Cumberbatch: Acting is a game for life

Benedict Cumberbatch has said he wants to continue acting well into his seventies.

The Sherlock star, 38, said he is “in it for the long game”.

He told the Telegraph Magazine: “I’m interested in working in 40 years’ time, and turning round and talking to an actor on set and telling them stories about working with Judi Dench and Michael Gambon.

“So any talk of ’man of the moment’ hype, heat, whatever, I just smile wryly. It’s the same s*** with ’sexiest whatever’ – I was around 10 years before that as an actor and no one took the same face seriously.”

Cumberbatch plays code-breaker Alan Turing in biopic The Imitation Game, which is released later this month.

Turing, regarded as one of the fathers of computing, was given a posthumous royal pardon in December for his conviction for homosexuality – or an act of “gross indecency” – in 1952, which led to his chemical castration and also saw his security clearance being withdrawn for his post-war work at GCHQ. He went on to commit suicide in 1954.

Cumberbatch described his treatment as a “massive injustice”, saying: “I miss the fact that he’s not with us and should be with us.”

He also spoke about controversy surrounding his role as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.

Assange wrote to the actor claiming the Dreamworks production is based on a “toxic” book and believes the film “will distort events and subtract from public understanding” of his work.

Cumberbatch said: “I wrote back a very strong email that, unless he shows it, will never see the light of day. It’s one of the best pieces of writing I’ve ever done.”