BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH HAS described his diet for Marvel’s Doctor Strange as ‘horrific’, calling the practice of eating beyond the body’s needs ‘grossly wasteful’. The actor revealed he had to consume five meals a day to meet the energy demands of the role, but ultimately found the lifestyle environmentally unsustainable.
During a podcast interview on Ruthie’s Table 4, Cumberbatch was asked if he had any special diets for the Marvel films. He shared, ‘It depends what job. If I am doing a high volume of exercise, I’m pumped for something like the Marvel films as Doctor Strange, which, you know, you have all that garb on – you need that strength to hold your posture, to have core strength, to be strong in the harnesses, all the fight scenes and the flying.
‘It’s great fun, I love it. I love body transformations in my job. If you don’t have the budget, you have to do it very carefully, but on Marvel, it’s a big sand pit, so they’ve got resources.’
He admits that the privileges of the job make it easy to bulk up: ‘You have someone who can prescribe you what you’re eating, and they can cook for you. We had a fantastic chef on the last Doctor Strange film.’
‘It’s this amazing facility to go: ‘Right, he needs to be on this many calories a day. He needs to have five meals. He needs to have a couple of boiled eggs between those five meals or some kind of high-protein snack, cheese and crackers, or almond butter and crackers. Crackers, lots of crackers. And for me, the exercise is great, and the end result is that you feel strong, and you feel confident. You hold yourself better. You have a stamina through the exercise and the food that makes you last through the gig.’
Cumberbatch has been very vocal on the importance of sustainability and is an ambassador for Greenpeace, participating in campaigns with the NGO. Therefore, living in excess was not something he could get on board with.
‘It’s horrific,’ he shared. ‘Personally, I think it’s horrific eating beyond your appetite. Going back to responsibility, and resourcefulness, and sustainability, it’s just like, “What are we? What am I doing? I could feed a family with the amount I’m eating!”
‘It’s a grossly wasteful industry. Think about set builds that aren’t recycled, think about transport, think about food, think about housing, but also light and energy. The amount of wattage you need to sort of create daylight and consistent light in a studio environment. It’s a lot of energy.’
He later revealed that the comfort food he craves the most is not chips, chocolate or cake, but instead: kale. ‘Kale sort of shocked in a pan with a bit of olive oil,’ he said. ‘And then lemon juice and some chilli flakes, and then a tiny bit of water just to steam it so the flavour is locked in by the quick heat. Then cook through a little bit more, thoroughly but not soggily. I crave that vegetable. I really do.’
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
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