{"id":771396,"date":"2026-09-15T11:52:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771396\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T11:52:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:52:26","slug":"benedict-cumberbatch-on-his-earth-saving-eco-film-we-are-in-the-last-grab-of-the-extraction-era-documentary-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771396\/","title":{"rendered":"Benedict Cumberbatch on his Earth-saving eco film: \u2018We are in the last grab of the extraction era\u2019 | Documentary films"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benedict Cumberbatch is dreading stepping outside. He\u2019s speaking to me from his air-conditioned hotel room in Soho at the peak of the summer heat. Few doubt that climate breakdown was a major cause of those scorchers, with nature, farming and water supplies all placed under huge strain. By midsummer, according to a report co-authored by the Met Office<\/a>, there were 2,700 excess deaths in England and Wales due to the searing heat.<\/p>\n

But for Cumberbatch, in a bittersweet way, the record-breaking temperatures have come at a good time. The actor has been on a tour to promote his new documentary, How to Live on Earth. \u201cThe irony is not lost on anyone,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re living in the results of climate breakdown so stepping outside is \u2013 literally \u2013 a call to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation mark\u2018I walk my dog on the heath. I cycle, use public transport \u2013 and I\u2019m a wild-water nut\u2019<\/p>\n

His film launches on YouTube this month and the actor hopes it is a \u201cblueprint\u201d for how we interact with our besieged planet in the future. It features Cumberbatch delivering monologues from the cavernous halls of the Natural History Museum in London, in between short films showing how activists, scientists and even chefs are learning a \u201cnew way to live on Earth\u201d \u2013 one that could stop humanity damaging it.<\/p>\n

Cumberbatch has spent the last two decades trying to reframe his relationship with the planet: he\u2019s tried to live more gently on Earth and became vegan. However, this was a problem during the shooting of The Courier, in which he plays captured British spy Greville Wynne, who languishes in a Russian jail. \u201cThey said, \u2018You can\u2019t have any fibre in the last two weeks. You need to eat lean meat.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018I\u2019m vegan!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018You should think about eating a little bit of meat now\u2019 \u2026 Cumberbatch in The Courier. Photograph: Liam Daniel\/AP<\/p>\n

No fibre for two weeks must have been tough on the bowels? \u201cYes, it was, but it was much less than what the character I was portraying went through, because it was a true story.\u201d Although he went straight back on the vegetables, the extreme diet caused his blood sugar to plummet and he became unwell. \u201cPeople were saying, \u2018You should think about eating a little bit of meat now, because your body doesn\u2019t really work under these conditions \u2013 you\u2019ve lost so much weight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Cumberbatch tries to source the meat he does eat ethically, opting for venison, which in the UK needs to be culled as the country has an overpopulation of deer. But his experience on The Courier is just one way that working in films can challenge even the most committed eco-campaigner. Cumberbatch works with the Green Rider<\/a> movement, which asks actors to make cutting pollution and emissions during filming a condition of taking part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to push towards is where it becomes contractual,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re working with Disney at the moment \u2013 their Avengers project in the UK. So yeah, it\u2019s scaling up \u2013 and everyone I speak to about it in my community is on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, he\u2019s ditched veganism, but would he get a private jet? \u201cNo,\u201d he says, but adds the caveat: \u201cWe just waste our energy if we\u2019re naysaying and calling people hypocrites. The fashion industry is a bigger polluter than aviation, and the food industry massively. That\u2019s all of us, that\u2019s everyone.\u201d Not just movie stars.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of the work we do just isn\u2019t widely seen\u2019 \u2026 snow leopard expert Dan O\u2019Neill in the rainforest. Photograph: Open Planet Studios<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old has long been an environmental campaigner. He visited the Extinction Rebellion protests in 2019 and has been dismayed by the recent government crackdowns on climate protests, with long sentences given to people who have blocked roads and smashed windows for the cause. \u201cWe should have the right in a democracy to peaceful action, even if it is direct action,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Cumberbatch is keen to highlight the film\u2019s positive message and, unlike most environmental documentaries, it does (almost) have a happy ending. It follows some remarkable people, from Indigenous activists trying to protect salmon from a dam, to Barack Obama\u2019s former White House chef who is experimenting with alternative proteins. The message is that there are alternatives out there, and that nature can heal if humans stop hurting it.<\/p>\n

