Benedict Cumberbatch On ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,’ His Gay Character [VIDEO EXCLUSIVE]

The brilliant crime-solving star of BBC’s Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch co-stars alongside Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and more in Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy. Based on the beloved novel by John le Carre, Cumberbatch plays Peter Guillam, an intelligence officer instructed to steal a logbook to further investigate the allegations of a mole in a senior position in British intelligence.

Cumberbatch was born in London and has a diverse career as a theater actor as well as in movies and television. He began his acting career in school productions at Harrow, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in England. Afterward, he studied drama at The University of Manchester and continued his acting training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Between high school and university, Cumberbatch took a gap year to teach English in Tibet. Some of his most well-known films include the role of Stephen Hawking in the BBC TV movie, Hawking, a part in Atonement with Keira Knightly, and Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. Cumberbatch was named “Actor of the Year 2011” by British GQ.

For Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Cumberbatch found inspiration for his character from the original novel. “I think that the film is much a character study of male loneliness and a pretty devastating workplace than anything else,” Cumberbatch told Uinterview exclusively.