‘Sherlock’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch: Show’s Last Season ‘Really Freudian’ : NPR

Cumberbatch suspected those storylines came from conversations early in the first season’s production with one of the show’s producers, Steven Moffat.

“Immediately as an actor I wanted to understand who [Sherlock] was, what his parents were,” he adds. “These were questions I asked … I wanted to understand. [Moffat] was just talking about, ‘Can’t this guy just be good at what he does and he’s your age and he looks like you and he’s doing his thing?’

And I went, ‘No, no Steven, there’s a process I’ve got to go through. I’ve got to understand how I became this person.’ ”

He didn’t necessarily expect those answers to be revealed to viewers, Cumberbatch points out now. “I can’t just sort of float onto set with a whole bunch of mannerisms and hope it sort of comes off,” he says. “You have to ground it in some sort of reality, otherwise you get found out as things sort of evolve.”

One other thing Cumberbatch insisted on was creating a weakness for Sherlock — his inability to connect with people — another idea Moffatt resisted.

“And [Moffat] said, ‘But can’t he just be really good? Can’t he just be good at it? Why does he have to have flaw or an Achilles heel?’” the actor says.

“Because I said, you know, ‘Where’s his weakness?’ Because no human being doesn’t [have one]. And however much [Sherlock] tries to convince himself he’s not human, he is.”