UK Edition
Benedict Cumberbatch to play Romany Gypsy bare-knuckle fighter in upcoming film
Benedict Cumberbatch has landed a new film role as a Romany Gypsy bare-knuckle fighter after claiming he couldn't escape "class-typing".
The Oscar nominee, 41, has been cast in Gypsy Boy, the film adaptation of Mikey Walsh's best-selling memoirs.
The autobiography, along with its sequel Gypsy Boy: On The Run, chronicled Walsh's experiences growing up and, knowing that he was gay, running away from the Romany community of champion bare-knuckle fighters in England in the 1980s and 1990s.
Cumberbatch will play Mikey's father, Frank, who places a pair of golden gloves on a chain around his son's neck when he is born in the hope that he will maintain the family's fighting reputation.
Speaking about the role, he said it was "unlike any character I've played before".
"I was immediately drawn to Mikey's courageous and heart-breaking story," he said. "He's a complex man torn between tradition and his love for a son struggling to come to terms with an identity that's completely at odds with Frank and his culture.
"It's a tension that threatens to tear everyone in their family and that community apart."
It comes after Cumberbatch, who was educated at Harrow, said he was typecast due to his background.
In an interview in 2011 with the Radio Times, he said: "Being a posh actor in England you cannot escape the class-typing from whatever side you look at it.
"I realised from quite early on that, although I wasn’t trying to make a class specialty of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals."
Casting is currently under way to find a young actor to play Mikey opposite Cumberbatch.
Filmmaker Morgan Matthews will be directing the movie, financed by BBC Films.
"I fell in love with this story as soon as I heard Mikey speaking about his childhood on the radio a few years ago," he said.
"Mikey's extraordinary life touches upon the universal subjects of identity, love, conflict, courage and sacrifice - set within a brutal and extreme yet paradoxically beautiful and intoxicating hidden world.
"I'm so excited to have Benedict on board - it's a dream to be able to work with him."
Production on the film is due to start next summer.