Benedict Cumberbatch opens up on dealing with grief in 'The Thing With Feathers'

Benedict Cumberbatch is sharing an insight into playing a grieving father in The Thing With Feathers.

Benedict was accompanied by the film’s writer-director Dylan Southern while attending the European premiere of the Sundance Film Festival.

In The Thing With Feathers, Benedict plays a young man grieving the loss of his wife and raising two sons while simultaneously losing his grip on reality.

“A lot of this film is about letting go, and grief is also about letting go. Something that was there is no longer there,” said Cumberbatch.

“You can say that that’s something that we do as actors. You definitely don’t want to take this work home in a literal sense, but in a more profound sense, learning as an artist or as a human being, it’s about letting go, just leaning in and having faith, rather than to over-study and overthink,” the Sherlock star added.

The Doctor Strange star also noted what he likes about such projects, explaining, “I like material that allows the cinematic language to be seen and imagined in a non-verbal way.”

He continued: “This subconscious thing, the dream state, as a kind of manifestation of grief in the film… the fact that the father has lost his wife and he realizes that and breaks down in remorse and asks for the forgiveness — it’s definitely written into the script in the psychological way, but also in a pseudo- and semi-conscious way as well. Both of those states are really interesting because a lot of things are very non-verbal — unlike me, I’m very, unfortunately, very verbal.”

Adapted from Max Porter’s novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers, the movie stars Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall, Sam Spruell, and Vinette Robinson alongside Benedict Cumberbatch.