent send their kid to boarding school?

Speaker 3 Better education, focus.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Yes, question?

Speaker 1 Amazing facilities.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Very immersive educational experience where, you know, you have, well, the beginning of it only, where you have a very structured timetable.
So there's sort of purpose to your day.

Speaker 1 It's very fulfilling.

Speaker 1 God, I sound like a brochure.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because it always sounds like a jail or something.

Speaker 1 No, it doesn't.

Speaker 3 No, they're very plush places.

Speaker 1 It's like Hogwarts.

Speaker 3 It's like incredible.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, I'm excited.

Speaker 1 That is exactly how it was described once by Martin Freeman. He said, I went to a normal school and Benedict went to Hogwarts, which I kind of did.

Speaker 1 It wasn't wizard school, but it was a particularly old one. It is, but it is true.
And, you know, think about all those things.

Speaker 1 You learn how to, you know, by the time I got to college, Asian, I dropped out quickly from college, but, and part of it was because everybody, my peers

Speaker 1 who were there, who did not go to boarding school, it was their first time away from home. And I'd been away from home so much earlier that getting out, I was ready to get out into the world.

Speaker 1 I was like, fuck all that. I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1 I'd been looking at it. Everybody was having a frat party and like, isn't it cool to put? Yeah.
And you're like, no, I've already done this. True.
True, true, true. And I think,

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I'm here and I've come out of it okay. And I wouldn't really change it.
I wouldn't know what I'd change it to. I didn't have any other experience.
Like, Jason, who taught you how to tie a tie?

Speaker 1 Oh, that would have been

Speaker 1 a set dresser, the

Speaker 3 on-set costumer for arrested development.

Speaker 1 Is that true?

Speaker 1 No, really.

Speaker 3 But I did really, really nail it down on that because I had to tie a tie every freaking day.

Speaker 1 And then loosen it. And then loosen it.
And then roll up the sleeves. Roll up the sleeves.
Because Michael Bluth, can I just say something just as an aside? Michael Bluth. Always.
This guy got down.

Speaker 1 Well, he got down to business. He was rolling up those sleeves.

Speaker 1 If you go back and you watch Jason.

Speaker 3 Still to this day, Will. You've given me a full complex about that because

Speaker 3 that's just Jason. That's not Michael Bluth.
It's just, I always roll up my sleeves on a button-down shirt.

Speaker 1 And I still do it to this day.

Speaker 3 And I think I hear your stupid fucking GMC voice every morning when I roll up my sleeves.

Speaker 1 It's getting down to business. You're thinking,

Speaker 1 stupid fuck. All right.
Now,

Speaker 1 how long have you two known each other?

Speaker 1 Was that when you two first met on Arrested Development? I think so. Too long.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And now we're stuck on this podcasting idea.

Speaker 3 So now you must.

Speaker 1 You guys, it's such a blast being here. I have to say, I'm a huge, huge fan of this show.
And it's just, it's one of these things one of my best friends put me on to.

Speaker 1 He said, you got to hear the, I mean, I love all of your work individually, but the... Yeah, it's a very good thing you've got going here.
It's fantastic to be in the nice experience.

Speaker 1 Now, listen, back to you.

Speaker 3 You must have enjoyed the education at the boarding school enough.

Speaker 1 That's when I said that.

Speaker 3 You've become a teacher yourself and you teach English in a Tibetan community.

Speaker 1 Oh, good frequent. Untrue.

Speaker 3 Just outside of Dejarling, India.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yes.
I like that.

Speaker 1 Especially the pronunciation of Dajarling. That's

Speaker 1 a no.

Speaker 1 How do you say it?

Speaker 3 How do you say it?

Speaker 1 We should all now say it, Dejarling.

Speaker 3 What is it called? Dajjarling?

Speaker 1 Did you go to Dejarling, Darling? No, Darjeeling, I think.

Speaker 3 Darjeeling.

Speaker 1 That's it. Darjeeling.
Djiling. Did you go to Djarling?

Speaker 2 No, I didn't have the Dejing.

Speaker 1 That's great.

Speaker 1 My dad has this habit of doing...

Speaker 1 He says, oh, I think I'm going to go to Marks and Spencer's and buy a Miles Park.

Speaker 1 Dad, what? You're a trained actor. What did I do? Well,

Speaker 1 every summer in Ibiza,

Speaker 1 I like to DJ.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 for like a week or two, I'll go down there to DJ.

Speaker 1 De J.

Speaker 3 So it is true.

Speaker 1 Wait, so you're taught.

Speaker 3 You taught English in a Tibetan community.

Speaker 1 I mean, a teacher is a very loose term. I kind of turned up and they giggled at me, which was a fair enough cultural exchange.
Well, no, it was very unfair. I learned so much, as you can imagine.

Speaker 1 I was a 19-year-old kid who knew nothing. He'd come from a very kind of enclosed private school,

Speaker 1 boarding school education and it was the first talk at the school that we had given to us and this is a kind of school i went to we got given talks about what you could do with your year out if you wanted to take one between uh school and you know school and uh and uh college yeah a little gap year a little gap year exactly and it was the first one i heard about and i just went i didn't really listen to it being about teaching it was all about being close to Tibetan culture.

Speaker 1 I just had this very strong gravitational pull in my soul. I thought, I have to do this.
There's nothing. And people, don't you want to volunteer in Africa? Don't you want to climb a mountain?

Speaker 1 All these amazing opportunities. And I just was deaf to all of them because of how strongly I felt I needed to do this.

Speaker 3 And what was the pull to the Tibetan culture? When did that start?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know. Maybe in a previous lifetime.
I really don't know.

Speaker 1 Whoa. I mean, I was fascinated by it visually and I knew a bit about Buddhism, but it was just so overwhelming.

Speaker 1 And as was the experience I had, there was six months of, well, five months of teaching and then

Speaker 1 some

Speaker 1 tourism tied to the edge. Wandering about.
Wandering about India, yep. And Nepal, which was both of which were extraordinary.

