Spotlight: Ben Whishaw

Expect Ben Whishaw to be a familiar face on our cinema screens this year. He’s just appeared as the villainous Uriah Heep in Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, he’s reprising Q for the third time in the upcoming Bond release, No Time to Die, and, most interestingly of all, his turn in Palme d’Or-contending Little Joe is about to reach UK screens this weekend.

Courtesy of: BFI Distribution

Perhaps ‘familiar face’ is the wrong turn of phrase for Whishaw though. There have been few actors with a more prodigious catalogue of high-quality roles in theatre, TV and film over the last 20 years, but he’s still not quite a household name, and, in fact, there is a certain facelessness, a chameleon-like feel, to his presence on screen. I recently introduced Whishaw to my poetry students on the basis of his turn as John Keats in Jane Campion’s Bright Star. To a person, they were in the dark as to who Whishaw actually is, until I dropped in the fact of him playing Q in the recent James Bond run. The irony of that sole reference is that Whishaw would have been a genuinely leftfield and potentially intuitive choice for the Bond producers when they look to replace Craig, rather than their more unimaginative realisation of Whishaw’s talents in the geeky, socially awkward role of Q.

It’s hard to believe that Whishaw isn’t yet 40, given the aforementioned two decades of consistent credits. His first real mark on the wider cultural consciousness came with his turn as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn’s 2004 production of the play at the Old Vic. Playing Hamlet is considered the apotheosis of a stage actor’s career, and is usually given to actors in their thirties or even early forties, yet Whishaw played the role to great success as a flinty 23 year-old. To film aficionados though, Whishaw had already made a ripple with his titular turn in the dark and naturalistic British film, My Brother Tom (2001).

Courtesy of: CinemArt

Whishaw’s first major lead role in cinema came as the murderer in the 2006 adaptation of Patrick Süskind’s bestselling novel, Perfume. That piece of casting as Süskind’s antihero reached at the heart of Whishaw’s on-screen allure. His persona carries with it something of a paradox. There’s a sensitivity and vulnerability to him, while that piercing interiority can also suggest a certain ambiguity and Machiavellian quality too.

Whishaw fans will have their own ideas about his most seminal role, though the one that best merged his distinctive physical characteristics with an outlet for his beautiful voice and impeccable verse-speaking was his turn as Keats in Bright Star. In one of the most underrated films of the 21st century, Jane Campion’s dreamy aesthetic, combined with Mark Bradshaw’s extraordinary original score, and Whishaw and Abbie Cornish’s heartbreaking romantic pairing, created a suitable paean to the sensual world of John Keats’ poetry.

Courtesy of: Warner Bros.

Versatility is often an affront to an industry that wants to pigeon-hole its young actors and actresses. For the last 10 years though, Whishaw’s ability to play different roles – comic or serious, lead or support, contemporary or period – has been a boon to his career. He has appeared in a variety of big Hollywood numbers (the Bond films, The International, Mary Poppins Returns), British films (Brideshead Revisited, Suffragette), as well as interesting independent fare (The Lobster, The Zero Theorem, Lilting).

Perhaps Whishaw’s most beloved role though, and certainly one that honours the gentility and sensitivity implicit in his reedy voice, has been as Paddington in Paul King’s lovely diptych of films. It’s ironic that this faceless quality of Whishaw should be most aptly realised in a film where he doesn’t visually appear. But then there can be no doubt that Whishaw’s voice is one of the main authors of these films’ gorgeous ode to those unfashionable qualities of kindness and generosity.

WHISHAW’S FIVE GREATEST HITS (in chronological order)

My Brother Tom (2001)

Courtesy of: CinemArt

Whishaw was awarded the Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards that year for his turn here as the mysterious Tom in a poignant ode to a friendship made amid harrowing family circumstances.

Bright Star (2009)

Courtesy of: Warner Bros.

A role made for Whishaw’s voice and sensibility. One of the finest literary biopics ever made.

Richard II (2012)

Okay, so technically this was a TV film made to coincide with the 2012 Olympics in London. But this showcases Whishaw’s theatrical pedigree in one of Shakespeare’s most complex and underrated plays.

Lilting (2014)

Courtesy of: Artificial Eye

A touching and mature film where Whishaw’s Richard, grieving the recent death of his partner, befriends the mother of his partner – a Chinese woman who cannot speak a word of English – in a modern, cosmopolitan London.

Paddington 2 (2017)

Courtesy of: StudioCanal

A more heart-warming film, you could not wish to see! Though not literally visible, Whishaw – as the voice of Paddington – is right at the heart of this film’s lovely ethos.