Benedict Cumberbatch says new Netflix drama Eric gave him ‘the fear’ of losing a child
Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of new Netflix series Eric, has spoken about how the role of a dad whose son goes missing affected him at the London premiere of the show. The actor, who is best known for his roles as Sherlock and Doctor Strange, is the father of three sons – Christopher Carlton, 8, Hal Auden, 7, and five year old Finn – with wife Sophie Hunter.
Eric is written by The Split’s Abi Morgan, and is set in New York in the 1980s. The six part series tells the story of Vincent, a puppeteer with his own successful kids’ TV show, whose life is torn apart when his son Edgar mysteriously disappears on the way to school.
Realising that he didn’t spend enough time with his son and suffering from guilt, Vincent becomes convinced that if he can get his son’s drawing of a puppet monster named Eric onto TV that Edgar will return. However, as the police investigate Edgar’s disappearance, Vincent starts seeing and hearing Eric – a huge blue furry creature – in real life.
At the premiere on Monday 20 May, Benedict explained that taking on the subject of losing a child in a drama was something he seriously thought about. “There was just the fear of going near that subject matter [of a lost child],” he said. “It’s weird. I have a harder time watching it [Eric] than I did doing it.
“There’s a lot of incredible sorts of opportunity and creative stretching and imagination to work on as an actor in the show. As a dad watching, it’s a little tricky, but I was very distracted by the kind of assault course of it.”
When Vincent starts seeing Eric – and he is so big you really can’t miss him - the audience hears the monster and he is speaking in a deeper, booming version of Vincent’s voice, provided by Benedict, and the actor spoke about how important it was to make the puppet seem real.
“I’m creating a puppet as a manifestation of his [Vincent’s] vision and with my voice, and that’s an external reality of his internal psychic turmoil," he shared.
“Eric becomes everything from Mary Poppins to an enabler, from a friend to a foe, and he had to work in that imagined world as a reality. And he’s a New Yorker, so there were just lots of really juicy challenges [for me].
The series also stars Gaby Hoffman – best known as a child actress in Uncle Buck and Sleepless in Seattle – as Vincent’s wife, McKinley Belcher III as the cop investigating Edgar’s disappearance, and young talent Ivan Morris Howe as Edgar.
All six episodes of Eric will be available on Netflix from Thursday 30 May.
