Writer Graham Moore confessed that he’d been obsessed with Alan Turing’s story since he was a teenager. Director Morten Tyldum said he didn’t understand why Turing had not been on the front cover of history books when he was at school. Benedict Cumberbatch wanted Turing’s story to be known ‘as broadly as possible’.
Such is the passion behind THE IMITATION GAME, as was evident at the London press conference earlier this week. Moore, Tyldum, Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley were all in London for the opening gala of the London Film Festival and managed to fit in the time to discuss the film and why they each felt so honoured to be a part of it.
‘It’s an honour to be involved,’ Moore explained, his sentiments echoed by the others on the panel. Cumberbatch, who plays Turing in the film, said: ‘The idea of getting a broader story out there and a broader picture of him to a broader audience is obviously something that does bear a certain weight . . . It’s his legacy!’ Cumberbatch added that personally, he wanted to ‘examine something that’s not very well documented’.
‘The idea of getting a broader story out there and a broader picture of him to a broader audience is obviously something that does bear a certain weight . . . It’s his legacy!’ – Benedict Cumberbatch on taking on Alan Turing for THE IMITATION GAME
The documentation remained something of a challenge for all involved in the making of the film as there wasn’t really much to go on. Knightley was asked about the research she did into the real woman behind Joan Clarke, the woman she portrays in the film, and said that she found a video of her being interviewed while in her seventies so watched that. Knightley was struck by how protective Clarke was of Turing, even all those years later. Knightley also added: ‘[Clarke] was absolutely somebody who was breaking boundaries in her own right but she didn’t go about it like a bull in a china shop. You sort of didn’t see her coming.’
Tyldum (HEADHUNTERS) explained that Turing was ‘such an unsung hero who achieved so much’. He confessed that when he first discovered the script, he became a bit obsessed with it. ‘To me, this is a movie about outsiders,’ Tyldum said, adding that Turing was ‘ahead of his time, outside his time’. One of the few non-Brits to be involved with the film, Tyldum said that it was ‘a great honour’ to be opening the London Film Festival.
‘[Clarke] was absolutely somebody who was breaking boundaries in her own right but she didn’t go about it like a bull in a china shop. You sort of didn’t see her coming.’ – Keira Knightley on taking on Joan Clarke for THE IMITATION GAME
His cast certainly were on hand to sing Tyldum’s praises. Cumberbatch said that this film needed a director not just with energy but also with intelligence and wit – and they got that with Tyldum. Though Knightley added with a laugh that Tyldum also came with a ‘lot of caffeine’.
It also turns out that despite portraying a group of extremely smart individuals, the cast’s talents with things like Sudoku and crosswords has not improved. Knightley said that they were awful at crosswords and when an expert came and tried to explain the machine to them they all got rather confused, with Knightley adding that it was like being back at school.
THE IMITATION GAME is released in the UK on 14th November
