Today, we managed to meet Benedict Cumberbatch.
He was doing a read-through of John Osborne’s ‘Look Back In Anger’ at the Duke of York’s - one of our favourite plays anyway. The read-through was fabulous; I’ve only ever been to full plays before, so didn’t really know what to expect, but it was amazing how captivating they made the story despite the fact all the actors were confined to their seats, only had the dialogue to convey the story through, and had only rehearsed for the first time yesterday afternoon.
We’d been to the Duke of York’s a couple of times before, most recently this March to see Zach Braff in All New People (also a very good play, and if it ever re-runs I would reccommend catching it). We’d talked to the staff then and figured out then exactly where the stage-door is and how to get to it quickly, so flew down to it at the end of the show today, and besides a few inevitable autograph hunters managed to get right in the front middle of where we knew he’d come out.
With most people with large fanbases, theatres of course tend to put up barriers to keep things under control and to seperate the fans from the artist (including with Zach Braff at this theatre a couple of months ago). But despite the fact the crowd that had accumulated behind us to see Benedict had grown much bigger than any I’d seen before, there was no barrier, and no real staff presence, so Benedict had to be in amongst the fans practically alone.
It was so crowded, that even though Benedict signed our programme flyer things almost first, we simply could not move away. We ended up pinned by him for the 10 minutes or so he signed. Not that I’m complaining. He was very polite, albeit firm but fair when it came to people pushing etc, but clearly was not as comfortable in front of large crowds of fans as the likes of David Tennant and others we’ve met. He signed anything most people wanted, but recognised a couple of autograph hunters which he refused to sign for (good for him!).
Amy got a lot of good photos and videos of just Benedict (just like when we met David Tennant, I remembered by camera, BUT NOT THE DAMNED MEMORY CARD so couldn’t take any photos), but this was the best we got of the three of us! He kept saying ok he’d come in a photo and leaning in for us and whatever (it suprised me how tall he was, therefore leaning in was quite necessary…), but it was so manic that this is the best we could do. Ah well, it may not be technically wonderful, but it tells a story!
I have, as always, rambled enough. But in summary, this day has been a wonderful one, as this means within a year I’ve managed to meet my three favourite UK actors: Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch. In all three cases I’ve managed to meet them, talk to them, get an autograph from them, get a photo with them, and touch them (as creepy as that sounds). I now feel I have no purpose in life…
(except maybe to go back and meet them for a second, or in David Tennant’s case, third time, aha)
Photo stolen from @amfran - thank you!!
