Interview: Benedict Cumberbatch on "Penguins of Madagascar" | Interviews

How did McGrath come to provide Skipper’s voice? “I think there is a little bit of Tom in Skipper,” Darnell says. “He can slide into that role. He gets it. Or you might even say those four penguins are different aspects of his personality. The four guys together kind of create this unified personality that has commitment and chutzpah and brains and heart. That’s Tom.”

As for Mr. Cumberbatch? “We saw him about three and a half years ago,” Smith says. “In “Sherlock.” And our editor is an Australian and he saw him before we did, because they ran “Sherlock” before they ran it here. He said, ‘You’ve got to see this guy, Benedict Cumberbatch.’ We thought that was an interesting name. Lara Breay, the producer, and I both saw him and it was like, ‘Oh my God, this guy is amazing.’ And we campaigned to try to get him in for casting, specifically for the character of Classified. We liked the juxtaposition of a James Bond type, suave and sophisticated, to go against the crazy John Wayne-like, shoot-first-ask-questions-later Skipper and the boys. We asked him to do the movie and he said, ‘Absolutely, I’d love to do it.’”

Smith and company were impressed by the actor’s conviction to his role, silly puns and all. “He is such a professional. He just dove right in and was willing to do anything,  even giving the Benedict Cumberbatch treatment to lines like, ‘No one breaks the Wind.’ That is the only reason we named them the North Wind, by the way. Just for that gag.”

Without further wind-related ado, here are Cumberbatch and McGrath.

I work for RogerEbert.com although I am based in Virginia near Washington, D.C. The website has contributors from all over.

McGrath:  I just went to Washington for the first time.

That’s almost un-American.

McGrath: I know. I’m working on a project with Kevin Spacey. Do you know Kevin?

Cumberbatch: Oh, yeah.

McGrath: He’s a kick.  He is doing a voice for this other project. And I had never been to Washington before. I loved it when I was there. Have you been?

Cumberbatch: No, I haven’t. And I really want to. Yeah, it’s on the bucket list for me.

Don’t go in the summer.

Cumberbatch: No, it’s very swampy I hear.

Tom, when I was still at USA TODAY, you did these postcards written in the voice of each of the four main characters in “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.”