Benedict Cumberbatch Shares His Awkward First Encounter With Radiohead
Benedict Cumberbatch opens up about his uneasy first meeting with Radiohead, revealing mutual nerves despite their celebrity status. The story also explores Cumberbatch’s deep respect for the band and his upcoming film roles.
They say you should never meet your idols, but even the most famous stars can get tongue-tied around their heroes. Benedict Cumberbatch, known for his roles in Sherlock and Doctor Strange, recently reflected on a particularly uncomfortable first meeting with the members of Radiohead—a band he’s long admired.
While Cumberbatch has played some heavy roles lately, including a grieving father in The Thing with Feathers, his passion for music, especially Radiohead, is well known. The Oxfordshire band, often compared to The Beatles for their influence, recently reunited for a sold-out European tour. Cumberbatch has spoken many times about how much their music means to him, even highlighting specific songs that have had a personal impact.
Backstage Nerves and Mutual Admiration
It turns out the admiration goes both ways. Cumberbatch once interviewed Thom Yorke in 2017, discussing both his own film The Current War and Radiohead’s creative process. But their first real meeting happened a couple of years earlier, and it was anything but smooth. As Cumberbatch told NME,
“(Radiohead producer) Nigel Godrich and (director ) Edgar Wright came to see me in Hamlet; they came backstage afterwards and we had a nice, long chat. I said to Nigel: ‘I’m a massive Radiohead fan, I don’t suppose any of the boys would want to come and see some Shakespeare?’ So Jonny (Greenwood) and Thom came one night and afterwards we talked backstage.”
Despite their shared success—Cumberbatch had just been nominated for an Oscar for The Imitation Game, and Radiohead had been filling stadiums for years—the meeting was surprisingly awkward. He recalled,
“I was really nervous because it hadn’t been a great performance, so I was looking at the ground all embarrassed. But so were they – and Thom was muttering: ‘Yeah, we’re really big Sherlock fans…’ There was all this shifting around, all looking at our shoelaces. It was so weird!”
Upcoming Projects and New Directions
Looking ahead, Cumberbatch has a busy slate of films that promise a change of pace from his recent somber roles. First up is Guy Ritchie’s Wife and Dog, a true story about a man who uncovers the dangers of a major pesticide and takes on the corporation behind it. The film also stars Rosamund Pike and Anthony Hopkins.
He’s also set to appear in Blood on Snow, directed by Oscar-winner Cary Joji Fukunaga. The story centers on a hitman who falls for the wife of his client—the very person he’s been hired to kill. Another intriguing project, Morning, imagines a world where a pill eliminates the need for sleep and an artificial sun keeps the world in constant daylight. Laura Dern, known for her role in Jurassic Park, co-stars in this thought-provoking film.