This Is How Benedict Cumberbatch Became a Dragon in 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug'

How do you prepare to portray the father of all contemporary fantasy dragons? For Benedict Cumberbatch, getting into character as The Hobbit’s fire-breathing nemesis Smaug involved sticking white dots all over his face and rolling around on the floor in a motion-capture suit. That may sound more like playtime than performing, but as this just-released clip (above) from a behind-the-scenes featurette on the extended edition DVD and Blu-ray of The Desolation of Smaug (in stores on November 3) makes clear, it was an instrumental part of bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic dragon to life for Peter Jackson’s three-installment adaptation of the author’s 1937 novel.

Jackson is no stranger to mo-cap, of course, having made great advances in the technology with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where Andy Serkis’s Gollum stole the show. Cumberbatch, on the other hand, didn’t have any prior experience with the process, but he encouraged the director to pursue that route — over traditional animation — for Smaug. Speaking with Screen Slam last year, the Sherlock star remembers telling Jackson: “I’m really keen on doing motion capture, because I think it’s got to be embodied. I don’t want to just do something to animation, and do something in a blind spot, and not really know how it’s going to manifest. I want to lead a little bit of the creative process. [to give] the physicality around the voice.”

In that same interview, Cumberbatch mentioned how crucial movement was to hitting upon the right voice for Smaug. And the behind-the-scenes clip illustrates the way his physical and vocal performance work in concert to provide the basis for the digitally-enhanced dragon moviegoers see onscreen. Jackson himself was particularly taken with Cumberbatch’s voice. “The other secret weapon we had for Smaug beyond his design was the fact the he is a talking dragon,” he remarks in the featurette. “We could use his personality to our advantage. We wanted someone who actually would do something original [and] unexpected, something that was a surprise to us.” Seeing how much fun Cumberbatch is having playing in mo-cap land is definitely a pleasant surprise.

Here's a trailer for the extended version of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Photo credits: Warner Bros.