Benedict Cumberbatch was 'floored' when he emerged from his 'Power of the Dog' coffin to find the crew throwing a 'weird celebration' for him
- Benedict Cumberbatch stayed in character for the full "Power of the Dog" shoot.
- He said he finally met the film's crew after filming ended with a shot of him in a coffin.
Benedict Cumberbatch said that the first time he truly met the crew of "The Power of the Dog" was after he wrapped filming on his final scene and he climbed out of his character Phil Burbank's coffin.
Near the end of the film, directed by Jane Campion, there's a shot of Phil lying in a coffin as its lid gets shut. That shot was taken on the last day of filming, Cumberbatch told the Los Angeles Times, putting an end to his character's story, both through the camera's lens and for Cumberbatch himself — the actor told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2021 that at Campion's request, he stayed in character as the cruel rancher while on set during the 12-week shoot.
Cumberbatch told the Los Angeles Times that he remained in the coffin even after Campion finished the shot, hearing the sound of clinking glasses and Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah." Then, he was finally let out, both physically and metaphorically.
"The opened the coffin and it was this weird celebration and f---ed up commemoration all in one," Cumberbatch told the Los Angeles Times. "I was so floored. Even now, I"m getting choked up talking about it."
Cumberbatch told the Los Angeles Times (and previously, The Hollywood Reporter) that Campion originally introduced him to the crew not as Benedict, but as Phil, saying that they would "meet Benedict at the end of the movie" and that he was "really nice."
Campion told The Hollywood Reporter that while Cumberbatch "does a lot of apologizing and politeness work," she didn't want to hear him "say anything other than no" and instructed him to "never apologize" during the shoot.
"I immediately went into stuttering English actor mode, super self-conscious because everyone was just kind of staring at me like I had just dropped out of the back of an animal," he told the Los Angeles Times of the pseudo-funeral moment. "'Why are you staring?' 'Well, it's because we really haven't met you.'"
"That's how wonderful my immersion into Phil was," Cumberbatch continued. "They gave me the space to play this toxic but ultimately damaged and flawed human being."