Ben Whishaw

Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor. He is known for his stage role as Hamlet; his roles in the television series Nathan Barley, Criminal Justice, The Hour and London Spy; and film roles including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, I'm Not There, Bright Star, Brideshead Revisited, Cloud Atlas, The Lobster, Suffragette and The Danish Girl. He played the role of Q in the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, and was the voice of Paddington Bear in the 2014 film, Paddington.

Early life

Whishaw was born in Clifton, Bedfordshire, and was brought up there and in Langford, the son of Linda (née Hope), who works in cosmetics, and Jose Whishaw, who works in information technology. His father is of French, German and Russian descent, and his mother is of English background. He has a fraternal twin, James. "Whishaw" is not the family's original surname.

He was a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. He attended Henlow Middle School and then Samuel Whitbread Community College in Shefford where he first rose to prominence during collaborations with their offshoot theatre company, Big Spirit. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003.

Career

Whishaw was involved in many productions with Big Spirit, perhaps most notably If This is a Man (also performed as The Drowned & The Saved), a piece devised by the company based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp. It was adapted into a physical theatre piece by the group and taken to the 1995 Edinburgh Festival, where it garnered five-star reviews and great critical acclaim.

Whishaw with Judi Dench in Peter and Alice, at the Noël Coward Theatre in May 2013

As the lead in Trevor Nunn's 2004 production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, he received highly favourable reviews and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor and the Ian Charleson Award. The role was shared with Al Weaver in an unusual arrangement that saw Whishaw playing all nights except for Mondays and matinées. Nunn is reported to have made this arrangement due to the youth of the two actors playing the lead, to relieve some of the pressure on each. It was Whishaw, however, who featured most prominently in the marketing materials and in the majority of reviews.

Whishaw's film and television credits include Layer Cake and Chris Morris's 2005 sitcom Nathan Barley, in which he played a character called Pingu. He was named "Most Promising Newcomer" at the 2001 British Independent Film Awards for My Brother Tom, and in 2005 he was nominated as best actor in four award ceremonies for his portrayal of Hamlet. He also played Keith Richards in the Brian Jones biopic Stoned. In the spring of 2005, Whishaw received lots of attention for his role as a drug dealer in Philip Ridley's controversial stage play Mercury Fur.

In Perfume, Whishaw played Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume maker whose craft turns deadly. The film was released in Germany in September 2006 and in America in December 2006. In the same year, Whishaw worked on Pawel Pawlikowski's abandoned The Restraint of Beasts. Whishaw appeared as one of the Bob Dylan reincarnations in I'm Not There in 2007, in the BBC's Criminal Justice in 2008, in a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, and in a stage adaptation of The Idiot at the National Theatre called ...some trace of her.

At the end of 2009, he starred in Cock, a new play by Mike Bartlett at the Royal Court Theatre. In 2009 he also starred as the poet John Keats in the film Bright Star. In February 2010, Whishaw made a successful off-Broadway debut at MCC Theater in the American premiere of the awarding-winning play The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell. He played Ariel in Julie Taymor's 2010 film adaptation of The Tempest, and was featured in The Hour, a BBC Two drama series.

In 2012, Whishaw appeared as Richard II in the television film Richard II, a part of the BBC Two series The Hollow Crown, for which he received the British Academy Television Award for Leading Actor.

Also in 2012, he appeared as part of the ensemble cast of the science-fiction drama film Cloud Atlas.

Whishaw appeared in the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, in the role of Q. He portrayed a younger Q than in previous films; Peter Burton and Desmond Llewelyn both received the role when they were in their forties, while Llewelyn and John Cleese played the role into their eighties and sixties, respectively. In addition, he was teamed a third time with Daniel Craig after they starred in the films The Trench and Layer Cake.

In spring 2013, Whishaw starred on stage alongside Judi Dench in the world premiere of Peter and Alice, a new play by John Logan inspired by the lives of Alice Liddell and Peter Llewelyn Davies. From October 2013 to February 2014 he again appeared on stage in the revival of Jez Butterworth's Olivier-award-winning play Mojo, also starring Rupert Grint, Brendan Coyle, Daniel Mays and Colin Morgan. He was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor for both roles. In the summer of 2015 he appeared as Dionysos in Euripides' tragedy Bakkhai at the Almeida Theatre in London.

In 2014, Whishaw starred in the independent film Lilting.

