221bcumberb:James Rhodes on Benedict Cumberbatch - London...

221bcumberb:

James Rhodes on Benedict Cumberbatch - London Real 

This is exactly it. I don’t even think people realize how incredibly taxing performing a role like Hamlet is. At the Metropolitan Opera, they generally have 3-4 operas going on at once, specifically because most performers can’t handle the incredible drain of performing the same show every day for the 3-4 weeks of their contract. Ben did Hamlet - extraordinarily, too!! - for four MONTHS, every day or more than once per day. And then he went outside and gave more energy, more of himself to an audience of a different sort, and just the pressure of being in the spotlight and not wanting to let people down is a huge amount of pressure of different kind. And yet he did it almost every night! He is extraordinary, seriously. People said he looked tired during it, and he did, but what they don’t get is that Ben ONLY looked tired - he wasn’t on the verge of a nervous breakdown or burnt out three weeks in like almost anyone else would have been. Hamlet is known to be a taxing role because of its huge emotional spectrum, and he was staggeringly good. You could see how MUCH he put into it, physically and emotionally, and it was phenomenal. He’s my hero, too!