They’ve won praise for their acting roles but even Claire Foy and Benedict Cumberbatch say they still feel a little guilty when they nab a really big role.
“You feel this sense of guilt like, ‘Are you sure you’ve got this right? I mean, there’s literally five people I know who would cut off their right hand to do it, and who would be much better, in my opinion.’ All the time,” Cumberbatch says.
The “Patrick Melrose” star and “The Crown” actress sat down together for an in-depth conversation as part of Variety Studio’s Actors On Actors Presented By Shutterstock.
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“I think in my head, I know all these incredible people who [could play this part],” Foy says.
“It’s like you know how lucky you are when it works out for you,” Cumberbatch says, adding that he uses people’s “trust and faith” in him as motivation when he’s acting. “I just go, ‘Right. Well, they’ve made this choice. I’ve really, really got to fulfil,'” he says.
Cumberbatch and Foy previously starred in the 2011 drama “Wreckers” together so it should come as no surprise that they’re big fans of one another’s work.
“Knowing you as an actor and having worked with you, I can see that you put so much of yourself into the role and that so much of it was about you being free,” Foy says of Cumberbatch’s turn in “Patrick Melrose”. “It’s the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen.”
And Cumberbatch is a huge fan of Foy’s final “exquisite” season as Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown”.
“You’ve created a huge amount of empathy, enigma, vulnerability, humour, and with so little. It is a master class in restraint, but, my God, it’s all going on. Your physicality, the way you hold yourself, the tension in your hands, the shift of the skirt in a seat, the power play, but also being completely cut off at the knees, whether it’s by Philip’s behaviour or a courtier or an unexpected challenge,” he says, adding, “It’s a real marvel.”
