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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Tom Lamont

Ben Whishaw: ‘Sometimes, with straight actors ­playing gay parts, I think: I don’t believe you!’

Head shot of actor Ben Whishaw in yellow and green jumper against blue background, January 2022
Ben Whishaw: ‘Even the thought of reading a speech terrifies me.’ Photograph: Elliott Morgan/The Guardian

Ben Whishaw, quite apart from being one of the best British actors we have, is an expert dunker of his biscuits in tea. I’ve seen it: he’s a McVitie’s ninja, with a method all his own. We meet one afternoon in the offices of a London film company and I get the chance to observe his distinctive work first-hand, as digestive after digestive gets taken up by Whishaw, then dipped (sometimes double-handed) into a cuppa that he props on a table in front of him. Each biscuit gets submerged for so long, you suppose there’s no chance of it ever coming out whole. Each biscuit later re-emerges, sodden, milliseconds from ruin, still intact.

“I’m no good at interviews,” Whishaw, 41, apologises, right away.

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