Collider

[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Eric.]

From creator and writer Abi Morgan, the Netflix series Eric follows the downward spiral of a father struggling to cope with the loss of his son. Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch) is the creator of the highly popular children’s television show Good Day Sunshine, where he focuses all his attention. When his nine-year-old son disappears on his way to school, Vincent’s guilt convinces him that if he can just get his son’s drawing of a blue monster puppet named Eric onto TV, then his son will come home. But the longer that takes, the more desperate his self-loathing makes him and the more difficult he is for everyone in his life, including his wife (Gaby Hoffmann), friends, and co-workers, to be around.

While Eric is the story of a father’s grief over a lack of answers about what’s happened to his child, rather than turning to the family and friends he has spent so much time alienating himself from, he looks to the work that he’s focused so much of his attention on. Instead of supporting his wife, Cassie, through her own grief, he’s consumed with perfecting the look and sound of a larger-than-life puppet that his son created as a means of connecting with his father in a way that would be more likely to catch his attention.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Cumberbatch and Hoffmann discussed getting to dive deep into the emotions of the story, getting into some quite memorable situations with a giant puppet, the thrill of the challenge of a project like this, what it’s like to shoot a fight scene with a puppet, and the technical challenges of the puppeteering. Hoffmann also talked about forming a family with your collaborators when you’re making a TV series, while Cumberbatch shared what he most enjoyed about the experience of working with filmmaker Wes Anderson. You can both watch the video of the interview and read the transcript.

Benedict, there’s a scene in episode three where you snort coke in a bathroom stall with a giant puppet, and then you dance together on a dance floor to “Gloria.” Did you rehearse all of that, or is that something you just wanted to jump in and do?

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: Yeah, I go to work to dive into the deep end, and then take drugs and dance with a puppet on a disco floor.

HOFFMANN: I did that so much in my teenage years that I don’t need to do that at work anymore.

CUMBERBATCH: You’ve lived that life. I did rehearse that because obviously it’s not real cocaine. So, what is it that you’re putting up your nose and does it work? It’s repulsive and it feels horrible, and you have to do it without sneezing everywhere and making a mess of the shot. I’m glad you brought up a more enjoyable moment for Vincent’s various escapades in this drama. Yes, we did rehearse. We had a dance routine, which was even more expansive than that, between me and Eric. It was a joyous moment. Like Gaby was saying about the dark stuff, this is our bread and butter. This is what we hang our craft on. The challenge is the thrill. So, you shake it off. We both have children. We go home to a real life, and that’s very easy and immediate to refocus on. It’s demanding in that way, in a good way. And yet, when we’re at work, we’re able to explore the depths of these people fighting for something truer and more authentic, and fighting for love, really, and to be loved. It’s painful, but it’s an extraordinary thing to do for a living, to be able to expose yourself to those experiences, safely and in the hands of a brilliant director in Lucy [Forbes], an extraordinary writer like Abi Morgan, and with fine company like Gaby and McKinley [Belcher III] and Adepero [Oduye], and the list goes on. It was a glorious creative enterprise to be part of, it really was.

With a story that is essentially so heavy, it feels funny to keep asking you about moments with the puppets, but the fight that you also have with the puppet in the final episode, where you’re really just swinging at the air was quite something to watch. What was that like to shoot? Was it as physically exhausting as it seems like it is for your character?

CUMBERBATCH: Yeah, we were in a cave-like construction of tunnels, which every time I went down there, it was like, “You know, this is where the Russians built missiles.” You’d turn around and there’d be people marching in a FROG suit with full scuba gear going cave-diving, just off set, another couple of steps down to where there was an underwater lagoon. This had been trumped over by water, and the art department, and a hundred and fifty extras dressed as the homeless in New York in 1985, and mole people who lived in the subway. And so, it was full of just crap on the floor, and I’m just rolling around in it, and losing my mind in it, punching the air, punching a puppet, then punching the air, and fighting myself, essentially. I felt like it was a very odd, weird version of Fight Club, really, for a brief moment in that story, but again, just a weirdly enjoyable thing to try and pull off, to drag yourself into the air, throw yourself backwards, and use forces that aren’t there to create a reality. That’s what we do for a living. So, it was fun.

Benedict, to briefly veer off the topic of this show and onto something else you have on Netflix, with the Wes Anderson shorts, how was your experience working with and being directed by him, in that kind of magical world with those magical words that you were given? Did that also feel like a very unique experience?

CUMBERBATCH: Yes, is the short answer. I think every experience with Wes is a unique experience, and I’ve just had another. He’s just an extraordinary auteur and cineaste, and a crater of good taste that feels his own, as well as borrowed and inspired by his heroes. It’s a unique experience to be on a Wes Anderson set and literally to step through those sets. With the layers of Henry Sugar, we were shifting between narration and character, and you’re literally walking through scenic flats that are flying up, you’re ripping off costumes that have pajamas underneath the dinner jacket, you’re being handed chips and walking through a lobby, and then going to play black jack a table with Ben Kingsley being a croupier. It is Adam Stockhausen’s brilliant world and Sanjay [Sami]’s operation of this camera and Wes going, “Okay, I think we’ve got it. Let’s do one more for the fun of it,” and it’s the 47th take of that much dialogue. It was the most extraordinary brain gym I’ve had since doing the Sherlock deduction scenes for that series. It was a wonderful thing to be in and a wonderful feeling to do. It was difficult as hell, real tummy-rubbing, head-patting stuff. But again, another reason to get out of bed in the morning. It was fantastic and I adore him. I adore him as a person to be around, to watch, to learn from, and just to be a friend of. What a privilege. And to do it again recently, literally last week, was amazing.

What is the most unexpected thing about working with the puppets and having to puppeteer a puppet? Was it anything like you thought it would be?

CUMBERBATCH: No. Yes and no. I suppose I’d done a little bit of it, just to amuse my boys at home. Not as research, but just lurking about, as someone does as a dad. I tell you what, there’s a very technical thing, which is quite boring, but I’ll be quick about it. You’re watching your performance. You’re watching as the camera is shooting there, but the image is reversed. Left is right, and right is left. All of us conceded defeat on that one. We could do a lot in a short space of time. My God, the other actors in the Good Day Sunshine crew were so committed and so brilliant. I was the one who went, “Okay, hands up. I don’t have as much rehearsal time as them. We really need to cheat this. Can we just have it normally, so we don’t have to do that bit of math in our head?” Even so, just to be able to get it moving at the same time as your mouth, and choosing which words to talk, and what of a very long word, like disestablishmentarianism, you could or couldn’t to do with a puppet was really important. We were doing that a lot, at dinner and at various social gatherings, and it was weird. I haven’t done that for a year. It takes a lot. We had really, really experienced, brilliant people, both operating puppets and teaching us how to do it, so it was a joy.

Eric is available to stream on Netflix

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