28 May 2024, 15:55 | Updated: 28 May 2024, 16:14

By Danielle De Wolfe

Benedict Cumberbatch has opened up about the appeal of playing unravelling characters including Dominic Cummings, Dr Strange and Hamlet, describing the roles as "enthralling to me in a sort of perverse way.”

Speaking in an interview with Andrew Marr ahead of his forthcoming Netflix release Eric, the 47-year-old Doctor Strange and Sherlock star touched on the parallels between his past and present roles - including that of Cummings.

“This is very much a Russian Doll story about layers; layers of who a certain person is," Cumberbatch explained, with Marr going on to draw parallels between Eric and that of Number 10 political strategist, Cummings.

“As an actor, I want to mess around in the worst of us to understand what the best of us is," he told Marr when pushed on the unravelling of his on-screen characters.

Cumberbatch starred as former Number 10 advisor and strategist as part of the 2019 HBO television film Brexit.

"It’s that journeying through the dark to reach some kind of light," he explained, adding: “It’s enthralling to me, in some kind of perverse way, I guess, but It’s what drives me to do these characters justice and give something authentic to them... it's to realise that if we don’t do that, we have no chance of change.”

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