Did anything surprise him about Dom?And… why do it at all? He’s in it for that, rather than any glory or status.”After three years living in Russia, where he attempted to set up an airline connecting Samara in the south with Vienna, the then 28-year-old Cummings became campaign director of Business for Sterling, which worked to prevent Britain from joining the euro.Cummings, the son of an oil rig project manager and a special needs teacher, was born in Durham in 1971. ‘In the broom cupboard, when he is sort of the brain within the brain of the operations.’‘Well possibly,’ he says. Nonetheless, I set the scene: flowers; vegan pie. ‘I am very wary of coming across as being wordy or preachy, but it’s really about listening to each other, all of us. It would be very hard for me to maintain that accent without some sort of surgery, and I don’t think I’d go that far!’ He laughs.The visit was back in early June when the evenings were long and warm and the cabinet had not yet betrayed their promises to respect the referendum. There are those whose sanity depends on thinking Russians and robots fixed the referendum and that Dom’s intrinsically evil. It’s almost indescribable, but it’s as if the character you’ve created in your mind and rehearsed actually takes over.’ Does that happen to Cumberbatch too?‘Well, yes, but it’s annoying for a camera-man who has just got everything right for that take when you say, no, I think I got that inflection wrong, I should have been looking at that line and, oh God, I said Remain instead of Leave!’But it seems to me a beacon of hope that someone who believes in the EU is willing to inhabit the skin of someone who doesn’t. It’s almost indescribable, but it’s as if the character you’ve created in your mind and rehearsed actually takes over.’ Does that happen to Cumberbatch too?‘Well, yes, but it’s annoying for a camera-man who has just got everything right for that take when you say, no, I think I got that inflection wrong, I should have been looking at that line and, oh God, I said Remain instead of Leave!’But it seems to me a beacon of hope that someone who believes in the EU is willing to inhabit the skin of someone who doesn’t.
Brexit: The Uncivil War is Channel Four's latest drama about the apparent mastermind behind the UK's European Union withdrawal. Does adopting someone’s posture help you think like them?The last time I talked to an actor about acting was a decade ago, but I’ve thought about it ever since. Composite: Channel 4 It does feel like a responsibility to get him right.’It was a hell of a thing watching Benedict Cumberbatch prepare to play my husband.
That soft “R”. ‘In the broom cupboard, when he is sort of the brain within the brain of the operations.’‘Well possibly,’ he says. It seemed too surreal a prospect. And he rests the crook of his elbow at the top of his skull. I’m tired to my bones of the EU row. They just happen, then lo and behold. It really encapsulated that for me. That’s Dada, Mum.’The morning after our night with Benedict Cumberbatch, Dom said he’d had great fun talking to his alter ego. ‘We have different shaped heads,’ Cumberbatch tells me later. I ask Cumberbatch.The real son-of-Dom and I were halfway through our Rice Krispies when the photos came through and I remember how taken aback I was. “He believes that what he wants to do will actually improve society. We put our noses to the grindstone, put our hearts on the paper for the elusive "win", yet we overlook the damage we potentially could be causing to the world. His mannerisms are so perfect that it’s hard not to imagine he’s having Dom-ish thoughts. Why and how can humans do this? I don’t know if it’s Durham or something specific to Dom. “I don’t think he minds a lot of the stuff that is said about him,” one friend said. ‘Dom’s taller than me, I think, and he’s got a more prominent jaw. That’s sort of what we all need to do right now, isn’t it? The campaign was the most extraordinary story — one of the most extraordinary stories in all the history of politics. He’s got a different shape jaw to me, so the accent wasn’t easy.’‘That’s a very good question. Brexit (TV Movie 2019) Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings. Dominic Cummings, as played by Benedict Cumberbatch, alongside actors playing Boris Johnson and Michael Gove Credit: Television Stills Benedict plays my husband Dominic Cummings, director of the Leave campaign, and the shots were long-lens and hazy: Ben/Dom pushing his son on a swing; Ben/Dom kissing his wife. All I knew about Cumberbatch politically was that he’d campaigned for Remain. I’ll be thinking: how can one man simply transform into another? In July this year, when Benedict Cumberbatch was filming Channel 4’s upcoming Brexit film (Brexit: The Uncivil War) a friend sent me some photos by text message, tabloid snaps from the set.