Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall – live chat with the co-creators
2013.07.19. 12:57
Is there any part of the last two season that you feel extremely satisfied with?
Steven Moffat: Probably the pool scene at the end of The Great Game. And the way it resolved.
Mark Gatiss: All of it! Haha. That's not for us to say, is it? I know how thrilled we were with the end of both series.
What's your favourite Sherlock Holmes story ? – thediscolabirinto
Mark Gatiss: I've always loved 'The Red Headed League' and 'The Bruce-Partington Plans' the most. I think. Today.
Steven Moffat: Favourite story: The Speckled Band.
What's your favorite nod to original/previous canon that you've been able to include in an episode of Sherlock? – Amy
Steven Moffat: Favourite nod: the dogging scene in Baskerville.
Mark Gatiss: Favourite nod? Too many to count. I'm very proud of 'I'm lost without my blogger'!
Which one of you would be Sherlock and who would be John? – Lucy
Steven Moffat: We're both Watson. Nothing happens very fast .....
Mark Gatiss: Although I'm the only one who grows a moustache.
I just want to thank you guys for Molly Hooper. I really believe she's one of the most inspirational and marvelous female characters, hell, characters in general, on television today. Where did you get the inspiration for her? – Emily
Steven Moffat: Molly: she was a one-off idea, to help introduce Sherlock. But Loo was so good - so clear and individual - that we couldn't resist bringing her back.
Mark Gatiss: John Watson is something of a ladies' man so we do see him having lots of girlfriends! Molly is a fantastic character (I can say that as she's Stevenn's creation) and it's great to see Sherlock through her eyes.
have a theory on how Sherlock faked his death regarding the packets of crisps still in his pockets. Plausible? – Emmy
Steven Moffat: Oh, no more questions about the fall. We're not tellng - the answer WILL come. He did it cleverly. Very cleverly. And we know, we're not telling - next!!
Mark Gatiss: Obviously we can tell you nothing! As Wilkie Collins said "Make them cry, make them laugh, make them WAIT".
The comedy moments in Sherlock are fantastic... what's your favourite quip or moment so far? – Laura
Steven Moffat: Power complex from Scandal. But actually, that was Mark's idea.
Mark Gatiss: I really love the bit in 'Reichenbach' when the judge warns Sherlock to keep his mouth shut and Benedict just takes a deep breath and there's a hard cut to him going to the cells!
Both of you: Does Sherlock realize how much he's hurting Molly or is it just a game for him to get what he wants? – Monika
Steven Moffat: He realises, for the first real time, in Scandal and is instantly gentle. He's not particularly cruel, he just doesn't have the right radar to stop it happening. But he's getting better, and she is one of the few people in the world he rates.
Mark Gatiss: He's gradually learning to behave better around people but he generally doesn't get how much he can hurt others. Sometimes he really does just do it to get what he wants. Like that nice scene in the Bart's canteen when he flirts with Molly...and then his face just...drops. Chilling!
Who wrote up John's blog? It's brilliant, especially the comments – Julia
Mark Gatiss: Joe Lidster writes John's brilliant blog. It's great to parallel the progress of the series in such a funny and interesting way.
Mark, how much does your writing for Sherlock owe to your early days with The League of Gentlemen? Are there any lessons you learned back then that you try to remember when writing Sherlock?
Secondly, how do you go about working on such complex and intertwined plots? Do you have a meticulous, quasi-scientific way of keeping track of everything or is the writing process more organic than that? – BadListener
Mark Gatiss: RE: League. Well, it's a very different discipline but all experience is valuable. I think it's interesting that both of us have a background in comedy. I think it helped us to love Sherlock Holmes without overly worshipping his legend! The plots are obviously quite tricky over 90 minutes and are worked out in great detail. But then the writing of it always takes over and some things do become much more organic. That's the fun part.
London looks so fantastic in Sherlock, like another character. How do you find it filming in the city, especially during the riots last year? – Jo
Mark Gatiss: It's a delight to showcase London. It's one of the greatest cities in the world and is on fine form. We tend to shoot here for about a week per episode. But it's mostly in Cardiff! The riots were genuinely frightening. You can feel a bit silly doing 'showbiz' when stuff like that is going on.
If you could ask sir Arthur Conan Doyle one question, what would it be? – Barbara
Steven Moffat: Sir Arthur: you killed Sherlock, but there was no body. You're a detective writer, you knew perfectly well what you were doing, didn't you? Even though you've never admitted it!
Mark Gatiss: How come you're so bloody brilliant? I asked him one last night through a medium, actually. His answer was "Six and three eighths".
If you could make your own "Sherlock Holmes" story to be published, would you? – John Smith
Steven Moffat: What, you mean a novelisation of our show? We don't really want that - or spinoff books. The written experience of Sherlock should be Doyle.
Mark Gatiss: Well, we're very much doing our own thing, although inspired by Doyle's amazing originals. I'm a big fan of pastiche Sherlock Holmes stories, though. I'd love to have a go at one some day. There are some by a man called Dennis Smith that are simply amazing. As close to Doyle as you can imagine.