Speaker 3 Any poll from Everest at all? Was that part of the poll at all? Because I've got this fascination with Everest.

Speaker 1 But you want to get you do it? I'd like

Speaker 1 myself. Yeah, I want to get at least a base camp in my life too.
I wouldn't. I would, but you know, then you hear about how much pollution there is, how much tourism and craziness there is.

Speaker 1 And I kind of go, well, maybe there's a better amount into walls.

Speaker 1 Watch how quickly we can turn Jason off Everest. Do you know how dirty it is, Jason? Wait, what? Yeah, wait, what? And the tents.
The tents

Speaker 1 are not.

Speaker 3 I just shower every night.

Speaker 1 They don't have showers. They don't change the linens.
No, no, they don't change the linens.

Speaker 1 There's no ring about that. That would be scary.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 But, all right, so that was so wasn't it.

Speaker 1 The landscape did have a pool, in all seriousness. Of course it did.
It's such an extraordinary bit of geography, that whole area.

Speaker 1 And this is in the foothills, so going towards Darjeeling and it's a little hill station town called Sonada. And it was a converted Nepali house.
And at the top was this monastery, this prayer room.

Speaker 1 Below was the monks' accommodation, the eating area, and then a small teaching area. And I might have got the height or numbers of levels wrong, but I was basically very much on the bottom.

Speaker 1 And it was...

Speaker 1 really

Speaker 1 we were high up in what 4,000 meters something like that and

Speaker 1 you opened the window and it was sort of coming into autumn and winter there so the clouds would literally roll in like dry ice through the window I mean it was absolutely extraordinary

Speaker 1 and pretty basic my dad reminded me his panic this is pre-cell phones I'm that old and uh and the internet as well I'm that old um

Speaker 1 and it was a moment where I'd written in tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny scroll on a blue airmail letter home one weekend uh don't worry dad all the cold is solved now in my room as I have a gas heater and I've managed to block all the vents.

Speaker 1 And he was reading it, going, Oh my god. He's going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Yeah. I didn't, but you know, it might explain a few brain cells less that I have now.
But it was

Speaker 1 very basic, but very romantic, very hard, very lonely, very elating, very inspiring, and

Speaker 1 spiritually mind-blowing and utterly mundane. And it was just

Speaker 1 clean yourself.

Speaker 1 How do I clean myself? Sorry.

Speaker 1 We're talking about how many days, how many

Speaker 1 talking to somebody off camera

Speaker 1 he's setting up the weekend

Speaker 1 he's talking to his dog licking his balls how do you do that we all want to know sean we all want to know i'll show you and that's my teaching class that's my teaching client

Speaker 1 he's talking to somebody off camera

Speaker 1 show me after when i'm done i'm shunned the podcast and show me sean your mic's hot still hot

Speaker 1 I can't wait to see.

Speaker 3 Show you, show me. After

Speaker 1 no, I'm recording a podcast. I'm doing it now, but you start.

Speaker 1 Start now. They can't see.
Start.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Wait, I want to know.

Speaker 1 Okay, back to business. What the fuck? What was your question about? But how do I clean myself?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Even the real

Speaker 1 enjoyment

Speaker 1 epidemiologists.

Speaker 1 When you're out there in a tent for what days, weeks,

Speaker 2 what do you do?

Speaker 1 No. No, no, no.
I was in a house. I was in a house.

Speaker 2 Oh, next question.

Speaker 3 He's filling in for someone this week, Benedict.

Speaker 1 I thought you were in a tent. Is it a zipper or buttons?

Speaker 1 Is it a zipper or buttons?

Speaker 1 Show me a zipper.

Speaker 3 Do you need a loofah back there? Scotty, get the loofah.

Speaker 3 All right. So

Speaker 3 let's move to that. Now, so we're back.
We're back from Dejarling, and

Speaker 1 we're going to make a

Speaker 3 DJ. We're back from DJing, and we're going to make a career of this acting thing.

Speaker 3 And we're going to go for the acting, and we get a little bit of momentum going, and we're on our first film set.

Speaker 1 Which is

Speaker 1 a lot that's a fucking long way into the story but with the maybe the 80 bits boring but yeah to kill a king is that is a first feature film role yes

Speaker 1 i don't remember maybe that was my first

Speaker 3 but do you remember do you remember what that first being on being on a set for the first time

Speaker 3 how did that how did that jibe with what you had you'd you'd gone through all this great theater education acting education and then you're on a set and you see all the equipment and you're just doing little bits at a time as opposed to theater.

Speaker 3 Like how did that strike you,

Speaker 3 this film process?

Speaker 1 I just remember, I remember small snippets of DuGre Scott being very lovely and serious and smoky voiced.

Speaker 1 I remember Julian Ryan Tuck being very sort of funny and witty and just being incredibly on it.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 me laughing quite a lot. I don't remember anything that I did in front of camera.
I didn't come away going, oh, wow, yeah, okay, camera work. Interesting.

Speaker 1 Not because it was a bad experience. I just, I'm being genuine about my lack of memory of that particular experience.

Speaker 3 You don't remember being scolded for looking at the camera?

Speaker 1 Did I? Maybe I have. Maybe you've spoken to the director.
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 That would be my fault.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, no, so I mean, I guess, I guess, well, two things.

Speaker 1 I suppose mum and dad helped in that regard a little bit, not because they rehearsed me or anything like that, nothing stage mummy, but just I guess I was a little bit aware of what you do and don't do on a set, having been on a couple where they were doing their thing.

Speaker 1 But also,

Speaker 1 I like, funnily enough, I'd been, my first ever film job, TV job was in Heartbeat, which is an ITV staple, or was, I don't know, if it's

Speaker 1 in England, a very nostalgic

Speaker 1 police drama set on the Yorkshire Dales. And

Speaker 1 was it the Moors? Sorry, Yorkshire. God, Olivia did this when she was talking to you about Devon and

Speaker 1 Devon and Dorset. It's Devon, by the way.
That's what we're doing.

