Benedict Cumberbatch on Oscar buzz

Benedict Cumberbatch has said “flattering” Oscar buzz around his performance in The Imitation Game is “fantastic… if it create an interest for the film”.

The Sherlock star spoke at a press conference today ahead of the European premiere of the codebreaking war drama, which will open the 58^th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19) on Leicester Square tonight.

His performance as computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing is already being tipped as an Oscar contender.

“If it gets people to see the film, that’s all I care about,” said Cumberbatch of the awards buzz.

“It’s flattering, of course, but if it creates an interest for the film, that’s fantastic because it makes our jobs as storytellers easy.

“More importantly for me, I want his story to be known as widely as possible. I found myself asking: ‘Why isn’t this man on our currency? Why isn’t he on the cover of history textbooks.”

Turing is credited with cracking Germany’s Enigma code during the Second World War. But he killed himself in 1954 after being prosecuted under anti-gay laws for gross indecency. It was only in December 2013 that he received a posthumous royal pardon.

Cumberbatch said he hoped the film will help bring Turing “the recognition he deserves as a scientist, as the father of the modern computer age, a war hero and as a man who lived an uncompromised life in a time of disgusting discrimination.”

The film first screened at Tullride and Toronto last month, but on opening LFF, Cumberbatch said: “It’s amazing. I’m a Londoner and I’ve always wanted to spend more time at the LFF.

“To be upfront and centre with this film, I couldn’t be more proud of it and all our work in it.”

Keira Knightley plays his close friend and fellow-code breaker Joan Clarke, who was also at the press conference with Norwegian director Marten Tyldum and screenwriter Graham Moore.

Tyldum, whose Headhunters played at LFF in 2011, said of Turing: “He was such an unsung hero who achieved so much and was ahead of his time, outside of his time. With the character and the story, it became something I needed to do.”

Around 250 feature films will be presented over the 12-day festival, which close of Oct 19 with David Ayer’s tank drama Fury, starring Brad Pitt.