Martin Freeman & Benedict Cumberbatch / Comic-Con 2013 -- MASTERPIECE Sherlock Series 3
2013.07.19. 12:41
Benedict Cumberbatch on His Emmy Nomination and Loving Matt Damon
Benedict Cumberbatch has a lot to celebrate this week. First there is his Emmy nomination for the miniseriesParade's End, which he found out about today. Then there is his birthday tomorrow, when he will turn 37. And then there is an old friend's civil wedding in Ibiza on Saturday, which he will be officiating (his first time!). "It's a very private, lovely thing to be asked to do," the actor said. "Of course, I'm going to make a joke after it, 'I do weddings. Next will be children's parties and bat mitzvahs,' if it goes well. It's a mainly Jewish and gay audience, so hopefully they will be lenient towards me." Vulture caught Cumberbatch on the phone just before his flight to Ibiza to chat about his Emmy nod, acting with his dad, and partying with his hero Matt Damon.
You can always pretend that the wedding reception you're going to be at this weekend is a joint celebration for your Emmy nomination.
Well, exactly! My friend doesn't even know this. I've been so busy trying to get luggage from one airport to another, I haven't even gotten around to telling him. I've got to call him! He's the next one to call. [Laughs.] I managed to tell my mum [Wanda Ventham] and dad [Timothy Carlton], who are over the moon, thrilled. My dad actually was in Parade's End.
Really?
He was the Westershire, the Duke of Westershire, the uncle. There's a very funny scene where we're having this picnic, and you cannot really quite tell what hurricane conditions we were acting in, because we just managed to steal a few shots between gale force winds ripping off wigs, costumes, and hats, jellies flying off the table like solidified food. It was hysterically funny. And yeah, dad's in that scene, and a couple of other scenes as well. It was pretty wonderful. I liked sharing screen time with him, and just have a day at work with him. It was a very special moment. And my dad has another connection to this: He used to date, a long time ago, he used to date Toby Jones's mum [Jennifer Heslewood]! Before Toby or his brother Rupert any of his family were a gleam in Freddie and Jenny's eyes — a long time ago, when they were young.
So your fellow nominee was a family friend, since he's up for playing Hitchcock in The Girl.
I saw Toby's career take off! I'd see him do one-man shows at Battersea, and then I just saw how brilliant he was in The Play What I Wrote, his whole career trajectory, to the shits and giggles of just being opposite each other on a plane going to the Golden Globes and now probably to the Emmys as well! It's just very exciting being nominated in the same category. We adore each other. I love his wife and his two children. I just adore his two daughters. They're very special. And he had given him advice about going to Manchester, because I was looking into university options, and he took the drama and English course at University of Manchester, and he was the one who swung it for me. And I had a great three years there, thanks to him, you know? I took his advice and ran. So we've been supporting each other and been friends for a long time, and we worked together at least twice, Creation and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. So for both of us to be in that category at the Emmys, with people who I've been inspired by for ages, [Al] Pacino, [Michael] Douglas, and in my generation, Matt Damon, who's a huge hero of mine, I'm beyond words. I'm bowled over by it, I really am. I'm so, so thrilled. What a great early birthday present!
How is Matt Damon your hero?
Well, he's just so grounded. He's so intelligent. He makes these smart choices, as an actor, as a producer, as a writer. He's so composed. You never hear a bad word said about him. Everybody loves him. And he just sounds like he's got his priorities right as a human being, and as an actor, he's phenomenal. What a screen presence. I saw Promised Land on the way to New Zealand where I was doing some more work on Smaug, the dragon in The Hobbit, and it was again, another superlative performance, the writing with John Krasinski, and just a great, great drama, setting up those arguments about the future of small-town America, and really, all small communities across the world, the crisis they face about money and income versus environmental concerns and community. It was a peaceful way of tackling it. The minute Matt and Ben [Affleck] appeared on the scene with Good Will Hunting, you knew it was a special moment. To see such young talent take the reins and create the means of work as well as star in it, and just do every one of their jobs at every level superlatively, it was very exciting. I think he's great. My biggest wish is to hang out with him!
Perhaps you'll get to do so at the Emmys. You need a guys' night out.
Yeah! I just want to get in a room with these guys and have conversations with them. I don't know what I'd say to them. I'd be a bit star struck [around Pacino and Douglas], but at least with Matt, I can kind of quiz him. And then cut to a hot night where we're all getting drunk and dancing and having a good time! Maybe it'll have to be on another occasion, but wouldn't that be cool, though? I would like to go out with that group full stop, wouldn't you? That would be a fun dinner party. I think that would be great fun.
Yeah, you could pick each other's brains, develop projects together, or not talk about work at all.
You're saying that like you can facilitate it. Do you have Matt's number? Can you pass along a message, and tell him that Benedict is a big fan and would like to hang? That would be brilliant.
Maybe you can even get him to do a cameo on Sherlock or something.
You know what? There's a part I would have loved for him to play in the third episode. He would have been amazing. But we need someone slightly older. I just got the script, and it's another early birthday present, because it is amazing. I don't want to hype it too much, because we haven't made it yet, but what a script! Steven Moffat is brilliant. I come back from Ibiza to prep for it, and so we shoot in about a week and a half's time. We shot the first two already, and then we had to break for Martin [Freeman] to do some pickups and things for The Hobbit, and for myself to do some Smaug-ing. That's all done now. So we're onSherlock for four weeks, into early September. So it's a good time, I tell you. It's a very, very exciting time to be me. I'm really lucky. I think the plane might be taking off without me, so I have to go! [Laughs.]
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