Speaker 1 See, I do listen to your show.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I just remember being very nervous on heartbeats. I do remember that very, very well.
And just wondering, am I any good? I don't know what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 And I know there's something capturing everything I'm doing. I'm like an audience which has this kind of multi-camera perspective.
And

Speaker 1 you can't watch yourself back, but you can. And I really wanted to, but I didn't.
But I kind of wanted to know, what the fuck am I doing?

Speaker 1 Am I doing too much, too little?

Speaker 3 Because you didn't get any feedback like you were used to from like an audience, you know, from doing theater? Was that it? No?

Speaker 1 No, none, because it's just a very, you know, well-oiled machine, a crew that have been doing it for literally decades. And

Speaker 1 yeah, it was just very kind of,

Speaker 1 oh, well, I hope that's all right. I hope I get to work again, you know.
And it was the first job I got. I was still at drama school, so I had to ask permission.

Speaker 1 I was only at Lambda for one year, but I had to ask permission to do the job. You're not supposed to work if you're still out of drama school.
Yeah. I don't know if that's changed.

Speaker 1 I hope it has in many ways.

Speaker 3 Now you mentioned

Speaker 3 not being able to see yourself back.

Speaker 1 I ask actors this.

Speaker 3 Do you watch yourself act? And if so,

Speaker 3 have you

Speaker 3 treated yourself to looking at your older work? And do you see a big difference between how you used to act versus today? And

Speaker 3 is that a

Speaker 3 do you do you applaud yourself for having gotten better, different, how so? Smaller, bigger?

Speaker 3 Do you do that?

Speaker 1 Do you watch yourself? No, no,

Speaker 1 I'm not my own sort of crazy fan. And I don't mean that in a sort of, it's only vanity that does that.
It is, that could be an incredibly useful thing to do, but I'm not quite that.

Speaker 3 For me, it is, yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm not a precision tool in that way. I kind of,

Speaker 1 no, I'm not going to compare myself to what I have done. It's always about where I'm at at the moment.
And

Speaker 1 that,

Speaker 1 the need to see some reflection of what is going on. is it registering and also to have that conversation with the director going no no I think

Speaker 1 I Think I know what you wanted and I I was trying to do something else Can we can we go again so I can try and give you something nearer what you want I've seen now that that's not quite that doesn't quite fit it and

Speaker 1 For the character and the movement and whatever it is.

Speaker 1 I mean I it's it's a really hard thing to generalize about because I guess I've been stretched like gum in all sorts of directions as a as an actor. So I can't really be specific.

Speaker 1 Certain things, like I I think Power of the Dog, I never, I don't think I ever watched a playback on that because I just, I knew I was in and either it was shit or it was happening.

Speaker 1 And I just had to just be that guy anyway.

Speaker 1 So kind of going around as Phil Burbank going, can I see the playback, you know, being an asshole about it, I didn't really want to have that interaction with crew.

Speaker 1 And I wanted to have the arrogance of the character.

Speaker 3 Well, you strike me as somebody

Speaker 3 who's skilled enough, talented enough, in touch with yourself enough to really be able to direct yourself to a certain extent and know whether whether it's good or bad.

Speaker 3 How much do you defer to a director? You mentioned, you know, well, I know what you want, so let me do another one to see if I can do what you want.

Speaker 3 Will you shape a performance for a director? Will you do what a director wants you to do?

Speaker 1 Or

Speaker 3 what is your opinion on that? Like, whose character?

Speaker 1 Yeah, look, I think I've been very, very lucky with the caliber of director.

Speaker 1 Well, thank you for what you just said, first of all, but I also think it is about how lucky I've been with the caliber of director.

Speaker 1 You know, I form trust with that person and so therefore can filter my own inner sense of whether I was shit or good, bad or indifferent, and match it to their

Speaker 1 honesty about it.

Speaker 1 The best directors as well often give you a prompt that turns everything around 180 degrees. And it's not that they've rejected what you've done or didn't like it.

Speaker 1 They just want to see something different.

Speaker 1 That's what excites me is just trying to jump through a different hoop in a way.

Speaker 2 Do you remember the first time as you were coming up and

Speaker 2 after you kind of got your sea legs about you and acting your first gigs?

Speaker 2 Do you remember the first time when you took a real big swing and you're like, oh God, this is something I never imagined I could do and it scares the shit out of me?

Speaker 1 I think a little bit on every every job, but sure.

Speaker 1 It's to one degree or another.

Speaker 1 Really, but that's a really good question, Sean.

Speaker 3 You do take great swings and you never clank it. You always hit the ball hard.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's really admirable.

Speaker 3 like you always feel like you're in great hands as an audience member when when when you're watching you thank you yeah truly that's a huge compliment coming from you guys thank you no it's it's and whether it's drama or comedy it's it's pretty impressive thank you um well i i

Speaker 1 i guess the the bottom line is there's no sort of secret source to it i feel

Speaker 1 yeah i i feel excited when i'm taking a big swing um when did i first feel that sense of oh i'm not sure i can do this oh well i i know is that well that that sorry. No, go.
Well,

Speaker 1 it was, I was just going to say, it was one of those reactions where I've got the job. And then I thought, oh, my God, how am I going to do that?

Speaker 1 And that was playing Stephen Hawking in a television drama about his life, which sort of compared to Eddie's, took it up to, you know, he was walking with a stick and the speech was very impaired.

Speaker 1 Still married to Jane Hawking. So it was a very, it was one slice of his life.
His extraordinary life. And

Speaker 1 yeah, the thrill, the elation of that.

