The Oscar buzz has already begun for the makers of the upcoming Netflix western thriller The Power of the Dog, written and directed by Jane Campion. The actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee shine against the stark backdrop of the cattle run through Montana. The filmmakers discussed their film after AFI Film Festival premiere. Here’s the trailer, in case you missed it last week.
As you can see, the transformation of Benedict Cumberbatch into the cruel and crude Phil Burbank of the 1920s, not to mention the Old West accent, is remarkable. Campion requested that Cumberbatch apply Method Acting for his role. “Ben and I talked about it, and I could see that he felt a lot of pressure at befriending every member of the crew and that just was not going to serve him, me or the film. I said, ‘Look, we should do this old school, and you should stay in character.’ He was nervous that everyone would hate him, but I said that does not matter. It doesn’t matter to Phil, and it’s not going to matter to you.”
Kodi Smit-McPhee, who plays the vulnerable young man, Peter, taking the brunt of the cruelty, spoke of Cumberbatch’s performance, saying, “Obviously, Benedict is so far from the character that he plays, Phil, who is quite cruel in his nature and narcissistic and has a lot of trauma in him. Benedict is an apologetic, lighthearted, beautiful, fuzzy Englishman.
“It was amazing to see that spectrum, but if anything, it really had a very positive domino effect on us all, in terms of actors and on the set overall, to stay in a certain mood and to keep it in this kind of hostile nature. We needed that to convey these messages that are very strong within the story. I enjoyed it.”
Benedict Cumberbatch expressed nervousness at remaining in character, but describes his most difficult times, was not the nudity, but something entirely different. “I’m literally exposing myself in this film, and that’s interesting. But I guess the most painful thing to me, if I’m f-cking honest, is trying to pretend I can play the banjo. [My character] is someone who has done it all their life, and I’m trying to master it in 4 weeks or something stupid. That’s tough.”
The Netflix official synopsis for The Power of the Dog reads, “Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter.
“Phil, as played by Benedict Cumberbatch, behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter – all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form – he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?”
The Power of the Dog&hits Netflix December 1. This news originated at Variety.
Source: movieweb.com