Benedict Cumberbatch: Hobbit motion-capture gear made me feel like an idiot

OHMYGOSSIP — He may have played the biggest and baddest monster from the whole Hobbit trilogy, but Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed that donning the special motion-capture outfit that enabled him to become the fire-breathing dragon Smaug wasn’t entirely comfortable for a man more used to sharp tailoring.

“You get in the gear and feel like a complete knob,” he said at the The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies world premiere in London, as quoted by the Radio Times and referring to a British slang term for “idiot” and “penis.” He said he was “wandering around in these sparkling pajamas.”

But despite feeling awkward in a skin-tight black suit covered in white dots, the Sherlock star was quick to jump to the equipment’s defense, adding that it was “really good fun.”

“It’s the most extraordinary technology, unlike green screen which can be really demanding,” he said. It allowed him to be “playing this extraordinary character and just imagining everything.”