Speaker 1 And then going, oh my God, I've just convinced people that I can do this I don't think I can you know I was I was immediately terrified after the 10 seconds of elation right

Speaker 1 so I guess that was the first moment I thought well this is kind of a big swing yeah but was there what was that first what was that first you that first moment where you so I I totally get that and relate to that but then the the moment but you I think you're I think Sean's question was more about you were talking about choices I mean within the he was talking he was talking about no no he was talking about choices but but when do you feel comfortable when was that first time you felt forget Sean's question

Speaker 1 When was that first time that you felt

Speaker 1 that you felt comfortable

Speaker 1 in a performance where you, because you know there's that thing when you're a young actor and you go in and you're just sometimes you're like, I don't want to fuck up or you're just kind of you're nervous and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 And then what's that first moment you felt like? Rather than going, oh, hell. Yeah, you hit a groove.
You felt tight. You got it.
You know, do you remember that job?

Speaker 1 No, I think that was what Sean was saying.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm back in. You're back in?

Speaker 1 No, I do think that's what you meant. I think, I don't know, it's so hard.
It's so hard to be specific about this sort of thing.

Speaker 1 Fuck, I don't know. I'm always saying to acting students that I feel

Speaker 1 you can have something very theatrical in a close-up as much as you can have something very

Speaker 1 myopically focused and close-up on the stage. I think the

Speaker 1 magnification of a performance is really to do.

Speaker 1 If something is too big, it means often it's wrong. It doesn't mean that the scale of it is,

Speaker 1 what am I trying to say?

Speaker 1 I don't know. Some big choices I made where I thought, I'm just doing this and I think it's right.

Speaker 1 I mean, Patrick Melrose would probably be one because

Speaker 1 I've partied, but that guy was other level. And I think the choices I made with him

Speaker 1 were pretty committed. And I, you know, because I was in a very sober state doing this

Speaker 1 crazy different levels of inebriated

Speaker 1 dance work

Speaker 1 I kind of just

Speaker 1 I just really committed to it and and and it's those things where you go I this could you know I didn't I don't even remember thinking this could be silly I actually remember thinking well it's quite fun

Speaker 1 yeah maybe I should try qualudes and no I'm joking I

Speaker 1 just had a I had a commitment to it that meant it felt like I was on the ride but also thinking

Speaker 1 I hope this actually works. I think we have that a lot, don't we? When we're having a good time doing something as well, going, okay, this, this feels great and everyone here is enjoying it.

Speaker 1 And we're all, it's, but is, is anyone going to watch it or think the same? Or

Speaker 1 right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 People that aren't obligated to say, hey, great job. Yeah, you're fully reliant on

Speaker 3 a biased audience.

Speaker 1 And it's a little bit scary.

Speaker 1 And I think to your point about directors, you can come out of an experience and go, oh, Shuttle, I really do need to trust my voice and my instincts a little bit more sometimes because I think I could have got that better.

Speaker 1 I have had moments watching things soon after their completion and gone, ah, yeah, I should have dug my heels about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the best take or the best choice.

Speaker 3 Well, but yeah, but you, you were, you were not foolish to count on the taste of people like uh Sam Mendes or Thomas Alfredson. But um,

Speaker 1 like I said, some amazing directors, so yeah.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2 And now back to the show.

Speaker 3 Speaking of Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, what about the fear of

Speaker 3 acting with those incredible actors around you? Like, was, was, was that nerve-wracking?

Speaker 3 I mean, you were obviously very, very well established by the time you did that film, but still, you can't shake the little guy who was at Lambda, you know, like you're sitting there with these Titans.

Speaker 3 Was that, was that frightening?

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, yeah.
The first time I met

Speaker 1 I mean, Mark, I'd done a little thing with Mark Strong, so I knew him.

Speaker 1 Colin was just absurdly wonderful and lovely and nice and goofy and impressionable, as well as being ridiculously smart and talented

Speaker 1 and devilishly handsome and all the rest he is. And then Gary, when I first met Gary, he walked around the corner of it was either working titles office or it was somewhere uninspiring.

Speaker 1 And it wasn't where I was expecting to meet him. And I'd gone in for a costume fitting and there he was.
And he just got me

Speaker 1 and he just stopped in the corridor and he looked at me, looked me up and down and went,

Speaker 1 oh,

Speaker 1 hello

Speaker 1 oh hello hi i i and just was just sort of just a mess in front of him yeah

Speaker 1 he was very very cool he was very cool yeah uh and i thought oh fucking hell i i felt this horrible uh

Speaker 1 ill comfort of like i've got to i've got to please this guy i've got to somehow impress him and and make sure he thinks you know he literally felt like he was sizing me up going is this really the guy i want to spend my time with is peter Grinham?

Speaker 1 I'm not sure, really. You know, there was that very kind of like, ah, good impression.

Speaker 1 It took a little while, and then

Speaker 1 I realized he, he was the,

Speaker 1 he was the one who was terrified. He was terrified.
Really?

Speaker 1 I mean, I think I can say this.

Speaker 1 Maybe his lawyers will write to me afterwards. I don't know.
But, you know, he was frightened. He didn't, he really thought he wasn't capable of doing it.
He couldn't push this

Speaker 1 iconic Alec Guinness performance away. He was worried that he hadn't found him.
And, you know,

Speaker 1 it became the most amazing friendship out of that. But, you know, yeah,

Speaker 1 that man was frightening. And that, that, to have that vulnerability as an actor and to see that in someone as capable and extraordinary as him.
I was like, hooray. Okay.

Speaker 1 We're all the same, really. We're all the fucking.
Yeah, but I mean, like, I like, like, people feel that way about you.

Speaker 2 I think, you know, your body of work is,

Speaker 2 it's unmatched. Like,

Speaker 2 I mean, Star Trek, Imitation Game, I can name them because I've seen them and I love them. And

Speaker 2 Doctor Strange and August Osage County and the fucking smaug. And I mean, your fucking smaug and the hobbit.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's crazy to me. To me, you know,

Speaker 3 and recently, you know, the roses.

