標題：the ideal Holmes
理想的福爾摩斯：Benedict Cumberbatch
By Olly Grant7:00AM GMT 30 Dec 2011
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Early evening at London’s British Film Institute, venue for the Sherlock season two premiere, and I think it’s fair to say the 450-strong crowd is in a state of fevered anticipation. At least the two youngsters behind me are. One of them has just spotted its star, Benedict Cumberbatch. “Imagine if he was sitting right here!” she whispers hoarsely. They imagine. It’s almost overwhelming. “Ooh, I want to tweet!” gasps her friend. “I want to tweet!”
倫敦英國電影學院，傍晚，Sherlock第二季的首映會剛結束，而我想，可以用「雀躍興奮」來形容參與首映的450多名觀眾。至少我身後兩位年輕人處於這樣的狀態，其中一人興奮的指著前方，談論劇中的主角，Benedict Cumberbatch，「想想如果他就坐在這裡！」她壓低音量喊著，她的同伴和她一起陷入想像世界中，兩個人幾乎嗨翻了。「喔喔喔，我要把這個上傳到推特上！」她朋友低聲喊回去：「我要把這個上傳到推特上！」
To say that Sherlock has developed a vast and cult following over the past 18 months is an understatement. The series, a modern-day reimagining of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, first launched on BBC One in 2010 and became an instant sensation, trending on Twitter within minutes of going on air. Ratings climbed to over an amazing nine million during its three-episode run – five million is usually something to be proud of. Since then the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, has sold it to 180-plus global territories. Its fanbase stretches from smitten schoolchildren to Hollywood giants.
Sherlock上映18個月以來，迅速建立起它廣大而死忠的粉絲群，而這還不足以描述它的影響力。這部改編自柯南道爾(Arthur Conan Doyle)原著小說，將舞台搬到現代版的系列劇，2010年在BBC One播出以來，立即造成前所未有的轟動，在推特上的熱門度以分為單位攀升，三集播映結束總計，達到超過九百萬人氣的漂亮數字－－通常五百萬就已經是很值得驕傲的數字了。而在BBC的商業分支之一，BBC國際台，將播映版權賣給全球180多個國家後，它的影迷更由死忠痴狂的學院學生們拓展至好萊塢巨星界。
And it is Cumberbatch’s mesmerising performance as a speed-talking brainiac, so lacking in human empathy he appears to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, that has been the key focus of all the attention. Steven Spielberg recently called him “the best Sherlock Holmes on screen” – some tribute, given that there have been more than 70 of them. As Cumberbatch himself more phlegmatically puts it, “Holmes’s neurotic, thin, high-pitched personality is something I have to get used to.”
劇中最吸引人的，自然就是主角Cumberbatch的精湛演出，他演出了一個說話速度很快的天才，極度缺乏人類情感，並有某種程度的自閉傾向。史蒂芬史匹柏(Steven Spielberg)最近以「銀幕上最完美的Sherlock Holmes」來形容他－－像這樣的讚美超過七十多筆。而Cumberbatch本人倒是冷靜的描述：「我得下工夫習慣Holmes的個人特質：神經質，削瘦，高調。」
The product justifies the hype. Written by two Conan Doyle “geeks”, Doctor Who collaborators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, Sherlock’s first series fizzed with ingenuity and confidence, making liberal use of 21st-century techno-clutter (mobiles, laptops, GPS and text messages that broke the fourth wall to float across the screen) without compromising the spirit of the original books.
