Live A Life Less Ordinary.

I've Turned Up To Costume Parties In The Wrong Costume. I've Made Social Faux Pas A Plenty. I've Put One Foot In Front Of The Other And Fallen Over.

One Of The First Roles I Had On Stage Was With A Brilliant Director In A Brilliant Play With A Brilliant Cast, But I Just Couldn't Find My Way Into The Heart Of The Character. I Found Myself Straining A Lot. When It Started. I Felt Lost. That Was The Eugène Ionesco Play Rhinoceros. I Don't Think I Was Prepared For That. I Don't Think I Had The Full Tool Kit To Do It Justice. It's A Very Difficult Play, It's An Extraordinarily Difficult Part, And I Never Felt I Really Got It Right. Far From It. To A Degree, Hamlet Was The Same.

The Armoury Of Having Any Academic Education Does Not Necessarily Set You Up For Being A Good Or Better Actor.

I Think Now With Fundamentalists, People Who Treat Belief With A Total Lack Of Humor Or Empathy For Any Other Viewpoint Than Their Own - They, To Me, Are The Enemy. And Those People Are Born Out Of Desperate Extremes.

My First Agent Dissuaded Me From Calling Myself 'cumberbatch.' I Had Six Months Of Not Very Productive Time With Her, So I Changed Agents. The New One Said, 'why Aren't You Using Your Family Name? It's A Real Attention-grabber.' I Worried, 'how Much Is It Going To Cost To Put My Name In Lights?' But Then I Decided That's Not My Problem.