Sensational Benedict in Hawking (Slight spoiler alert)
During my recent mission to acquaint myself with Benedict Cumberbatch’s impressive back catalogue of works, there have been two that have caused me a little anxiety, requiring a period of mental preparation before I could watch what I knew would be breath-taking performances about difficult subject matter.
Third Star tells the heart-breaking story of James, a young man ravaged by cancer who makes a mature decision about his future, displaying both bravery and vulnerability while fighting with his responsibilities as a son, a brother and a friend. Sadly, this struck a chord with me, as I’m sure it did with many others. Indeed, figuring out how you will cope when an uncontrollable, incurable disease is ready to throw everything it has at you is something we all hope we never have to do.
Hawking, made for TV in 2004, tells the story of Stephen Hawking’s postgraduate entry into Cambridge University and his diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease at the age of 21.
Benedict said in a BBC interview (here) at the time: “This was a very rich and fascinating period because of the three strands of his life which are coming together, and those are the things which are interesting to play: this incredible brain finding a subject and having a moment of great realisation and inspiration; finding love and the most extraordinary relationship with the woman he would spend 25 years of his life with; and coming to terms with an illness which, at the time of diagnosis, would basically restrict his life to being of two years’ duration.”
Motor Neurone Disease (or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a fairly rare neurodegenerative disease. The upper and lower motor neurons, which control voluntary movement of muscles, weaken and degenerate, eventually ceasing to function completely. Muscle spasticity and problems with speaking and swallowing are usually the most prominent symptoms.
Basically, the body stops working. But what makes it such a monumentally cruel disease, as if the above doesn’t sound bad enough, is that cognitive function is usually left intact, along with sensory nerves and the nervous system. A positive? Well, not if you long for the taste of something as simple as a Weetabix, but you are unable not only to chew, but to swallow anything (this includes liquids, as the chances of choking are high). Not if your alert, lucid brain is ticking over 24 hours a day but you are unable to hold a pen to do a crossword puzzle.
Living with MND is a balance between acknowledging that most sufferers do not experience much day to day pain, but must live with a future holding in its grasp a seemingly random length of time before their body gives up completely because the muscles that control voluntary breathing don’t work anymore. Some sufferers live for a few years after diagnosis, others deteriorate rapidly because the disease attacks vital functions.
Benedict’s performance in Hawking was skilled in that it subtly portrayed the early effects of the disease, without allowing it to become gimmicky or over the top. It would have been easy to focus on the shocking physical aspects, since we all know and recognise Stephen Hawking to this day because of his wheelchair and his voice synthesiser. Instead, the film chose to show – simultaneously – the progression of the disease over a couple of years, alongside the awakening of the brilliant mind that has come to be recognised as one of the most important of our time. Benedict himself said in an interview with the Telegraph newspaper (here) that it was “important not to let the symptoms swamp the character.”
The BBC interview continues:
During the moving and inspirational film, Hawking’s physical abilities – his walk, speech and manual dexterity – become painfully restricted and Benedict pays tribute to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which introduced him to two people who had MND at very different stages, and who allowed Benedict to film them.
He continues: “They were remarkably brave in their frankness and honesty about how it started and what they’d felt emotionally and physically.”
Benedict also worked with a movement instructor from LAMDA, where he had trained for a year after studying drama at the University of Manchester.
Benedict adds: “Probably one of the hardest bits was concentrating on a man with a disability finding it increasingly difficult, over a long period of work, to physically put chalk on a blackboard.”
Stephen Hawking is undeniably a great man, but the real beauty here was the powerful way Benedict (and the rest of the cast) and the film’s writers and makers saw past the sensational, or of falling into the ‘brainy man overcomes debilitating disease’ trap to deliver a nuanced, mature, vulnerable snapshot in his life. No big dramatic breakdowns (although there’s a cracking scene of academic inspiration), just a young man coming to terms with a future more uncertain than others his own age. Benedict communicated an understanding that although he went on to become an awe-inspiring academic leader in mathematics and science, Hawking has a wicked sense of humour, is romantic in that awkward, geeky way we love, and has some of the foibles and insecurities we all have.
More from the BBC interview:
“This isn’t someone who’s lost in his own self-pity and depression about something which is extraordinarily catastrophic in a young man’s life,” he declares.
“At the same time, he turns that situation around and, in a way, partly uses it as a motivational springboard into his work and his life with Jane.
“Time, which he’s studying, suddenly becomes essentially finite to himself, and yet he’s looking at infinite periods of time. It’s a perverse irony.
“But it’s a story of hope, without a doubt, and a story of grace under pressure, how to conquer adversity and how a situation like that can be used for the positive.
“He’s a small person with an incredible brain in a very fragile body, thinking incredibly huge thoughts.”
Watching Hawking, I was in fact able to see past the disease and instead of sobbing into my cup of tea, I felt a sense of positive calm as he stumbled and shook among the leafy Cambridge trees before the end credits.
But none of this is new to you because you know this, you’ve seen it (if not, why not?! It’s OK, honestly) and you’ve read the reviews, which state far more eloquently than I can, how good the film is (and Benedict was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actor for his performance). There’s nothing to be scared of.
Oh, and I have finally watched Third Star as well. Amazing performances and a lovely film. But you knew that too, didn’t you?
Benedict is a patron of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, the (only) UK charity for campaigning, researching and caring for people with MND. June is also MND Awareness month in the UK.
Go take a look at their work here
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