造成這股狂熱的幕後功臣，編劇們：兩位柯南道爾研究專家，亦為英劇Doctor Who工作團隊成員的Steven Moffat和Mark Gatiss。Sherlock第一季處處可見巧思與說服力，讓劇中合理出現21世紀的高科技產品(手機，筆電，GPS，穿越第四次元飄浮在螢幕上的說明文字)，又不失原著的精髓。
The dazzling success of the whole thing made series two oddly hard to make for Cumberbatch. “When I first went back to playing the part, it felt like a pale impression,” he reflects, when I meet up with him a couple of days after the Sherlock screening, swilling coffee in his local pub in Hampstead. He chatters freely and with rapier speed – one thing he shares with his onscreen alter ego
第一季耀眼的大成功，詭異的，讓第二季的拍攝對Cumberbatch相對困難。「我剛回到劇組拍攝的時候，角色形象感覺起來是一片空白。」當我在Sherlock開拍幾天後訪問他時，他如此反應，在Hampstead，他的當地酒吧裡一邊狂灌咖啡一邊回答。他對訪談很開放隨興，但說話速度快如連珠砲－－和他的螢幕形象共通的一點。
“It felt like I was impersonating something I’d seen on the telly last year. It now had this life that was completely outside what we had done in front of a camera before. We had been part of the audience, and the audience reaction to it, for a lot longer than we actually had been playing the roles.”
「我覺得我像在假扮去年電視上我看到的某個人。它現在擁有了自己的生命，和之前我們拍攝出來的東西已經完全兩回事了。我們也成為觀眾的一部分，而觀眾對它的反應無盡延續下去，遠比我們在鏡頭前的演出時間還要長許多。」
The programe has transformed his profile. Pre-Sherlock, the 35 year-old had put himself on the cognoscenti’s radar with a string of lauded screen and stage work: the BBC’s Stuart: A Life Backwards; a scene-stealing turn in the film Atonement; and the lead in the National Theatre’s pitch-perfect Terence Rattigan After the Dance.
接下這部戲，改變了他的工作簡歷。Sherlock之前，這名35歲的演員以大受好評的電視劇和舞台劇引起圈內關注： BBC的Stuart: A Life Backwards；在 Atonement一片搶鏡頭的出色表現(scene-stealing turn)；以及國家劇院得到高評價的Terence Rattigan劇作After the Dance中扮演主角。
*scene-stealing turn,
*atonement，去看了一下，有James Mcavoy耶！！ww
Post-Sherlock, he has metamorphosed into something bigger and odder – a pin-up. Odder, that is, because Cumberbatch, with his long face, blanched skin and very pale blue eyes, is not a conventional heart-throb. You can see why he was as much at ease playing the monster as his creator in the National’s recent adaptation of Frankenstein. And yet the swooning web interest in Cumberbatch is legion, from the “Cumberbitches” – a Twitter collective devoted to his daily appreciation – to endless blogs and forums.
The hysteria is likely only to accelerate over the next 12 months, since Cumberbatch has plum roles in three of 2012’s most anticipated projects. January sees the release of the first of them, Spielberg’s film version of the West End hit War Horse – the tale of a Devon teenager who follows his treasured steed into the trenches of First World War France – in which Cumberbatch plays “a professional military nut” called Major Stewart. Working with Spielberg, he says, was a delight. “He was incredibly avuncular and approachable.”
Sherlock之後，他轉向更大手筆，也更奇怪的路線－－上了雜誌封面(pin-up)和電影海報。之所以奇怪，因為Cumberbatch，很長的臉，很蒼白的膚色，配上很淺的淡藍色眼睛，實在不是一般會令人動心的類型。在他的國家劇院最近的科學怪人(Frankenstein)改編舞台劇中，你可以發現為什麼他扮演怪物比扮演創造者顯得自在許多。而網上為他迷昏了頭的粉絲們都能組成軍團了，從"Cumberbitches"－－每天為他衝高人氣的推特社群－－到無止盡延伸的部落格和論壇。而Cumberbatch在2012參演了三部令人期待的電影，看來在未來12個月裡，這股熱潮只會更加瘋狂。一月份會上映的第一部作品，史匹柏版本的West End，大師力作War Horse(戰馬)－－第一次世界大戰期間，一名德國青少年，跟著他的寶貝駿馬跑到法國的戰壕裡的故事－－Cumberbatch在裡頭扮演「一名瘋子職業軍人」，名叫Major Stewart。和史匹柏的合作經驗，他表示，非常歡樂。「他是個非常有才華的長者，並且平易近人。」
*pin-up, 字典link 我，想不出來更好的詞…(呆)
*我覺得他們講話還是很毒嗎……||||||
*Cumberbtiches……這詞對我來說很微妙。我是某某人的bitch的意思，但我再怎麼廚一個人，
也絕對不會如此自稱=_______=+
Sitting at the business end of a cavalry charge, with Spielberg hovering excitedly in the background, Cumberbatch says he suddenly understood why people believed the war might be won on horseback. “It sounds foolhardy, but when you’re in a charge of 80 horses, you feel invincible.”
