This is the last day of 2021 and though it’s been a difficult year in general, with the ongoing pandemic and several political conflicts across the globe, the year was a succesfull one for Benedict. With no fewer than 9 main projects getting released, Benedict showed his range by doing voice acting (The Simpsons and What If), narration (Antarctica and Double Blind) and making his comeback to the big screen with The Mauritanian, The Courier, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and his most awarded performance so far, as Phil Burbank in The Power of the Dog.
The year also gave us beautiful photoshoots, great interviews, lovely red carpet moments and the unforgettable Comic Relief campaign Benedict did with Dame Judi Dench. And so, so much more!
Ready to remember the best moments of the year? Let’s go!
JANUARY
With the world still trying to figure out how to live in the COVID-19 pandemic, the first half of 2021 gave us only zoom appearances. To promote his first movie of the year, The Mauritanian, Benedict appeared in a few virtual Q&As, like the ones for BAFTA and Variety. The actor made a quick appearance at the WandaVision virtual lauch event as Ben in London. And to finish the month with a bang, we got new outtkakes from the photoshoot for The Rake and the first poster and teaser trailer for The Courier! With a release date: 19th of March, in the US!
FEBRUARY
The month started just the way we like it: with new content! Benedict was one of the celebrities who helped Comic Relief lauch the 2021 Red Nose Day! To promote the cause, Benedict and Dame Judi Dench appeared in a brand new photoshoot and in new videos, including one showing the behind the scenes of the shoot, full of innuendos by Benedict and the Dame.
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In a new interview to promote The Mauritanian, Benedict talked about his character in the movie, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch, and how he filmed while being sick. More videos of the movie were released, like a b-roll.
On the 12th, The Mauritanian was released in the USA.
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And last, but not least, it was announced that Benedict would star (and be the executive producer) in 39 Steps, a new miniseries directed by Patrick Melrose’s Edward Berger for Netflix. Exciting!
MARCH
In March, Benedict showed support for March4Women and for The Theatre Artists Fund. March was also the month in which The Courier was released in the US and The Mauritanian got 5 BAFTA nominations. To promote both movies, Benedict was interviewed by Toronto Sun, UPROXX, The Guardian and TV & Satellite. Benedict promoted Courier in a virtual press junket and was a guest on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon and The Late Late Show with James Corden.
A new video with a b-roll for The Courier and Benedict being interviewed on set was released. And speaking of the movie… it came out on the 19th in the USA. Benedict starred as Greville Wynne and gave one of the best performances of his career.
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And it debuted in 3rd place at the domestic box office, making over US$ 2 million in its first 3 days, which makes it a huge success in our pandemic times!
Another month, another project! It was announced that Benedict would narrate the audiobook for Double Blind, Edward St. Aubyn’s newest novel!
And by the end of the month, Benedict talked about Mauritanian to The Concordia Forum, though we could only hear his voice because he was on set of Multiverse of Madness and couldn’t show his face as Doctor Strange.
APRIL
April was the month in which The Mauritanian was released on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. To promote it, Benedict was interviewed by The Independent and by pARTicipate.
It was in April that Fox aired Panic on the Streets of Springfield, the 19th episode of the 32nd season of The Simpsons, in which Benedict voiced Quilloughby, an English singer based on Morrissey. Benedict also recorded a few songs for the episode like Hamburger Homicide and Everybody is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You).
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It was the month in which we started to see rumours about The Power of The Dog premiering at the Venice Film Festival. According to Variety, the movie could premiere either at Venice or at Cannes.
MAY
In May, Hollywood Records uploaded Everybody is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You) on their Vevo account on Youtube and on the main music streaming platforms. And we got a new music video for the song, longer than the first one!
Do you know what else we got in May? A brand new photoshoot for Jaeger-LeCoultre to promote their new Reverso Tribute Nonantième watch.
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Benedict also narrated “Sleep Sound”, a Dungeons and Dragons short animation written by R.A. Salvatore.
JUNE
June was a quiet month. We got a new sneak peek for The Courier and The Mauritanian was screened at the Berlinale Festival and Benedict sent a recorded message to introduce the movie.
JULY
July kicked off with the news that Benedict had written the foreword for the book Louis Wain’s Cats by Chris Beetles that was set to be released (and was) alongside The Electrical Life of Louis Wain in November. In the same week, we got to see him at Wimbledon, alongside his dad, Timothy Carlton. His first public appearance since 2019!
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On his birthday, Jaeger Le-Coultre released a brand-new photoshoot to promote their new Polaris Mariner Memovox watch.
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On the very next day, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced The Electrical Life of Louis Wain was set to make its Canadian premiere there. And that was just the beginning of what was about to be a very busy festival season. In the following days alone, we got the first still for The Power of the Dog and the confirmation it was to make its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, that it had been chosen as New York Film Festival’s centrepiece and that it had also been selected for the TIFF.
