Jonny Lee Miller has the unenviable position of being the third man to play Sherlock Holmes in recent memory; Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr. being the other two. Miller is both humbled and thrilled by the success and support he gets for his role on Elementary.
In a new interview with Collider, Jonny Lee Miller talks about how the success of the show is beyond his wildest dreams. The first sign that things were going well was when CBS ordered up a full season almost right away. Secondly, CBS just bought a Superbowl commercial slot to tout the show. With these slots starting in the 2 million dollar range for a mere 15 seconds, this is quite the vote of confidence. Miller, being from the U.K. and not being fully up on American football, didn’t realize initially what an unusual occurrence this was.
Despite the ongoing marketing campaign, Miller tries to stay focused on his role and not get too distracted by outside forces. In fact, he doesn’t even want to know too much in advance what the writers are planning. His intent is to truly go on a journey of discovery with the Sherlock. He found that he was able to get into his character surprisingly quickly.
You’re trying to bring a character to an audience, and tell stories. That’s what we’re all trying do. So, any time that you get to color that with history and emotion and those darker sides, which are a part of all of us, that’s really the bread and butter of what we do. So, any chance that any of us get to do that is really great. One thing I love about this character is that he’s quite raw, and his struggles are on the surface. Hopefully, that makes it more enjoyable for people, and they can identify with that.
Before Elementary aired, Sherlock showrunners Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue were quite vocal about their displeasure that CBS was planning a modern Sherlock, especially since CBS had sought their collaboration. On the other hand, Miller’s U.K. counterpart, former stage co-star, and good friend Benedict Cumberbatch was very supportive when he spoke at the Paley Center in New York PBS Sherlock debut last year. Miller mentioned he’s even received text messages, “[Cumberbatch] sent me some messages, when he’d first seen the show, and it was really, really nice. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have sent me a text message saying, ‘You suck!’ He’s been very supportive, the whole way.”
In retrospect, now that Elementary has established itself as an entirely different series, much of the disagreement seem to either be water under the bridge or much ado about nothing. Perhaps, the two casts can meet up at Comic Con and have a good laugh together this year?
Have you latched on to Elementary? Did you warm up to it right away, or over time?
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