One of the film\u2019s most striking characters is Dan O\u2019Neill, a biologist who studies big cats and spends weeks at a time in the depths of rainforests to study the creatures who live there. He\u2019s hopelessly in love with nature and that comes across in the film. \u201cI always work in remote places,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of the work we do just isn\u2019t seen by wide audiences. People in Mongolia often have never seen a snow leopard, for example. I am so proud How to Live on Earth is going on YouTube \u2013 as people who live in these remote places can see it. It democratises our message for the entire world. Indigenous communities will see themselves represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one scene, O\u2019Neill is being whisked away from the rainforest in a car, and he turns on his phone to finally receive messages from friends and family after a long stretch without signal. But his dopamine hit turns to frustration as he is barraged with notifications and he ends up missing the seclusion of the forest. \u201cThat happens every time,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt is so weird that we are addicted to this little device. The ability to communicate with my family even from remote parts of the world is powerful. But the second you get your phone, you realise you don\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of us have a similar love-hate relationship with our phones and Cumberbatch is no exception. \u201cFor about half a year,\u201d he says, \u201cI haven\u2019t brought myself to look at the tally of unanswered WhatsApps and emails. It\u2019s just thousands. I can\u2019t deal with it.\u201d He talks disparagingly of \u201cswiping left, clickbait, all the rest of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re making cutting emissions a condition of taking part in a film\u2019 \u2026 in Avengers: Infinity War. Photograph: Chuck Zlotnick\/AP<\/p>\n

Jonnie Hughes, the film\u2019s producer, found O\u2019Neill and all the other participants in far-flung corners of the globe. \u201cSome people,\u201d he says, \u201cjust cast themselves because they\u2019re incredible individuals who have done something amazing and they can get across all the emotion and the excitement we should all be feeling, because it\u2019s too easy to feel gloomy when we see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumberbatch and company discuss some blue-sky thinking in the documentary, which to the jaded viewer could seem unrealistic. The conclusion is that the trees in rainforests should be viewed as more valuable than the gold underneath them \u2013 which may be true in some moral sense, but is it going to happen in today\u2019s economic system?<\/p>\n

double quotation markWe don\u2019t want to foster extraction \u2013 nor all the other nasty things of populism and nationalism<\/p>\n

\u201cNature that\u2019s alive is actually far more valuable to us than dead nature,\u201d Cumberbatch says. \u201cSo an elephant\u2019s tusk is not worth as much as the elephant alive, in terms of what it brings to the savannah, to make the savannah work as an ecosystem. It\u2019s how you create a new financial model whereby people can invest as shareholders in nature and that nature \u2013 which has done all this work for us for free \u2013 can actually be monetised to be protected, actually get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

His view is refreshingly optimistic and he says he truly believes humans can save the planet: \u201cHopefully, what we\u2019re seeing now in this last grab for the extractive industries is that we actually don\u2019t want to foster that, nor all the other nasty things of populism and nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the documentary takes us to remote places including the Amazon and Alaska, it also instructs the viewer to seek out nature at home and nurture it in cities. Where he lives, in Hampstead, London, Cumberbatch is in touch with nature almost daily, primarily through swimming in the ponds on the heath. \u201cI am a bit of a wild-water nut,\u201d he declares. \u201cI also walk on the heath. I have a dog and I cycle and take public transport when I go into town.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill is doing the same thing when he\u2019s home, across town in Walthamstow. Although there aren\u2019t any snow leopards, he\u2019s managed to find nature: \u201cWe have Walthamstow wetlands, which are one of the most important in Europe. I have learned so much. I make sure I spend so much more time in nature in London now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumberbatch hopes to incorporate the message of the film into his daily life. \u201cAs a child, you have that sense of wonderment, which we do sadly lose. There\u2019s a lot to knock it throughout our evolution as humans. So hold on to that \u2013 and realise how precious it all is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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