Benedict Cumberbatch’s Secret to Playing Smaug

To prepare for his role as Smaug the dragon in The Hobbit films, Benedict Cumberbatch visited London Zoo to study some of their reptiles.

Not only will he be providing the voice of the dragon, but he will also be using some elements of motion-capture to really breathe life into the dragon.

“It’s an extrapolation of a performance into something other than an actor,” he told the British edition of InStyle magazine. “But essentially, you’re still doing a scene.”

Cumberbatch also cites his professionalism as being a big contributor to his ongoing success:

”I grew up surrounded by professional actors so it stood me in good stead. I know what a sin it is to be late, I’m really hot on those sorts of things.

”It’s very easy to burn bridges and many actors don’t think it matters, but it does because people end up saying, ‘Yeah but you don’t want to work with him because he’s a pain in the ass.”’