Speaker 1 I, I, I thought

Speaker 3 that was a total minefield. You could have blown yourself up, you and Olivia, at any moment.
In that, it was

Speaker 3 truly impressive.

Speaker 1 Um, yeah, so people feel that way about you too, I think, where

Speaker 2 you just want to just, you know,

Speaker 2 if you get a job with Benedict College.

Speaker 1 People know that I'm shitting it. Know that I don't know what I'm doing on a first day.
Know that I doubt myself.

Speaker 1 You know, it's that thing, isn't it? And I don't know if you guys have it, but that first day on set where you go,

Speaker 1 you know, here's the crew. They're all watching.

Speaker 1 They're actors. And directly, you think, oh, maybe they'll give me a second day, but these guys are just, they're going, it's Roman right away.

Speaker 1 And of course it isn't because the focus pool is shitting it. The fucking clapper, you know, everyone is doing their job for the first time as a unit putting stuff on film.
So,

Speaker 1 you have to get over your own, your own

Speaker 3 we all have to figure out how to wash ourselves, right, Sean? That's right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 But I do, I do want to just having done a show there in London.

Speaker 1 Do you do the same for the back?

Speaker 1 Show me how you do it. Show me how you do it.

Speaker 1 How do you wash your own smaller back? I mean, just see that.

Speaker 3 Do you need an extender for the loofah? Because we've got one.

Speaker 1 Scotty. Oh, wow.
It's a selfie. How old are you?

Speaker 1 You're so nimble.

Speaker 2 Flexible.

Speaker 2 No, but for in theater, and in theater in London, they have this thing called, and the barbecue.

Speaker 1 They have this thing.

Speaker 2 They're called Cherish Notes. And I've never heard of this until I went over there.
And I'm like, and I had to ask people in the cast, I'm like, what's cherished notes?

Speaker 2 Well, we meet every single day, every day before the show on stage, just check in with each other. I'm like, can't we do that just backstage in the hall during the dressing rooms are?

Speaker 1 Yeah, or just in the e-that's what I said.

Speaker 2 Can we just do an email or like a fax or something?

Speaker 2 And no, you have to go on stage. And every day we would go on stage and the stage manager would be like, great, I don't have anything.
Does anybody have anything to?

Speaker 2 I'm like, no, why are we standing here?

Speaker 1 I like that.

Speaker 1 I like that. It keeps everybody accountable.
It reminds you of where you are.

Speaker 1 Yes, I know, but okay. What do you think about that, Benedict? I think it's quite lovely.
I think it's quite nice. I think it's quite nice.

Speaker 1 As long as, you know, as long as you're not spending too much time doing that, and as long as there's a moderator, I think what the dangerous thing is, especially in theater, long run, like there's going to be those moments where something's going a bit strange in a scene or someone's, you know, and then the lines of communication can get very, very fuzzy unless you go through the appropriate channels, which is where you see, you know, the assistant director or the director and say, I'm having a bit of a problem with the scene.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure it's quite working, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 If you go in there in the Cherish scenario and go to another actor, you know that bit where you're doing that bit, that means I can't do my bit the way I want to do it.

Speaker 1 That to me is like, oh, here we go. But that's not what cherishing is.
Cherishing sounds much nicer than that. But I guess if it becomes...

Speaker 1 Cherishing is just a positive feedback loop, isn't it? That's what that is. And just looking after each other.

Speaker 2 But it was nice to see everybody.

Speaker 3 But if somebody brings up something, is there a new one?

Speaker 1 I just try to save it now.

Speaker 1 I mean, everybody in your cast is already, they feel like, fucking, this guy just barely put up with it.

Speaker 1 No, I loved everybody there.

Speaker 3 Is there enough time to iron out whatever problems somebody might bring?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 that's what it was. That's what it was.

Speaker 2 I wasn't used to it here, like in the States, where

Speaker 2 it kind of interrupts what you've created for yourself, your rhythm and your routine in the States.

Speaker 2 And so now I was like, oh, I have to stop that, go up five flights of stairs or down five flights of stairs.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I know, it's terrible out there. These monsters, this gets worse.
Five flights of stairs? Yeah. I mean, and you can barely, we know that you can't swim because you can barely catch your breath.

Speaker 3 And then at the top of the stairs, you had to say something nice about something.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I went down the stairs like this. It's just a tub of water.
And just get in it. Let me watch you.

Speaker 1 Dip in it.

Speaker 1 Is it still hot? Just dip in it. Let me see.

Speaker 3 I want to talk about, well, Shawnee, do you want to get it into what, Sean, would you want to talk more about Doctor Strange or Star Trek? Because I'd love to get into 1917 when you're done.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I mean, look, are you big into fantasy Sean? Is that your fantasy suit?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm a huge sci-fi nerd and fan of Willie List.

Speaker 1 Is he into fantasy?

Speaker 1 You should see what he's wearing

Speaker 1 for bottoms right now. I've got a little lizard suit from the waist down.

Speaker 1 So, Sean loves...

Speaker 2 I love Star Trek and the movies.

Speaker 1 You love Marvel. You love Marvel.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I like Marvel.

Speaker 1 Scotty loves Marvel. I like Marvel a lot, but I love

Speaker 2 the Star Trek movies. I wasn't a huge fan of the television series like Scott.
This guy's a massive Star Trek fan.

Speaker 2 But seeing you on screen as that character, that iconic character. And

Speaker 2 I don't know. You have this thing about you where

Speaker 2 you're so fucking commanding.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're magnetic.

Speaker 2 like you're magnetic you don't have to do a lot and you're just you it's you're electric right through the fucking resonance

Speaker 1 do you want

Speaker 1 sean sean do you want scotty to come ask a question by the way if scotty comes on camera and he's covered in french's mustard i'm at ramp

Speaker 1 wait let me see if he's got a question with spock ears

Speaker 2 but also my massive massive uh lord of the rings hobbit fan like huge i've seen him a million times those movies and to see right when you popped on today as a guest, I'm like, oh my God, that's so, it's such another iconic character, that smog, the dragon, that your voice is synonymous with this legendary thing.

