This is the last day of 2021 and while it’s been a difficult year in general, with the pandemic still ongoing and lots of political conflicts across the globe, the year was an succesfull one for Benedict. With no less than 9 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 got 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 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 to 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.
[RED NOSE DAY PHOTOSHOOT THUMBS]
In a new interview to promote The Mauritanian, Benedict talked about his character in the movie and that he filmed while being sick. More videos about the movie were released, like a b-roll.
And last but not lastly, it was announced that Benedict would star (and be the executive producer) in 39 Steps, a new minisseries 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 got 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.
There was a new video with a b-roll for The Courier and Benedict being interviewed on set. And speaking of the movie… it debuted in 3rd place at the domestic box office, making over US$ 2 million in its first 3 days, which was a huge success during 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, in which 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).
[THUMBS DOS STILLS OU VIDEOCLIPE DE EVERYBODY]
That 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 in Venice or at the Cannes Film Festival.
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.
[THUMBS DO PHOTOSHOOT]
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!
On his birthday, Jaeger Le-Coultre released a brand-new photoshoot to promote their new Polaris Mariner Memovox watch.
[THUMBS DO PHOTOSHOOT DA RYKAH QUE PAGA UM ATRASILDO CRÔNICO PRA PROMOVER SEUS RELÓGIOS]
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.
[THUMB DA 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:
[THUMB DO PHOTOSHOOT DA REVISTA CUJO NOME ASSUSTA O BENEDICT]
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.
[THUMB DA VANITY FAIR]
In that same week, the first poster and trailer for the movie as released, as was the first 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. The following day, The Power of the Dog made its world premiere at the Biennale and we got the first reviews for the film:
[THUMBS DO FESTIVAL QUE O FILM TWITTER JUROU QUE SERIA O TÚMULO DE THE POWER OF THE DOG]
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!
[THUMB DAS FOTOS LINDAS DE LOUIS WAIN]
[THUMB DA MATÉRIA DA EMPIRE?]
[THUMB DA THR]
Right after their big night at Venice, where Jane Campion won the Silver Lion, Benedict travelled to Telluride to promote both movies:
[THUMB DO FESTIVAL PERNALONGA DE PITEIRA]
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.
[THUMBS DO MIGHTY THAT HAS FALLEN, TIFF]
Reviews for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain came out following the premiere and, a few days later, 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.
[THUMB DAQUELA VEZ QUE O BENEDICT FOI VER UMA EXPOSIÇÃO SOBRE O MIYAZAKI]
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.
[NYFF]
The next week he was back in his hometown to promote Jane Campion’s production at a special screening and at 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.
[BFI]
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.
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 Letters Live stage at 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 one for NYT:
[thumb NYT]
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:
[Deadline]
And speaking in Los Angeles, where he spent the next couple of months reshooting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, he and Sophie Hunter attended the LACMA FILM+ARTS GALA, as well as a premiere for The Power of the Dog at the 2021 AFI Fest, featuring a Q&A session moderated by Kathryn Hahn.
[LACMA]
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain recieved its first nominations at the 2021 British Independent Film Awards, while The Power of the Dog and Spider-Man: No Way Home first trailers were released.
DECEMBER
In December The Power of the Dog arrived to Netflix and officially entered the awards race. The production has earned some nominations for several awards, including best actor to Benedict, for awards like 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.
[NYT2]
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 and The Guardian.
December was also the month of Doctor Strange! Spider-Man: No Way Home hit the movie theaters worldwide, 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.
[PREMIERE MIRANHA 3]
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.
[TRAILER?]