Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch Talk Taylor Swift
Benedict Cumberbatch had the privilege of interviewing his dear friend and fellow Internet heartthrob Tom Hiddleston for Interview magazine. Their discussion was deep and wide-ranging, from what they fear most ("regret" was the start of Hiddleston's response) to how they spend their downtime in between projects ("I live such a boring life. I just potter about, read books I've meant to read but haven't had time," Hiddleston begins).
Cumberbatch spoke to Hiddleston earlier this summer when he and Taylor Swift were seemingly still going strong (the timeframe is not explicitly stated, but Hiddleston had just started filming the new Thor film in Australia). As Interview's journalist, Cumberbatch did bring up Swift, only to say he'd make no further mention of her.
Hiddleston had a two-word response to that, but the entire exchange is fascinating when you consider the response that prompted Cumberbatch's Swift announcement. Hiddleston was discussing that "truth in drama is elusive"-a tangent very relevant to all the Hiddleswift conspiracy theories and intrigue going around at the time:
Hiddleston: Once you've seen certain things, the moral compunction drives you to act. And having seen what I've seen in South Sudan [through my UNICEF work], there's no way I can't talk about it. I've mentioned this to you before, but it reminds me of that extraordinary Nobel address by Harold Pinter where he talked about the distinction between truth as a dramatist and truth as a citizen. "Truth in drama is elusive. You never quite find it, but the search for it is compulsive." He says, "Sometimes you feel you have the truth of the moment in your hand and then it slips through your fingers and is lost." But as a citizen, you have a duty to ask what is true and what is false. I remember watching him deliver that, feeling very inspired.
Cumberbatch: I agree. How could you deny that impetus, having witnessed it firsthand? I can't even imagine what effect that must have on you. And there's another weight of us being in the public eye, which is this presumption that, because your work and your promotion work is very public, your private life should be, too. And, without getting into a huge debate, I just want to say that I'm not going to ask questions about my friend's personal life just because there are unsolicited photographs of him and a certain someone, in a relationship or together. I'm not going to get into that. So that door is closed, dear reader.
Hiddleston: (chuckles) Thank you.
Cumberbatch: You're welcome. I know you'd do the same for me.
[contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Taylor%20Swift%20and%20Tom%20Hiddleston's%20Romance%20Timeline" customtitles="The%20Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20Hiddleswift" customimages="" content="article.39043"]
You Might Also Like