Speaker 1 And, Sean, I will say this, Benedict, before you, I've asked people who've done these kinds of things before.

Speaker 1 You've done a bunch of these different films, you know, sort of franchises, if you will, but they came out of very well-established, you know,

Speaker 1 sort of ideas that have a very well-established fan base.

Speaker 1 And there's a sense of, do you ever feel a sense of responsibility to those legions of fans who existed before you kind of stepped into these roles? Yeah, huge.

Speaker 1 Very big. And then you have to forget about them.

Speaker 1 You have to. You have to make a commitment to something that can't please everyone.

Speaker 1 So that's immediately, if you play the aggregate game, you're dead in the water to anything original or alive or daring or that asks questions or is worth actually seeing the 78th or whatever I was version of Sherlock Holmes.

Speaker 1 You know, you have to just go,

Speaker 1 no, it's going to be all right. And

Speaker 1 it, it's, it's not arrogance. Um, it's, it's just, you can't have that much head traffic.
You just have to focus on doing the job.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 so, yeah, it's a take on something. Yeah, I forgot.
I forgot about Sherlock, too, which is like fantastic.

Speaker 1 I loved Sherlock. You were so great in Sherlock.

Speaker 3 I mean, the list goes on and on. This guy, I mean, are you even 35 yet?

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 3 the resume is stunning. You know, it's anyway,

Speaker 3 we're already over time i've got one last question though because it's something to bring you back down to earth because you're so goddamn good at at what you do what is the what what is the one thing you'd love to be half as good at as you are as an actor is is there something that surfing surfing surfing oh wow really or speaking any foreign so you try but you're not great uh exactly that i'm i'm i started in my 40s and i'm near the end of my 40s and i'm still feeling like i'm starting but it and i had a shot operation last year so i haven't done it at all for about, actually, no, this year, for about six months, but I love it.

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 3 Where did you start it?

Speaker 1 Weirdly enough, in New Zealand, when we were doing Power of the Dog, we got shut down because of lockdown and we had the decision to make to stay, which by then, because I had two octogenarian parents, one of whom's a severe asthmatic staying with us, as it would happen, my mum and dad, and

Speaker 1 our three very young children at that point. Sophie and her nanny.
And we just thought, okay,

Speaker 1 we're going to stay.

Speaker 1 and it was a bit scary to begin with but utterly magical and extraordinary one of the best places on earth to be as it as it turned out um

Speaker 1 and there was a little left-hand break in tiawanga in hawkes bay big shout out to tiawungans um anyway the point is it was where i learned yeah and uh i'm goofy actually so left break's not not as good as a right but um i quite like

Speaker 1 no that's wrong it must have been a right break yeah because i'm right foot forward so you're not you're supposed to be facing the wave rather than facing the shore but so i learned really on the wrong wave, but loved it.

Speaker 1 Every now and again, you get a left.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I just, I really fell in love with it. I fell in love with the view of the coastline.

Speaker 1 I fell in love with that connection to the ocean, that

Speaker 1 sense of how present you are and the community as well, this extraordinary group of people where all is kind of forgiven as long as you don't take their wave.

Speaker 1 And, you know, the drug dealer would be there and the head of the local police force would be there. It was just all of human life was around you.
Right. And

Speaker 1 I can't explain to anyone who hasn't surfed what that feeling is of nature giving you a ride from somewhere out in the ocean towards the shoreline. It's just magic when it works.

Speaker 2 And when you get out of the ocean, how do you clean yourself? I'm kidding.

Speaker 2 What happened to your shoulder, by the way?

Speaker 1 You got a shoulder surgery? I was so boring. It was so, so 49.

Speaker 1 I'm, yeah, I'm 50 this year, but it was 49 when it happened i bet well it's a long time of ill use and done a lot of surfing in very bad conditions and overdoing it i'm probably lifting stuff in the wrong way over the years not not a particular but i basically had a torn rotator cuff and then also a frozen shoulder on top of it which

Speaker 1 do the repair to the rotator which was a complete tear um and i'd lived with chronic pain for about a year and a half, not really realizing that you didn't have to.

Speaker 1 And I kept on doing physio and being told, no, it'll heal. You just give it time.
And I'm a patient guy, and I'm doing everything you're telling me to do.

Speaker 1 And I'm still having sleepless nights of getting up like three, four times in the night because I'd rolled over onto it. And it's suddenly just raining.

Speaker 2 But it's better now.

Speaker 1 It's, yeah, it's great. It's great.

Speaker 1 Oh, look at that. Look at that.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 3 Well, before we let you go, we need to know about

Speaker 3 the thing with feathers because this, so this, this is this new project, you guys.

Speaker 1 You're going to have to. Oh, Jesus.
If I hadn't said anything about that film, I'm so sorry. No, it's my fault.
It's not how to clean yourself. It's very much not the thing with feathers.

Speaker 1 I mean, I suppose you could use that to clean yourself.

Speaker 3 It's a prequel to how do you clean yourself.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So this, this I.
It's called a duster.

Speaker 3 I've only seen the trailer, which is, is, looks magical to say.

Speaker 1 What is it called?

Speaker 3 The thing with feathers. Okay.

Speaker 3 It's, it, it's, I'm not going to ask you to describe it because I think that's, that's always frustrating, but it seems like there's, it, there's, you're dealing with loss, but you're dealing with it in a very magical, fantastical way.

Speaker 3 And it looks like the filmmaking is exquisite and your performance looks mind-blowing again.

Speaker 3 Was it something that you love doing?