AUGUST
With The Courier about to be released on UK theatres, we got new interviews with HeyUGuys and the great The Big Issue.
To celebrate our 6th anniversary, we posted 6 UHQ photos from the photoshoot for Benedict’s first cover for TIME, back in 2013:
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On the 12th, TIFF announced Benedict was to receive this year’s TIFF Tribute Actor Award. One week later, The Power of the Dog was announced as London Film Festival’s American Express Headline Gala. A couple of days later, Vanity Fair released an exclusive look into the movie and revealed its release date: December 1st.
In that same week, the first poster and teaser trailer for the movie as released, as was the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
SEPTEMBER
On the very first day of the month, it was confirmed that both The Power of the Dog and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain were to play at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival. And we got the 4th episode of What If…?, in which Benedict voiced the Supreme Doctor Strange.
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The following day, The Power of the Dog made its world premiere at the Biennale and we got the first reviews for the film:
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On the same day, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain got a first look clip, new pictures and a feature on Empire magazine ahead of its premiere at Telluride. We also got new interviews with IndieWire and The Hollywood Reporter, the latter giving us his first photoshoot since 2019!
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Right after their big night at Venice, where Jane Campion won the Silver Lion, Benedict travelled to Telluride to promote both movies:
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Just a couple of days after that, he made his way to Toronto for more premieres and press junkets and to receive his Tribute Award.
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Reviews for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain came out following the premiere and, in a matter of days, so did the first trailer.
At the end of the month, Benedict and Sophie traveled to Los Angeles to attend the gala for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
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OCTOBER
October saw Benedict still promoting his two upcoming movies, The Power of the Dog and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. He and the cast of Dog first went to New York for the premiere at the city’s film festival and then a screening afterwards.
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The next week he was back in his hometown to promote Jane Campion’s production at a special screening and at the BFI London Film Festival, but not before attending a special screening for Louis Wain, which featured Felix, the cat who played Peter in the film.
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Benedict went on to promote Will Sharpe’s movie on talk shows like Live with Kelly and Ryan, Today Show and Russia’s Evening Urgant, as well as an interview for National Post.
On the 22nd, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain was released in selected theaters and it brought us a heartwarming story, with a heartbreakingly beautiful performance of Benedict as Louis Wain
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The month ended with the release of Antarctica, a BBC Earth documentary narrated by Benedict; the announcement of a new project for him, an HBO limited series called Londongrad, where he is set to play the poisoned KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko; and Benedict’s return to the Letters Live stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
NOVEMBER
November brought us some interviews with Benedict for IndieWire, New York Times, FilmInk, British Esquire, Stack, NME, TV & Satellite Week, Empire, and AV Club, in which he talked about The Power of the Dog, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, his career and more. Some of them came with new photoshoots, like the ones for the NYT and the British Esquire:
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Benedict also talked on some podcasts and appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Meyers and SKY News to promote his two new movies. Speaking of promoting films, he went to Los Angeles to attend the Deadline Contenders Film event:
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And speaking of Los Angeles, where he spent the following couple of months reshooting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, he and Sophie Hunter attended the LACMA FILM+ARTS GALA, as well as the premiere for The Power of the Dog at the 2021 AFI Fest, featuring a Q&A session moderated by Kathryn Hahn.
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The Electrical Life of Louis Wain received its first awards nominations at the 2021 British Independent Film Awards, while The Power of the Dog and Spider-Man: No Way Home first full-length trailers were released.
DECEMBER
In December The Power of the Dog arrived on Netflix! The masterpiece directed and written by Jane Campion saw a completely different Benedict, in what might be his best work to date.
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Also this month, the movie officially entered the awards race. The production has earned nominations – Best Actor for Benedict among them – for several awards, like the Satellite, HCA Films, Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice. His career-best performance has received accolades from several film critics associations and praise from news outlets like the New York Times.
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Benedict gave some more interviews on The Power of the Dog for USA Today, Solzy At The Movies, EW’s The Awardist, Screendaily, The Daily Mail, LA Times and The Guardian.
December was also the month of Doctor Strange! Spider-Man: No Way Home hit the movie theaters worldwide, with Benedict reprising his role as Doctor Strange in what would become the biggest movie of the year.
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And Benedict attended its world premiere in Los Angeles and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon to promote it.
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We also had the first trailer, poster and stills for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, set to be released on May 6, 2022.
This was an incredible year for Benedict and we’re sure you’ll agree that seeing him doing so well brightened ours as well. Here’s hoping 2022 will be even more joyous and busy for him and, consequently, for us!
And thank you for being with us through another year! Being able to share with you, talk with you, be excited with you brightens our days just as much. Thank you for supporting us, it means the world.
Happy New Year, folks!!!
Please, be happy and be safe
With love,
Aline, Bru and Gi.
