Ben Whishaw

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Ben Whishaw

Benjamin John Whishaw (born October 14, 1980 in Hitchin , Hertfordshire ) is a British theater and film actor . In addition to his theater work, he has participated in more than 20 film and television productions since the late 1990s, for which he was awarded the Golden Globe and Emmy , among others . He achieved international fame through his leading role as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in the literary film The Perfume - The Story of a Murderer . He was mainly entrusted with the representation of vulnerable and androgynous characters in film and theater .

Life

Training and first theater roles

Ben Whishaw comes from a Bedfordshire family with no relation to art or theater. His father, a former soccer player, works in the IT industry and has Russian , German and French ancestry. His mother was employed by the British chain John Lewis . He has a fraternal twin brother who works in the financial industry. Whishaw, who described himself as shy in his childhood, took on roles in school performances and attended the youth theater in Hitchin from the age of 14, after which he began to be interested in a career as an actor. “What I liked about the theater was that it was an orderly place where you were heard. Where your words are given to you. Where to express things that you normally would not express. I think I felt more confident there than in real life, ”said Whishaw.

Whishaw attended Samuel Whitbread Community College in Clifton before moving to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . The 175 cm great actors acted in the traditional London drama school in such diverse roles as that of Konstantin / Yakov and Don Pedro in John Beschizzas productions of Chekhov's The Seagull and William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing , and the Stanley in the Richard Williams staged piece The Birthday Party . After graduating in acting in 2003, he appeared in Nicholas Hytner's His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theater that same year . In 2004 Whishaw played the title role of Hamlet at the Old Vic Theater, directed by Trevor Nunn . Whishaw shared the lead role with Al Weaver in the Big Spirit Theater Company's production, which was mostly made up of young actors , which, according to Trevor Nunn, should take the pressure off the two young actors. Whishaw, who played one of the youngest Hamlets every night except Mondays and matinées, received great reviews and the production was nominated for several theater awards. Whishaw himself was nominated for four different actor awards in 2005, including the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award and the Evening Standard Award . Whishaw had other appearances with the Big Spirit Theater Company in the plays If This is a Man and I licked a slag's Deodorant .

Film career

Whishaw with Judi Dench

Ben Whishaw made his screen debut in 1999 in a supporting role in William Boyd's war drama The Trench alongside u. a. Daniel Craig , with whom he made two other films in 2004 and starred in a Bond film adaptation in 2012 . In 1999, Michel Blanc's drama Mauvaise passe with Daniel Auteuil and Stuart Townsend followed . After the actor played Little Joe , who oscillates between masturbation and drugs, in the twelve-minute short film Baby , a first respectable success followed. In the drama My brother Tom from Dom Rotheroe Whishaw mimes the title role, a teenager who abused by his father and a gang is harassed until it with the same age Jessica (played by Jenna Harrison ) befriends. Whishaw received the British Independent Film Award for Best Young Actor for his portrayal of Tom and was also honored as best actor at the Sochi Film Festival .

This was followed by other supporting roles in, among others, Michael Radford's film version of the Shakespeare classic The Merchant of Venice and Matthew Vaughn's crime drama Layer Cake , before he surprisingly played the leading role of the perfumer journeyman and murderer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Tom Tykwer's historical thriller The Perfume - Die History of a murderer received. During the casting for the film adaptation of the successful novel of the same name by Patrick Süskind , Whishaw a. a. prevailed against prominent competitors like Leonardo DiCaprio or Orlando Bloom . In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up that Whishaw was “more handsome than the boy in the book”, but “quite dirty and disturbing”. The actor got together with film producer Bernd Eichinger and Tom Tykwer that of Hubert Burda Media conferred Television Award Bambi in the category film - National and nominations for the Young Actor Award of the British Academy Film Awards and the European Film Awards .

In 2005 Whishaw appeared as Keith Richards in Stephen Woolley's biopic Stoned , followed by Todd Haynes ' musical film I'm Not There in 2007 , in which he starred as Bob Dylan with Christian Bale , Cate Blanchett , Richard Gere and Heath Ledger, among others stood in front of the camera. After his starring role as a suspected murderer in the BBC television multi -parter Criminal Justice (2008), he starred in the same year alongside Matthew Goode and Hayley Atwell as Sebastian Flyte, attracted to men and alcohol, in the film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's famous novel Reunion with Brideshead . In 2009 he starred with Abbie Cornish in Jane Campion's romantic historical drama Bright Star , which is about the liaison between the late English poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Campion, initially unsure of Whishaw's cast, later described him as "beautiful as a cat [...] almost not really". The actor himself compared the shooting experience to Hamlet's rehearsals . “I always look for an emotional answer, and Keats did that for me,” said Whishaw. In 2009 he appeared in Mike Bartlett's play Cock at London's Royal Court Theater as a young homosexual who breaks up with his lover and meets the girl of his dreams. In early 2010, Whishaw made his theatrical debut in New York Off-Broadway alongside Hugh Dancy and Andrea Riseborough in The Pride , in which he starred as a homosexual writer of the 1950s and a modern sex addict .

In 2012, Whishaw first appeared in the role of Q in the James Bond film Skyfall . In the same year he took over the title role in Rupert Goold's television version of Shakespeare's Richard II on the occasion of the cultural celebrations for the Summer Olympics in London .

In 2018 he was appointed to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , which awards the Oscars every year.

Private

Since August 2012, Ben Whishaw has been living in a registered partnership with the Australian composer Mark Bradshaw .

Whishaw, who u. a. for music, which interests physical theater and dance, painting is one of his hobbies after dropping out of art studies.

Filmography (selection)

Stage plays (selection)

  • 2003: His Dark Materials
  • 2004: Hamlet
  • 2005: Mercury Fur
  • 2006: The Seagull ( The Seagull )
  • 2007: Leaves of Glass
  • 2008:… Some Trace of Her
  • 2009: Cock
  • 2010: The Pride
  • 2013: Peter and Alice
  • 2013: Mojo
  • 2015: Bakkhai ( The Bakchen )
  • 2016: The Crucible ( witch hunt )

Awards (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sony: Skyfall Press Release, October 15, 2012, p. 37: "BEN WHISHAW was born on October 14, 1980 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire."
  2. ↑ Warner: Press Booklet Cloud Atlas , 2012, p. 33: "Ben Whishaw ... was born in the English town of Hitchin"
  3. ↑ a b c d e Gray, Marianne: In love with Hamlet, Dylan, Keats… . In: The Spectator , October 31, 2009, p. 50.
  4. ^ A b c d Preston, John: It's always the quiet ones . In: The Sunday Telegraph , June 17, 2012, pp. 14-15.
  5. ↑ Fritz Göttler: fragrance images with incorrect colors. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. Munich September 12, 2006.
  6. ↑ Jung, Irene: Cinema: "Bright Star" - Jane Campion reports back with a period film . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , December 23, 2009, No. 299, p. 6.
  7. ↑ bbc.co.uk - Ben Whishaw cast as Q in new James Bond film Skyfall (English) November 25, 2011
  8. ↑ Academy invites 928 to Membersphip . In: oscars.org (accessed June 26, 2018).
  9. ↑ queer.de: Actor Ben Whishaw partnered for a year.
  10. ↑ ALMEIDA GREEKS BAKKHAI EURIPIDES | A NEW VERSION BY ANNE CARSON | DIRECTED BY JAMES MACDONALD
  11. ↑ [1]
personal data
SURNAME Whishaw, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Whishaw, Benjamin John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British theater and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Hitchin , Hertfordshire