Speaker 1 Very much. And it's something that I'm very proud of.
I produced it as well. So

Speaker 1 it's one of those projects that wouldn't really have got off the ground. Well, I would have probably got off the ground, but, you know, it took a lot of effort and it was 10 years in the making.

Speaker 1 um we only came on board in the last sort of year and a bit of it we being the production company Sonny March Adam Ackland Leah Clark and myself and

Speaker 1 it was an approach for me to act as as this dad this man who

Speaker 1 because you were so kind in telling me it could be a real bore to describe it I'm going to describe it very very briefly but it's a it's a man who suffers a very sudden bereavement and of his he loses his wife and has to bring up his two children as a widower and it's about their first year as a family.

Speaker 1 And it's based on an amazing, amazing novella called Grief is the Thing with Feathers,

Speaker 1 which is a misquote of the famous Emily Dickinson line, Love is the Thing with Feathers, by Max Porter, who is just

Speaker 1 a titan of a heroic human being in actual physical stature and in talent. He's a wonderfully kind, brilliant mind.

Speaker 1 He's created a space where male grief is examined in the most unimaginably crazy and imaginative way.

Speaker 1 It's about dealing with it as an acceptance, as something you live with. And it comes alive.

Speaker 1 It comes alive in the form of the dad's work, which from the book, maybe the film, but certainly the book more or less is hinted at as being a memory of the boys of what that time was like.

Speaker 1 And you kind of learn that as the story unfolds.

Speaker 1 But it's a crow.

Speaker 1 It's a crow that comes fully to life as this horrific entity that's both Mary Poppins to the children, an amenuensis, a hero, an absolute nightmare, a ferocious noise in the head, a tormentor and an ally against despair.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's a huge homage to the literature. It was born out of the poetry of Ted Hughes.

Speaker 1 In our version, he was an academic in the book, in our version, he's an illustrator.

Speaker 1 And his illustration comes to life, basically, and lives, torments, and is accepted by this family, grieving the loss of their mother. Wow.
Wow, wow, wow. And I can't wait to check it out.

Speaker 1 That's a punchy hour and 40 minutes.

Speaker 1 And it's, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 What I was taken with the trailer is, you know, you all can see,

Speaker 3 there's, it seems to be done in such a sophisticated, cinematic, tasteful way.

Speaker 3 Like, you know, that you, that can go wrong real quick if you go, oh, so there's going to be a crow that he's got to talk to.

Speaker 1 That's like, how does that look?

Speaker 3 And how is it framed? What's the, you know, it's just looks so tasteful and

Speaker 3 special.

Speaker 1 So congratulations. Well, thank you.
I mean, that's mainly down to Dylan Southern, who adapted the book and directed it.

Speaker 1 He's a pop documentarian by Trey, as in that's what he's done up until this point. This is first fictional narrative drama.

Speaker 3 Good for you for getting behind him.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah. I mean, that's one of the things we do at Sony Monarch.
We want to promote and platform voices that are... coming out of the stocks who are the first and

Speaker 1 very often female-led talent, but also in this case, someone who hasn't originated their work in this medium. And

Speaker 1 he's spectacular. He's a real sine ass, he's a real cultural nerd.
So the references are thick and fast. There's Kubrick, there's Spielberg, there's Hitchcock,

Speaker 1 there's all sorts of bit of Jane Campion in there, weirdly, but it is just...

Speaker 1 It's a rich tapestry of imagination and minds coming undone reflected through a cinematic idea of how that would happen in the culture of these people.

Speaker 1 So it's the father's imagination and that North London 40-something maleness, which I know very well.

Speaker 1 That's in South London, but big deal, not much difference. And it's just,

Speaker 1 it was, it was a crazy ride to go on. Very short shoot after 10 years of

Speaker 1 creating it and getting it made. So I'm really proud of that.
Benedict, before we let you go,

Speaker 1 I have to ask you about something that I think that you have been attached to

Speaker 1 to either be in or to produce or to do something with for a long time. And it's one of my favorite books of all time.

Speaker 1 It's an absolute mind-blower for those who haven't written, which is, you know, what I'm about to say. Rogue Mail.
Rogue Mail. Oh,

Speaker 1 dude. It's a winner, isn't it?

Speaker 1 It's so cool. It is such a game-changer of a novel, Rogue Mail, written in 1939.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's the original fugitive novel. It's the original, and you know, a huge inspiration for Ian Fleming for Bond.
Yeah, and

Speaker 1 it's so prescient to what's going on in our times not to allude to that too much

Speaker 1 exactly it really is you know when we first sat down to trying to talk about this we thought is this a bit of a game this is not about AI no but it is it is is this a bit of a kind of guy's film and then the the longer we were exploring the themes of it and the motivation behind the guy's actions and the outcome and how he's turned on by his own side as well as obviously the side he's tried to take down.

Speaker 1 It's fascinating how it plays into the political spectrum of what's going on in the world now. I don't want to say too much about it because people should read the book.
And yeah, we will make it.

Speaker 1 You will make it, huh? Definitely.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, we don't. We haven't got a filming date yet, but it's something we're trying to slate for next year, although there are other huge commitments involving cloaks floating about.
So, yeah.

Speaker 1 I'll be the first guy to watch it. I'll be the first one there to that.
I can't wait. Oh, me too.
Yeah, I know. I decided to get going on that.

Speaker 1 That's good.

Speaker 3 Well, we owe you 12 minutes now back into your life.

Speaker 1 I think I owe you a lot more because I was very late on, so you owe me nothing. I'm very glad to be.

Speaker 3 Such a pleasure, honor.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what a joy, Benedict. Thank you.
Likewise, guys. Really cool to meet you.
Really great to meet you all, too. Thank you.

Speaker 3 I hope to bump into you again soon. Yes.
One day. Continued success, Benedict.

Speaker 1 Benedict. You too.
You too.

Speaker 1 Will, sorry, I've got to say, Will, before we sign off, you were phenomenal in this, is this thing on? Oh, is it?

