Benedict Cumberbatch admits The Roses character is like nothing he's done before
The Roses star Benedict Cumberbatch relished the chance to "scare himself a little bit" with a fresh kind of role.
Benedict Cumberbatch wanted to "scare" himself with The Roses by trying something "new".
The 49-year-old actor plays Theo Rose alongside Olivia Colman, 51, as his wife Ivy in new dark comedy based on Warren Adler's anti-romance novel The War of the Roses, and he is delighted to be playing against type in the movie.
He told Variety: “I try to sort of scare myself a little bit with the new.
“And this comedy has been in the works for a while, as has working with one of my best friends, so both of those things are good and new and fresh.”
The Sherlock and Doctor Strange actor admitted his character is a world away from other parts he's taken on.
He added: “I don’t know that he’s very much like anyone I’ve played before.
“He’s sort of very emotionally intuitive, he’s impulsive, he’s very pragmatic, he’s capable of a great depth of love and hurt and pain and hatred. He’s a good dresser, and he’s quite well groomed.”
The film follows Theo and Ivy as they navigate their married life with twins alongside their respective careers as an architect and chef.
However, as Ivy's crab shack becomes a success, Theo's latest project is a flop.
The ensemble cast also features Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon as the couple's married friends Barry and Amy, while Ncuti Gatwa and Zoe Chao are also on board.
Filmmaker Jay Roach has directed from Tony McNamara's script, and the writer has admitted he wasn't sure about taking on a remake of Danny DeVito's 1989 classic The War of the Roses, which had Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as the couple going through a divorce.
He said: "“When they brought it to me, I thought, ‘I don’t want to make a remake because it’s also a perfect film. Why would you bother?’
“But then I talked to Olivia and Ben, and I had this idea that we could make a show that’s more about marriage and that’s so verbally brilliant.”
Director Roach argued that the film has an everlasting appeal because people are always going to relate to romance and relationship struggles.
He quipped: “I’m such a hypocrite. I’ll get into a fight over something that my wife has done, that my wife very rightly points out, ‘You know you were just doing that exact same thing.
“That goes on, too, in our film. They’re both accusing each other of getting lost in their egos and in their careers.
"They’re both guilty, but they’re doing the best that they can.”
