Actor Benedict Cumberbatch loses 10kg to play unlikely spy in The Courier

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Benedict Cumberbatch as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate (left) and as Cold War spy Greville Wynne in The Courier.

PHOTOS: DREAMWORKS, SHAW ORGANISATION

LOS ANGELES - Benedict Cumberbatch lost almost 10kg for his role in The Courier, a historical drama based on the true story of an unassuming British businessman turned unlikely Cold War spy - a man who helped save the world from nuclear war in the 1960s.
And while the English actor is in no hurry to repeat that rapid weight loss - the result of extreme exercise, dieting and deliberate cold exposure - he says he wanted to honour the heroism of an ordinary man who was, in many ways, the antithesis of James Bond.
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