Benedict Cumberbatch Reveals Which A-List Actress He Wants to Join Him in 'Hamlet'

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Yahoo Movies is apparently getting into the casting business.

While sitting at the Toronto Ritz-Carlton chatting with a jet-lagged, caffeine-fueled Benedict Cumberbatch — the star of this year’s Oscar-bound biopic The Imitation Game, in which he stars as mathematician Alan Turing — we got to talking about his next projects, including his turn in the forthcoming The Penguins of Madagascar and The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.

But according to the 38-year-old actor, the role for which he’s perhaps most excited is actually happening next year, when he’ll play the lead in Hamlet in a production at London’s famed Barbican theater (alas, tickets are already sold out).

As it turns out, it was only last week that we were talking to The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby star Jessica Chastain about the role that’s still on her wish-list: “I’ve never played Ophelia,” she told Yahoo Movies. “I always thought I’d play Ophelia. And it’s probably not now in my future…it’s a strange thing for theater with actresses, because you kind of grow away from a role.”

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Well, maybe it’s not too late. When we mentioned this to Cumberbatch, he lit up: "She’s terrific! She can come and join our party if she wants. She hasn’t aged out of our production. I’m an older Hamlet, and we can all be contemporaries in the young world of that play."

When we suggested the star ask Chastain to work it out, Cumberbatch asked for us to help her out: “You give her a call. Call her up and see if she’s that interested in playing Ophelia now. I don’t think it’s an age thing, Jess. It would be lovely for us!”

So, Jessica — are you up to the challenge? If so, have your people call his people.

Photo credit: Getty Images