Doctor Strange’s Benedict Cumberbatch on Marvel, filming live shows and what he would be like elsewhere in the multiverse

Benedict Cumberbatch says that filming Marvel movies is like a marathon – you’re either ‘standing around waiting’ or ‘you have to go a million miles an hour’

The actor also touches on what it is like to host Saturday Night Live and what his alternate versions would be like if the Marvel multiverse existed for real

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Benedict Cumberbatch compares filming a Marvel movie like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to a marathon and explains why family comes first. Photo: DPA

Published: 7:00pm, 7 May 2022

Benedict Cumberbatch’s superhero sorcerer Doctor Strange has to deal with a maddening multiverse in the newest Marvel movie. The actor, meanwhile, was himself supremely tested by an apple orchard full of allergens while filming.

In a key early scene of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Stephen Strange reaches out for help from witchy Avenger Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). They meet in a sprawling tree-filled setting in Somerset, England – which sounded like a great idea until the weather decided to channel its inner supervillain.

“There was a sudden frost, and all the buds that were supposed to be open at that time had closed up,” Cumberbatch explains.

“So they had to dress thousands of blossoms into the trees and then blow this kind of ash to fake the blossoms falling in the sky. We were a little bit tickly in the back of the throat after the first day, but then the second, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m feeling pretty worn out and weird.’ Not Covid! Six weeks later, though, I was still kind of hacking up a good lung full of whatever.”

Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange in a still from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Photo: Marvel Studios/TNS

The rest of director Sam Raimi’s sequel is a wild combo of crazy creatures, dark fantasy, trippy alternate dimensions and multiple character variations, including different Stranges for Cumberbatch.