Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch occupy a similar space in the Hall of Hollywood fame, what with being fortysomething upper-class British actors who’ve found international recognition through the MCU. That’s not to say the pair are interchangeable, however — it’s impossible to imagine Cumberbatch playing Loki and Hiddleston as Doctor Strange, for example. And yet Hiddleston was once forced to step into a role Cumberbatch vacated after the latter exited a project under secretive circumstances.
The project in question was 2015’s Crimson Peak, a gothic romantic horror film from director Guillermo del Toro which, while it never found the widespread acclaim of other entries in the filmmaker’s filmography, remains a cult favorite among his fans. Back in April 2013, Cumberbatch and Emma Stone were announced to star, but by June Stone had vacated her part and in August her would-be co-star did the same. By September, Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska had been hired to replace the pair.
Tom Hiddleston wanted Benedict Cumberbatch’s blessing to star in Crimson Peak
By the sounds of things, Hiddleston had to make a snap decision whether to join the movie as time was ticking on following the loss of Cumberbatch and Stone. Luckily, Hiddleston was immediately taken with what del Toro had cooked up. As he told BuzzFeed at the time (via The Guardian):
“As these things do, they sent me the script about two weeks ago and it was a very new draft. I know Mia, who I’ll be playing with very closely, and I know Jessica Chastain very well. I’ve met Guillermo before. And we are all admirers of each others’ stuff. And everyone said yes! I’m really, really excited about it.”
Hiddleston and Cumberbatch are known to have been close friends for a number of years, so it’s no surprise that Tom made sure to call Benedict to get his “blessing” once he discovered he had been offered a role that used to be his:
“As soon as Guillermo called, I called Benedict and I said this is happening, and he was like, ‘Amazing!’ So, I had his blessing.”
Why did Benedict Cumberbatch exit Crimson Peak?
There’s no mystery why Emma Stone had to leave Crimson Peak, as scheduling conflicts were to blame — this was the period where she made The Amazing Spider-Man fans, Birdman, La La Land, and much else besides back-to-back, after all. It’s much less clear, however, why Cumberbatch walked away.
The now-47-year-old has been reluctant to discuss the reasoning in interviews, but he did offer a few brief words to The Hollywood Reporter when dismissing rumors that he’d exited the movie in order to feature in the then-upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII (what became The Force Awakens). Cumberbatch heavily suggested creative differences with the director were to blame, although he insisted that he and del Toro remained “amicable.” When asked if Star Wars was the reason, he said:
“Absolutely not. No, no, no, no. That was nothing to do with it at all. [It was] between me and Guillermo, to be honest. It was amicable, and that’s all I’m going to say.”
Uncorroborated rumors at the time claimed Cumberbatch’s exit was somehow related to Wasikowska replacing Stone as his on-screen love interest, but the actor’s remarks seem to strongly dismiss those claims. Crimson Peak, a haunted house drama in which things go to some very dark places, is a challenging film so it’s perhaps unsurprisingly that Cumberbatch and del Toro had apparently opposing views on how to approach it creatively.
As it is, the Crimson Peak that del Toro made is perfectly cast, with Hiddleston excelling as Sir Thomas Sharpe, a charming but sinister stranger who sweeps Wasikowska’s bookish Edith Cushing off her feet and relocates her to his crumbling English mansion. Jessica Chastain is also phenomenal as Thomas’s creepy sister, Lucille, FYI. Things turned out for the best, then, even if the ghost of Cumberbatch’s curious exit still haunts the film.