這項工作的最後一幕拍攝，是騎在馬上，帶領騎兵衝鋒陷陣，背後是興奮的史匹柏在場監督；Cumberbatch說他突然明白了為什麼人們相信能在馬上贏得戰爭。「這聽起來像是有勇無謀，但當你帶領著八十名騎兵的時候，你會覺得自己所向無敵。」
War Horse debuts on January 13, by which time Cumberbatch will be preparing for an even bigger role. He’s off to New Zealand to voice and “physicalise” the dragon in The Hobbit, in which Sherlock’s Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo Baggins, and Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf.
War Horse將在一月十三日上映，當時Cumberbatch正準備另一個更大的角色。他會飛去紐西蘭，為The Hobbit中的「那條龍」配音，並將牠「具現化」；同為Sherlock的演員Martin Freeman會在電影中扮演Bilbo Baggins，而Ian Mckellen會回歸再度扮演Gandalf。
*咦，咦咦咦咦咦咦咦？！伊恩麥克連和他的甘道夫？所以Martin是主角…？好難想像這部片會怎麼拍。
McKellen said Cumberbatch’s Smaug screen-test was amazing, I tell him. Cumberbatch splutters. “Has... has he seen it?” Actually, McKellen’s words were “electrifying - vocally and facially”. He looks ecstatic. “Wow! I’m very flattered.” He seems entirely sincere when he says this. He comes across, in general, as earnest - with a searching intelligence.
McKellen說在試映裡，Cumberbatch詮釋的Smaug非常棒。我轉告他，Cumberbatch的反應是當場噴茶。「他……他看了嗎？」精確一點說，McKellen的用字是「令人嘆為觀止－－不論是聲音還是臉部表情」，他看上去開心得要跳起來了：「哇喔！我好有成就感！」他看上去非常真摰，微微傾身向前，露出認真想搜尋答案的表情。
So how did Cumberbatch do the audition? “I went a little reptile on it,” he says, enigmatically. With filming approaching, he is now “starting to look at animations, and Komodo dragons at London Zoo. They have some amazing ones. Snakes, too. So I’ve been going there to see how the skeleton moves differently, what the head movements are like.” He says it’s all in the posture, and he crouches forward, swivelling his eyes snakily, to demonstrate.
所以Cumberbatch在試鏡中是怎麼表現的呢？「我參考了一點爬蟲類的動作，」他以神祕的語調說。隨著正式開拍的日子逼近，現在他做的功課是「開始看動畫，以及到倫敦動物園觀察科莫多巨蜥。倫敦動物園有很多很棒的學習對象，我也觀察蛇。我花時間在動物園觀察他們的骨骼怎麼移動的，頭又是怎麼動的。」他說這些從姿勢全能看出來，一面往前彎身表演給我看，怎麼像蛇一樣旋轉他的眼睛。
*你這個角色……很奇妙啊？記者你描述成這樣我感覺很有壓迫感…
Cumberbatch’s initial reference point for Smaug, interestingly, was his father, the actor Timothy Carlton. “The Hobbit was the first book I remember reading at bedtime, and he characterised the whole thing,” he explains. “It was the first imaginary landscape I had in my head, so it’s very close to me.”
