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Cast and Characters: Reading The Script Aspergerish

Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as Sherlock Holmes after the creative team saw his performance in Atonement and reading the script. Cumberbatch's Holmes is described as cold, brilliant, and slightly Aspergerish. He is always one step ahead intellectually. Finding the right actor for Dr. Watson proved more difficult, but eventually Martin Freeman was cast, with producers feeling the chemistry between him and Cumberbatch was evident immediately. Freeman's casting also helped develop how Cumberbatch played Holmes. Freeman describes his character John Watson as a "moral compass" for Sherlock, who does not always consider ethics in his actions.

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45 views2 pages

Cast and Characters: Reading The Script Aspergerish

Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as Sherlock Holmes after the creative team saw his performance in Atonement and reading the script. Cumberbatch's Holmes is described as cold, brilliant, and slightly Aspergerish. He is always one step ahead intellectually. Finding the right actor for Dr. Watson proved more difficult, but eventually Martin Freeman was cast, with producers feeling the chemistry between him and Cumberbatch was evident immediately. Freeman's casting also helped develop how Cumberbatch played Holmes. Freeman describes his character John Watson as a "moral compass" for Sherlock, who does not always consider ethics in his actions.

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Tahir
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Cast and characters

Main article: List of Sherlock characters

Moffat and Vertue became interested in casting Cumberbatch as the title character after watching
his performance in the 2007 film Atonement. The actor was cast after reading the script for the
creative team.[23] "Cumberbatch", says The Guardian, "has a reputation for playing odd, brilliant men
very well, and his Holmes is cold, techie, slightly Aspergerish".[24] Cumberbatch said, "There's a great
charge you get from playing him, because of the volume of words in your head and the speed of
thought—you really have to make your connections incredibly fast. He is one step ahead of the
audience and of anyone around him with normal intellect. They can't quite fathom where his leaps
are taking him."[24] Piers Wenger, head of drama at BBC Cymru Wales, described the series'
rendering of Sherlock as "a dynamic superhero in a modern world, an arrogant, genius sleuth driven
by a desire to prove himself cleverer than the perpetrator and the police—everyone in fact".
[18]
 Addressing changing social attitudes and broadcasting regulations, Cumberbatch's Holmes
replaced the pipe with multiple nicotine patches.[17] The writers believed that Sherlock should not talk
like "a completely modern person", says Moffat, but were initially intent that "he never sounded like
he's giving a lecture". Moffat turned the character "more Victorian" in the second series, capitalising
more on Cumberbatch's "beautiful voice" to make it sound like "he's giving a lecture". [25]

Benedict Cumberbatch (left) and Martin Freeman (right) during filming of the first series

In an interview with The Observer, co-creator Mark Gatiss says that they experienced more difficulty
finding the right actor to play Dr. John Watson than they had for the title character.[10] Producer Sue
Vertue said, "Benedict was the only person we actually saw for [the part of] Sherlock... Once
Benedict was there it was really just making sure we got the chemistry for John [Watson]—and I
think you get it as soon as they come into the room, you can see that they work together". [26] Several
actors auditioned for the part of Watson,[15] and Martin Freeman eventually took the role. Steven
Moffat said that Matt Smith was the first to audition unsuccessfully. He was rejected for being too
"barmy", as the producers required someone "straighter" for Watson. [27] Shortly after, Moffat cast
Smith as the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who.[27]
The writers said that Freeman's casting developed the way in which Cumberbatch played Holmes.
[15]
 The theme of friendship appealed to both Gatiss and Moffat. [28] Gatiss asserted the importance of
achieving the correct tone for the character. "Watson is not an idiot, although it's true that Conan
Doyle always took the piss out of him," said Gatiss. "But only an idiot would surround himself with
idiots."[10] Moffat said that Freeman is "the sort of opposite of Benedict in everything except the
amount of talent... Martin finds a sort of poetry in the ordinary man. I love the fastidious realism of
everything he does."[15] Freeman describes his character as a "moral compass" for Sherlock, who
does not always consider the morality and ethics of his actions.

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