Sherlock actor uses iPhone to audition for Star Trek

If the name Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't mean anything to you yet, just wait. He plays the title roll in Sherlock, the BBC's brilliant, modern re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes. He'll also be the voice of the dragon, Smaug, in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings prequels, The Hobbit. And if that's not enough, rumor has it he's landed one of the most iconic roles in science fiction in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek sequel. You got it. "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Or maybe not?

On Sherlock, Cumberbatch's character is a heavy iPhone user. Indeed the first episode of the first series revolves almost entirely around a pink iPhone. And according to The New York Times, Cumberbatch is almost as ingenious with his iPhone in real life.

Last December, on vacation in Gloucestershire, England, [Benedict Cumberbatch] got the call that [J.J. Abrams] wanted him to submit a videotaped audition for “the not-so-good guy” (in Mr. Cumberbatch’s words) in the “Star Trek” sequel — and could not find anyone to film it for him.

“We observe this little Judeo-Christian cult holiday called Christmas,” Mr. Cumberbatch said sarcastically. “Whereas, you know, some kids in this part of town” — he circled his hands in the Los Angeles air — “with their Crackberrys, don’t.”

In a friend’s kitchen late at night, an agitated and weary Mr. Cumberbatch recorded his audition on an iPhone — “I was pretty strung out,” he said, “so that went into the performance” — and sent it to Mr. Abrams, only to be told the director was also on vacation.

Mr. Abrams, who saw the recording a few days later and hired Mr. Cumberbatch, wrote in an e-mail that it was “one of the most compelling audition readings I’d ever seen.”

Cumberbatch chased the role round the recordings of an iPhone, and round the challenges of CrackBerry, and round Christmas vacation before he auditioned it up! Abrams tasked him! He tasked Cumberbatch, and Cumberbatch had at him!

We won't be seeing any iPhones in The Hobbit or Star Trek any time soon, but we'll almost certainly see more in Sherlock when it returns for a third series sometime in 2013. If you haven't watched it yet, go find it on iTunes or Netflix. It's indubitably good.

Source: The New York Times