Speaker 1 I asked Bradley, because I've this, to give me a link because Searchlight wouldn't. Oh, it's not really ready for a link yet.
And I went, fucking Bradley.

Speaker 1 I missed a screening of it in London. I can see it.
You are so good. It's so tender and real.
And that camera is so, I wanted to ask you about how you deal with it.

Speaker 1 It's so close to you all the time when you're up at that mic. Like, was he shooting on a long lens at any point? Or was it really on stage with you getting in your eye line?

Speaker 1 I mean, it was, and yet you're utterly in it all the time. And it's so moving.

Speaker 1 It was all on a 40. The whole thing was shot.
Everything was shot on a 40, the entire film

Speaker 1 on one single lens. And he was, yeah, Bradley was right there, you know,

Speaker 1 next to me. Yeah, it was very tense.
But thank you very much, President.

Speaker 1 It's brilliant work. Great work.
It's brilliant work. Thanks.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw that in.

Speaker 3 So there you go.

Speaker 3 All right. Well, you enjoy the rest of your night.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 thank you again for doing this, Pal.

Speaker 1 Bye-bye. Benedict Cumberbatch.
Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Will.
Thank you, Sean. See you, bud.
Take care. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.

Speaker 3 There he goes.

Speaker 1 Benedict Cumberbatch.

Speaker 3 I didn't get to so much.

Speaker 1 That went by. Oh, my God.
How could you? He's got a million credits.

Speaker 1 I know, right? Yeah, that was really cool.

Speaker 2 I mean, are you guys a Lord of the Rings Hobbit fan?

Speaker 1 No?

Speaker 3 I've not seen it.

Speaker 1 I enjoyed it. Yeah.
I love those movies. So he played, he was a

Speaker 3 voice. He had a nice motion capture questions I have here, but I didn't get to them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but

Speaker 3 you could tell. It was just a voice of a dragon, I hear, from the questions.

Speaker 1 That is correct.

Speaker 2 But also, you can tell just from talking to him, he's, this sounds really corny to say, but you could tell he's such a massive team player.

Speaker 2 You could say, you can tell he's not, you know, he's a very giving person. He's a very loving person.

Speaker 1 You could smell his team spirit. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Nice. He smells like teen spirit.

Speaker 3 Oh, I see. Yeah.

Speaker 3 No, he's,

Speaker 3 it's pretty cool how he's

Speaker 3 dances between the comedy, the drama, the big, the big Marvel stuff, and also like things like

Speaker 1 this thing coming out.

Speaker 1 I know. Like intense, like

Speaker 1 little sort of really cool niche films, and then these massive box office hits.

Speaker 1 Are you with them?

Speaker 1 Are you with them?

Speaker 1 They're now in, you can just jump in with them.

Speaker 3 The listener, Will's building on the clean yourself. Jump in there with them.

Speaker 1 And then you guys together.

Speaker 1 You could clean each other. More easily reach the back.

Speaker 1 And just do that. Start there.
And get a button or or a zipper. I asked for.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 3 hey, Will, was I with you on a plane when we ran into Bennett at Cumberbatch? Oh, really? Was I with you on a plane or was it somebody else?

Speaker 3 Anyway, I ran into him on a plane once and he was so fucking fun.

Speaker 1 I didn't run into him on a plane, I don't think, but I ran into him once.

Speaker 1 I didn't run into him. I didn't say I had to, he was at the Greenwich and he was trying to repack a suitcase in the lobby.
Oh, no. And I, and I was like, you know what, I'm going to do?

Speaker 3 I'm going to leave him alone. You know, that's a way I hate looking inside somebody's suitcase.
You ever notice that?

Speaker 3 When it opens up a suitcase, I feel like there's stuff in there I don't need to see, don't want to see, especially not the suitcase on the way to the destination.

Speaker 3 It's the one coming back where all the dirty underwear is up on top and things folded.

Speaker 1 And it's all just like, you just know if you got your face on your body. You know, you are so crazy.

Speaker 1 You're so crazy about just regular life. You're so

Speaker 1 By the way, my biggest luxury, the thing,

Speaker 1 the one big luxury that I love, that I really love treating myself to, is doing hotel laundry. Hotel laundry.

Speaker 2 Oh, you just throw it, you give it, you put it in the bag, and you let them take it.

Speaker 1 And people are like, oh, I'm not going to do a hotel laundry. You're going to get $4 for my socks.
I'm like, yeah, you know what? I'm going to treat myself.

Speaker 3 So you do that laundry before you leave the hotel so that when you get home and you unpack, it's already done?

Speaker 1 Yeah, depending. I mean, the last few, there might be a few items, but I'm not going to just deprive myself.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 So you don't go home with all your dirty laundry like the rest of us, plebes, and throw it in the business.

Speaker 1 I'll often do

Speaker 1 the bulk of my stuff will be clean. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm not jackassing a bunch of dirty clothes across the bank.

Speaker 3 Yeah, why would you? Yeah, when you got all that money to burn, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like an extra 12 bucks. Oh, is it? For a t-shirt?

Speaker 1 Nice. But listen, all those.

Speaker 1 Here he comes.

Speaker 3 Did I meet Benedict Cummerbatch on an airplane, like a jet plane?

Speaker 1 Or was it a biplane?

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Speaker 1 Smart Less.

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Speaker 1 With the largest lineup of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electrified vehicles to choose from, Toyota has the one for you.

Speaker 1 Every new Toyota hybrid comes with Toyota Care, two-year complementary scheduled maintenance, an exclusive hybrid battery warranty, and Toyota's legendary quality and reliability.

Speaker 1 Visit your local Toyota dealer today, Toyota. Let's go places.
See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

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Speaker 4 Save up to 40% on the jewelry you love.

Speaker 5 Shop at Pandora.net or your local Pandora store.

Speaker 4 Exclusions apply.