Julian Assange calls The Fifth Estate “wretched” and “toxic” in this letter to Benedict Cumberbatch

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Benedict Cumberbatch reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before working on THE FIFTH ESTATE, and although the actor did not end up meeting him, he did get a response from Assange. WikiLeaks has published a letter Assange wrote to Cumberbatch in January, and in it he blasts Dreamworks for the film while praising Benedict Cumberbatch, but Julian Assange also tells Cumberbatch he should reconsider appearing in THE FIFTH ESTATE.

Julian Assange starts by thanking Benedict Cumberbatch for contacting him in the first place.

Thank you for trying to contact me. It is the first approach by anyone from the Dreamworks production to me or WikiLeaks. My assistants communicated your request to me, and I have given it a lot of thought and examined your previous work, which I am fond of. I think I would enjoy meeting you. The bond that develops between an actor and a living subject is significant. If the film reaches distribution we will forever be correlated in the public imagination. Our paths will be forever entwined. Each of us will be granted standing to comment on the other for many years to come and others will compare our characters and trajectories.

Assange goes on to say he thinks THE FIFTH ESTATE will be too negative about him and his work, and the book that the film is based on is full of lies.

But I must speak directly. I hope that you will take such directness as a mark of respect, and not as an unkindness. I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film. I do not believe it is going to be positive for me or the people I care about. I believe that it is going to be overwhelmingly negative for me and the people I care about. It is based on a deceitful book by someone who has a vendetta against me and my organisation.

Julian Assange doesn't have too many nice things to say about Dreamworks, and says they purposely decided to use a "toxic" book and script for the film.

There are dozens of positive books about WikiLeaks, but Dreamworks decided to base its script only on the most toxic. So toxic is the first book selected by Dreamworks that it is distributed to US military bases as a mechanism to discourage military personnel from communicating with us. Its author is publicly known to be involved in the Dreamworks production in an ongoing capacity. Dreamworks' second rights purchase is the next most toxic, biased book. Published and written by people we have had a bitter contractual dispute with for years, whose hostility is well known. Neither of these two books were the first to be published and there are many independent authors who have written positive or neutral books, all of whom Dreamworks ignored. Dreamworks has based its entire production on the two most discredited books on the market.

Julian Assange doesn't seem to have a problem with Benedict Cumberbatch though, saying "I believe that you are a decent person, who would not naturally wish to harm good people in dire situations," but also says Cumberbatch is nothing more than a hired gun for those that want to vilify the controversial activist.

You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth. Not because you want to, of course you don't, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched. Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world.

Julian Assange then tells Benedict Cumberbatch he should think about removing himself from the project.

I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise. Consider the consequences of your cooperation with a project that vilifies and marginalises a living political refugee to the benefit of an entrenched, corrupt and dangerous state. Consider the consequences to people who may fall into harm because of this film.

Julian Assange ends the letter by officially turning down Cumberbatch's offer to meet with him for THE FIFTH ESTATE, and says he feels it would not help his cause

I believe you are well intentioned but surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you. By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give. I cannot permit this film any claim to authenticity or truthfulness. In its current form it has neither, and doing so would only further aid the campaign against me.It is contrary to my interests, and to those of my organisation, and I thank you for your offer, and what I am sure is your genuine intent, but I must, with inexpressible regret, turn it down.

You can read the full letter from Julian Assange to Benedict Cumberbatch here. Strong words from Assange, but is anyone really surprised? As fellow news editor Paul Shirey said in an e-mail on the news, it's not like Assange was ever going to endorse THE FIFTH ESTATE. Julian Assange makes a couple of interesting points, but he has to realize it's not like he's the most popular figure in the world. He has plenty of supporters and detractors, and I feel like the film was always going to have a hard time finding a balance that would please both sides.

THE FIFTH ESTATE will be in theaters on October 18th, 2013.