It’s Iron Man vs. Doctor Strange as Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr compare egos in new Avengers film
BENEDICT Cumberbatch may be a bona fide Hollywood star, but admits feeling the pressure before joining Marvel’s all-star Infinity War line-up. This is how the biggest film of the year — and an on-screen bromance — unfolded for him. WATCH EXCLUSIVE VIDEO
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IT’S billed by Benedict Cumberbatch as “the clash of the egotistical, vainglorious goatees”.
When the brilliant surgeon turned Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, joins forces with the self-described genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark/Iron Man in Avengers: Infinity War, no cinema screen will be enough to contain the spiralling self-importance.
“We do have a bit of a clash and that’s no bad thing,” says Cumberbatch, sitting next to his co-star, Robert Downey Jr.
“That’s something to enjoy in the film, how that relationship unfolds.”
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WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH INTERVIEW ABOVE
While undoubtedly very funny — Cumberbatch and Downey worked to “punch up” the clash at every opportunity — it could be a bad thing if these two super humans can’t manage to put aside their egos in order to confront the threat facing our heroes in Infinity War.
Teased from the first Avengers movie six years ago, the alien Thanos is on a quest to unite all six Infinity Stones, planning to use their power to wipe out half of all life in the universe — a drastic act he is convinced is the only way to save the other half.
Though Downey is the linchpin of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Stark the Alpha Avenger, even he can see how Cumberbatch’s Doc may come in handy in this battle.
(That is when he’s not wisecracking about both actors having played Sherlock Holmes — he in the films by Guy Ritchie, Cumberbatch in the cult BBC series.)
“If you think about it logically, Strange is the guy who can run through all the outcomes and actually figure out what the most likely scenario is going to be,” says Downey. “Once Tony recognises that, that ultimately there’s a spiritual solution, if someone has the ability to have that kind of intuition you can only stay at odds with them for so long.”
So it is that Tony Stark’s bromance with the other scientist in the Avengers’ ranks, Bruce Banner/The Hulk, now has a little competition.
“I’m sorry Mark Ruffalo, the Science Bros thing is over,” quips Downey. “It’s now about me and the ’Batch.”
Doctor Strange’s importance to the events of Infinity War, in only his third appearance in the MCU, comes as little surprise to Cumberbatch.
“I might have had an inkling,” grins the 41-year-old about signing on to play the character 3½ years ago. “The pitch of what Strange’s importance in the MCU was gonna be was part of the lure of the job. Along with a really cracking origins story, I thought, ‘Well yeah, I’m in’.”
Though he’d already played briefly with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in Ragnarok, Cumberbatch felt the pressure upon joining the all-star Infinity War line-up.
“I’m doing well but ... I am a newbie, so I did feel like a fish in a big pond,” the Englishman admits. “The first time I remember going on set with Spider-Man and Iron Man — two of the most iconic comic characters but also in the shape of Tom Holland and especially RDJ with his pedigree, his many lives and history and extraordinary talent — I was like, ‘OK, I’m really on set with two icons, this is a bit overwhelming’.
“But RDJ normalises it and then you’re just colleagues trying to make good of a moment in a huge picture, a tiny piece of the mosaic, and make it shine.”
Asked if there was a point where he really felt a part of the team — I’m an Avenger now! — Cumberbatch laughs.
“Probably not when I fell off the set on the very first day. It was like ‘Hey, it’s Doctor Strange, he’s in the house’. I said ‘Hi’ and then literally fell off the set.”
He shakes his head.
“Well, maybe that was it actually, because the whole thing is you want to feel secure enough to fail, you wanna fall over and then get up and pretend to be a superhero again, because it’s gonna happen to everyone at some point. If there’s a pressure to be perfect, it would be stifling to creativity. You’ve got to try things and fail and then fail better, as the Beckett phrase goes.
“So that might have been the moment, actually, weirdly.”
Co-director Joe Russo reckons Cumberbatch “without question” stepped up to the plate in Infinity War, placing Doctor Strange a few steps ahead of his fellow Avengers in understanding the threat Thanos poses.
“From the books, growing up as a child, what I loved about Doctor Strange is he had incredible, mystical wisdom,” says Russo. “This is something that’s beyond Tony’s understanding, the history of these Infinity Stones. They fall within Doctor Strange’s universe, so he understands the scale of what is coming to them.
“His role in this movie is to be a guide.”
That role will see him put through the wringer by Thanos’ Black Order, who seek to take the Time Stone from the Eye of Agamotto that hangs around Strange’s neck.
“Put through the wringer once again,” nods Cumberbatch. “It’s gonna be really touch and go for him.”
Despite being one of the fabled few allowed to read the entire script, this is about where Cumberbatch’s dishing on the Infinity War storyline ends.
“That’s when the Marvel filter kicks in in my brain and I go, Neep! Not answering that one in any detail!”
What he will allow is that Strange is “more assured and flight of foot in his craft” in this outing and psychologically more “the adult in the room”.
Which is funny, because one gets the feeling Cumberbatch, in suiting up to play superhero in Marvel’s epic sandpit, is very much pushing aside the adult to let the overexcitable 12-year-old inside shine through.
On the stand-alone Doctor Strange, he initially was very much preoccupied — as a classically trained, Shakespeare-tested, Oscar nominated thespian should be — by “crafting a really interesting character”. But then he put the cape on and ...
“Our incredible costume designer Alex (Byrne), she was the one to spot my first superhero moment,” he smiles.
“I was standing in front of the (mirror) with the full regalia and the cloak on, and I was sort of smiling and shaking my head a bit in disbelief.
“And she went ‘Ahh, yeah, I’ve seen that look before, you’re having a superhero moment’.
“Until that point, that hadn’t really dawned on me.”
What he nailed in that performance was walking Strange down a fine line between serious and silly. In the wider Avengers world, the silly gets bumped up a notch or two as each actor tries to out-zing the next.
“There’s not too much egotistical you-know-what swinging going on among the actors,” says Cumberbatch, “but we definitely ‘funny up’ a lot.”
Even in this company, Strange’s ego will not be outdone.
“Oh, he’s not dour,” Cumberbatch grins. “If people are mucking about, he’ll come back with, hopefully, something that will make the audience laugh.
“That’s what’s brilliant about these films: they’re constantly testing their heroes — weakness and vulnerabilities — but also you’re getting a lot of laughs for your buck in among all this massive tentpole spectacle.”
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