10 Best Benedict Cumberbatch Roles, Ranked

From The Hobbit to 12 Years a Slave, Benedict Cumberbatch has delivered great performances in some incredible roles. Here are his 10 best so far.

You Are Reading :10 Best Benedict Cumberbatch Roles Ranked

Benedict Cumberbatch has held a variety of roles over the years. Whether you know him as Doctor Strange or Sherlock Holmes, chances are you’ve come across his work at some point. There are roles both in the mainstream and beyond that deserve some attention.

Cumberbatch gets around when it comes to snagging roles in a little bit of everywhere, proving himself as a talented and versatile actor. From The Imitation Game to 12 Years a Slave, Benedict pops up in a number of projects with a variety of genres. That said, here are 10 of his best roles, ranked.

10 Nick Kaufman (The Whistleblower)

In The Whistleblower, Cumberbatch drops his English accent and plays an American in law enforcement abroad alongside Rachel Weisz, who plays the protagonist in the film.

Kaufman tries flirting with Weisz’s character but is repeatedly shot down. However, we do appreciate his certain charm. The chance to see Weisz and Cumberbatch, two gifted English actors, is definitely one of the reasons you should watch The Whistleblower.

9 Agent Classified (Penguins of Madagascar)

Cumberbatch lent his voice to the animated film Penguins of Madagascar in the form of Agent Classified, a British wolf that also happens to be the leader of a team of animals called “The North Wind”, which aims to help all animals in need.

Skipper mistakenly calls the wolf “Classified” throughout the film upon learning the wolf’s real name is actually classified information. Hearing the voice of Doctor Strange in an animated film is a fun experience that is worth watching again and again.

8 Smaug (The Hobbit)

With the clever usage of motion capture and vocal performance, Cumberbatch portrayed the powerful and feared Smaug in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This is a challenging feat as an actor, and audiences were nothing less than impressed.

He portrayed the frightening and crazed dragon well, inflicting fear into more than just the characters of the story.

7 Paul Marshall (Atonement)

Benedict had a minor role in the 2007 film Atonement as Paul Marshall, a friend of the older brother of the Tallis sisters. Paul is something of a slimy character, assaulting a cousin of the Tallis’s named Lola and later marrying her.

After his assault on Lola, young Briony Tallis mistakenly implicates the wrong man in the matter of who assaulted Lola, and thus ruins her older sister’s chance at love by extension, given the man she implicated was her sister’s love interest. We knew Paul Marshall was no good from the moment he told Lola to “bite it”, referring to a chocolate bar.

6 Patrick Watts (Starter for 10)

In Starter for 10, Benedict Cumberbatch portrays snobbish Patrick Watts, the leader of a University Challenge team at his university. He’s not much for pep talks if his speech on Jackson’s (James McAvoy) lack of focus at a match is anything to go by.

It’s ironic, actually, as Jackson is the one to lead them towards victory when Patrick starts failing to answer questions–that is until Jackson screws up himself. Nonetheless, seeing Cumberbatch in this role is an experience you don’t want to miss.

5 David (Wreckers)

In 2011’s Wreckers, Cumberbatch plays David, a man with a troubled past and dysfunctional family. Between dealing with his brother, who struggles with his mental health, and his wife who desperately wants a child (and later cheats on him), David’s plate is full.

Not to mention the disturbing childhood memories that are continually stirred up throughout the film. Cumberbatch’s performance is meaningful, as, despite the chaos in David’s life, he still chooses to forgive and have some version of a happy ending.

4 Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock)

Cumberbatch is well-known for his role in Sherlock playing the titular character, solving crimes in modern-day London. Cumberbatch has played his fair share of odd, quirky characters and Sherlock is no exception.

Benedict plays the character well, portraying the character’s intelligence and tendency to be cold appropriately. Sherlock is something of a reluctant celebrity thanks to Watson’s blog on him, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

3 Doctor Stephen Strange (MCU)

When we first met Doctor Strange, he was a renowned doctor that had an inflated ego and certainly didn’t treat those around him kindly. All of this changes when a car accident ruins his hands, thus ending his career. Strange sends himself into debt while searching for a cure, and comes to find the Mystic Arts, learning to open up his mind, save the world, and become a better person in the process.

He also later foresees the end of Avengers: Endgame, knowing all along that it would take a final sacrifice from Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to take out Thanos once and for all.

2 Alan Turing (The Imitation Game)

The Imitation Game follows the life of Alan Turing, a brilliant man that worked to decrypt messages from German intelligence on behalf of the British Government during World War 2. Turing is initially difficult to work with. Only with the help of Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) does he begin to get along better with his colleagues, and by extension find success in quickly decrypting coded messages.

Sadly, Turing is convicted of gross indecency due to his homosexuality in the film’s end and undergoes chemical castration instead of jail time, with Clarke reassuring him that despite everything, his work has saved millions of lives.

1 William Ford (12 Years a Slave)

Ford is the plantation owner that purchases the protagonist of 12 Years a Slave, named Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Solomon is a free man, yet he is tricked and subsequently sold as a slave. Ford is kind to Northup, giving him a violin and later saving his life.

However, hoping to help Northup, Ford sells him to another slave trader, lacking the courage to truly help Northup return home despite his confession to Ford that he’s a free man. Despite this mistake, we can understand his fear given the times, and Ford was truly a rare man at the time for all the kindness he showed Northup.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-benedict-cumberbatch-roles-ranked/