很有意思的是，Cumberbatch最初拿來當Smaug這個角色參考的對象，是他的父親，演員Timothy Carlton。「The Hobbit是我印象中第一本床邊故事，他一邊念給我聽，一邊把書中的情節全演出來。」他解釋：「它構成我腦中第一個想像世界，所以對我來說是很親切的作品。」
You wonder if, as so often with British actors who hit the big time, the movie roles will bring an end to the fine TV work – even, whisper it, to Sherlock. “God, no-no-no,” he says. “The other thing I’m doing is Parade’s End, which is a massive, five-part drama for HBO and the BBC, with Rebecca Hall and Stephen Graham.” The project, a Tom Stoppard adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s Edwardian tetralogy, will be screened later this year. “I’m not loyal to one genre. I want to mix it up,” he says.
而你會好奇，他會不會像大多數英國演員一樣，在一舉成名躍入電影界之後，就不再接拍任何電視劇－－甚至，謠言傳說，Sherlock也包括在內。「天啊，不，不，不。」他說：「我現在手上的工作還有Parade's End，HBO和BBC合作的五部曲大戲，和Rebecca Hall以及Stephen Graham共同演出。」這部作品建立於Ford Madox Ford的愛德華七世四部曲小說上，由Tom Stoppard改編，今年稍晚會上映。「我並不會限定只拍哪個類型的作品，我想做多方的嘗試。」他說。
He is coy about Sherlock’s future, though; partly because the final episode of the new series is based on The Final Problem, in which Conan Doyle notoriously snuffed out Holmes via a Moriarty showdown at the Reichenbach Falls – a cliffhanger in every sense. “I should maybe say that I’m ready to say goodbye to him, but I would miss him,” says Cumberbatch, choosing his words with Holmesian precision. “It’s much better to leave people wanting more.”
不過，他迴避關於Sherlock續集的問題，部分因為第二部的最後一集是改編自The Final Problem，大家都知道，這一回裡柯南道爾讓Holmes和Moriarty決鬥並掉下了萊辛巴赫瀑布－－在各種意義上都是吊人胃口的折磨。「或許我應該說，我準備好和這個角色說再見了，但我會想念他的。」Cumberbatch說，以福爾摩斯式的精確酙酌他的用字：「與其不斷的應觀眾要求續集，不如見好就收。」
Does he look forward to a time when the Holmes hysteria has abated? “I don’t know how that happens, but yes,” he nods – though he is not unmindful of what hype can do for a career. “It’s a horrible thing to say, but it gives you the power to do the kind of work you want to do. So obviously, some of it’s constructive, and that’s the bit I’m interested in.”
他會期待哪天Holmes不再如此神經質嗎？「我不確定你要怎麼辦到那點，不過，是的我會。」他點頭－－雖然他並非不在意觀眾的熱情對他的工作帶來的影響。「說起來其實滿可怕的，但它的確能成為你的動力，讓你能去挑選你想做的工作。所以，你能明顯看出某些點子是滿有建設性的，對那部分我會感興趣。」
*……我也期待哪天小夏不要再如此任性的時候(喂
Of course some of it must be enjoyable, too. As we leave, his phone buzzes. It’s a text from Eddie Redmayne, friend and fellow rising star. It ends: “I will always be your Cumberbitch. Eddie.” We laugh. These days even Cumberbatch’s friends are in his fan club. And he walks out into the winter sunshine, moving quickly before anyone spots the famous cheekbones and tweets them.
而當然，他也會樂在其中。我們結束訪談離開的時候，他的手機震動了。他的朋友，一名正崛起的新星，Eddie Redmayne傳來了簡訊。簡訊最末寫：「我會永遠是你的Cumberbitch. Eddie.」我們一起大笑。最近就連Cumberbatch的朋友們也加入了他的粉絲團。他推門走入冬日的陽光中，迅速離開－－在任何人認出他著名的頰骨線條，並上傳推特之前。
－－
嚴禁不知會我轉走。
推廣我很歡迎，但是不要不告訴我，不附出處，無斷轉載。
所有我要求的，也不過就是告訴我一聲而已。請維持最基本的尊重。
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