Benedict Cumberbatch Went Too Method On His Latest Movie And Got Nicotine Poisoning Three Times
I always thought that Benedict Cumberbatch had an Oscar, but silly me – of course, he doesn’t! Otherwise, he wouldn’t be working so hard for one. Benedict stars in the upcoming film The Power of the Dog, a movie made by Netflix and directed by Jane Campion. Even the trailer screams that this is going to be nominated for everything come January. But especially Benedict, who transforms into a rough, grumpy early 20th Century rancher, complete with a skinny hand-rolled smoke pinched between his fingers in almost every scene. Benedict recently spoke about his role in the film, and surprise surprise, he stayed in character the whole time for the entire duration of the shoot. And all that method-actor-smoking resulted in nicotine poisoning three times.
Here’s the trailer for the movie:
Benedict tells Esquire that he took the role of Phil Burbank very seriously, and in order to deliver the best performance possible, he did the absolute most to go from an aristocratic boarding school-educated fancy-named British actor to a tired, mean Montana rancher. He claims he didn’t ever once answer to the name Benedict, he mostly stopped showering, and he rolled his own filter-less cigarettes, which he smoked constantly. That’s fine if you’re someone who has been chain-smoking for the better part of your life; you have to build up a tolerance, unless you want to look like a kid in an after-school special, coughing dramatically after their first puff from an unfiltered dart. But clearly, Benedict didn’t have a high enough tolerance for smoking that many cigarettes going into the film, because it made him sick:
“That was really hard,” he says. “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.”
He adds that while he was able to perfect horse riding, horseshoe making, and getting nicotine poisoning thrice, he wasn’t able to master the banjo, and still kind of sucks at it.
I had never heard of nicotine poisoning, but it’s a real thing, and basically, it’s exactly what you might think it is. Your body takes in too much nicotine, and it reacts adversely, like with vomiting, high blood pressure, headaches, twitching, tremors, sweating, and in some cases, can lead to death. Death! For a movie? Not worth it. Especially since there are so many ways to fake smoking. For one, just shoot on a cold day, and exhale moist warm air like when you were a kid on the playground pretending to smoke a twig. Or Popeyes Candy Sticks, and just CGI in some smoke and ask in post. Although I guess those still come with a risk. Eat too many, and you might get Type 2 diabetes. Well, you can still use that for an Oscar campaign.
Pic: YouTube