In 2015, Whishaw co-starred in The Lobster, a romantic science fiction drama from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos; appeared in Suffragette, a story of the early feminist movement written by Abi Morgan and also starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep and his The Hour co-star, Romola Garai; reprised his role, Q, in Spectre, the 24th James Bond film; and played author Herman Melville in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea.

Personal life

Whishaw prefers not to discuss his personal life, saying: "For me, it's important to keep a level of anonymity. As an actor, your job is to persuade people that you're someone else. So if you're constantly telling people about yourself, I think you're shooting yourself in the foot." In 2011, he told Out magazine: "As an actor you have total rights to privacy and mystery, whatever your sexuality, whatever you do. I don't see why that has to be something you discuss openly because you do something in the public eye. I have no understanding of why we turn actors into celebrities."

Whishaw entered into a civil partnership with Australian composer Mark Bradshaw in August 2012. In 2014, he publicly discussed his coming out as a gay man, saying that it was a tense experience for him but "everyone was surprisingly lovely".

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	The Trench	Pte. James Deamis
1999	The Escort	Jay
2001	Baby	Little Joe	Short film
2001	My Brother Tom	Tom	British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer Sochi International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
2002	Spiritual Rampage		Short film
2003	Ready When You Are Mr. McGill	Bruno
2003	The Booze Cruise	Daniel
2004	77 Beds	Ishmael	Short film
2004	Enduring Love	Spud
2004	Layer Cake	Sidney
2005	Stoned	Keith Richards
2006	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer	Jean-Baptiste Grenouille	Bambi Award for Best Film – National (shared with Bernd Eichinger and Tom Tykwer) Nominated – British Academy Film Award for Rising Star Nominated – European Film Award for Best Actor
2007	I'm Not There	Arthur	Independent Spirit Award for Best Cast
2008	Brideshead Revisited	Sebastian Flyte
2009	The International	Rene Antall
2009	Bright Star	John Keats
2009	Love Hate	Tom	Short film
2010	The Tempest	Ariel
2012	Skyfall	Q
2012	Cloud Atlas	Cabin Boy Robert Frobisher Store Clerk Georgette Tribesman
2013	Beat	Unknown	Short film
2013	The Zero Theorem	Doctor 3
2013	Teenage	Narrator	Documentary
2013	Days and Nights	Eric
2014	Lilting	Richard	World premiere 16 January 2014, Sundance Film Festival
2014	Paddington	Paddington Bear (voice)
2015	The Muse	Edward Dunstan	Short film
2015	The Lobster	Limping Man	Nominated – BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor
2015	Unity	Narrator	Documentary
2015	Suffragette	Sonny
2015	The Danish Girl	Henrik
2015	Spectre	Q
2015	In the Heart of the Sea	Herman Melville

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Black Cab	Ryan	1 episode
2000	Other People's Children	Sully	4 episodes
2005	Nathan Barley	Pingu	6 episodes
2008	Criminal Justice	Ben Coulter	5 episodes International Emmy Award for best actor Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
2011–2012	The Hour	Freddie Lyon	Main Cast; Nominated – Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor (2013)
2012	Richard II	Richard II of England	Nominated- Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor British Academy Television Award Leading Actor
2014	Foxtrot	Ezra, Jacob
2015	London Spy	Danny	BBC Two's five-part series

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Theatre	Notes
2003	His Dark Materials	Brother Jasper	National Theatre
2004	Hamlet	Hamlet	Old Vic	Ian Charleson Award Third Prize 2005 Nominated – Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor Nominated – South Bank Sky Arts Award for Breakthrough Artist Nominated – Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer Nominated – What's On Stage Theatregoers Choice Awards for Best Actor
2005	Mercury Fur	Eliot	Paines Plough
2006	The Seagull	Konstantin	National Theatre
2007	Leaves of Glass	Steven	Soho Theatre
2008	...some trace of her	Prince Myshkin	National Theatre
2009	Cock	John	Royal Court Theatre
2010	The Pride	Oliver	Lucille Lortel Theatre
2013	Peter and Alice	Peter Llewelyn Davies	Noël Coward Theatre	Nominated – WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor
2013	Mojo	Baby	Harold Pinter Theatre	Nominated – WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor
2015	Bakkhai	Dionysos	Almeida Theatre
2016	The Crucible	John Proctor	Walter Kerr Theatre

Radio

Year	Title	Role
2004	Arthur	Arthur
2006	Look Back in Anger	Jimmy Porter
2011	Cock	John

See also

• List of British actors
• List of Royal National Theatre Company actors
• List of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art alumni

External links

• Ben Whishaw at the Internet Movie Database