Benedict Cumberbatch on portraying Alan Turing

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/film/benedict-cumberbatch-on-portraying-alan-turing-1-3598681
The Scotsman
12 November 2014
Benedict Cumberbatch on portraying Alan Turing

...“There were lots of accounts of the way he talked and moved, and how shy he was,” says Cumberbatch, who incorporates a softened version of Turing’s stammer into his performance. “But physically there is no visual or aural recording of him, so there’s a huge blank canvas. It was a chance to personalise an extraordinary man.”

A prodigy, recruited to the war effort when he was still in his 20s, Turing’s famous “imitation game” test for machine intelligence made a huge contribution to philosophy and culture by opening up a theoretical conversation about artificial intelligence. Cumberbatch’s conversation with maths ended in a B at GCSE, and a group effort by The Imitation Game actors to challenge themselves with a little light cryptogram solving amounted to a crossword which took them five days to complete, says Cumberbatch. “I have a very superficial understanding of code-breaking algorithms, but really it’s about finding the humanity here. We can all relate to his moments of self-doubt.”

The algorithms of sexual attraction are another focus of the film. Turing’s relationship with young logician Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) presented its own logic puzzle: could a marriage of convenience bring him happiness. “What if I don’t fancy her in that way?” a beleaguered Cumberbatch asks of one of his Bletchley colleagues. Later Turing’s sexuality led to a conviction for indecency in the 1950s, which stripped him of his security clearance, and forced him to agree to chemical castration. He died, apparently from suicide, not long after in 1954. 
It took 50 years to rediscover Turing’s achievements, culminating in centenary celebrations in 2012 and a Royal Pardon the following year. Cumberbatch feels that Turing is still overshadowed – “why isn’t he on some denomination of our currency or the cover of science or history textbooks?” – and when the conversation turns towards the film’s awards expectations, he says with some asperity that he wants the film to generate interest in Turing and recognise his legacy. “If it gets people to see the film, frankly that’s all I care about,” he says. “As long as it creates an interest in people to see this film and what the fuss is about, then that’s fantastic.” ...

...The real trickiness, of course, is that Turing was a real person, with real biographers. In the film, Turing admits his true sexuality to John Cairncross (played by Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech) who is part of Turing’s small team. Already it has been noted that Turing and Cairncross worked on different projects and probably never met. It has also been pointed out that Knightley’s character, Joan, was not quite as substantial an influence on Turing in real life as in the film. Cumberbatch has been down this road before, of course. “It’s tricky because most of the real people I have played are extraordinary, whether it is Van Gogh or Stephen Hawking or Alan Turing. All we can do is the most light, vague impression of these people and their depths. The cinema process condenses years into a eureka moment, or high drama. I know from my own research that it didn’t happen like that. You ask, ‘Why the hell are we doing anything about real people’.” .... MORE at link provided above.

[shenmue]

1. I can't wait to see this movie

[Stargazer09]

2. I love Benedict

You can just see his humanity and intelligence in all of his performances.

I'm sure he will do justice to Turing's life.