What a Cumber-match! Budding actor, 12, who is a dead ringer for younger version of Benedict Cumberbatch, will play Sherlock star’s son in Cold War thriller The Courier
- Actor Keir Hills, 12, bears an uncanny resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch
- The youngster from London plays Cumberbatch’s son in the star’s latest movie
- The schoolboy has appeared as a shepherd in Cadbury’s 2015 Christmas advert
Budding actor Keir Hills might have a twin, but there’s someone else – someone rather famous – who’s the spitting image of him.
The 12-year-old bears an uncanny resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch, which caught the eye of the casting director on the Hollywood star’s latest film.
Childhood pictures of Cumberbatch at a similar age prove why Keir was the perfect fit – and he is now appearing as the son of his 45-year-old doppelganger in Cold War thriller The Courier.
Keir’s mother suggested her son to the casting agents due to his resemblance to the Hollywood star, right
Lewis Hills, left, was being lined up to play Cumberbatch’s son in the movie until his mother suggested his twin brother Keir, right would be a better match
Keir’s twin Lewis, who is also an actor, was originally lined up for role, but their mother Marie O’Grady-Hills had better ideas.
Keir told the Daily Mail: ‘My mum chatted to the casting director and said I look a lot like Benedict Cumberbatch, so they asked me for a video of myself, which I did in a cloakroom, and they eventually asked me in for a recall in person and I got the role.’
He said there were no hard feelings from Lewis, who has been ‘very supportive’. ‘Me and him have a really good relationship – we’re really lucky,’ Keir said.
‘Usually we get asked to do the same role, so we help each other out with learning the script and we give each other advice.’
Keir, who is from London, doesn’t have acting classes but enjoys drama at school. Recalling his first day on set, he said: ‘At first I was really nervous, but the cast were all so nice, and I managed to sit next to Benedict for the read-through of the script.
‘He’s such a nice character. I chatted to him not just about the film but his life and it was really interesting.
Benedict Cumberbatch, pictured, is starring in a new Cold War thriller, The Courier, pictured
‘He gave me lots of good advice. He loves his mum too. So we got along a lot.’
Cumberbatch, whose mother is actress Wanda Ventham, is best known for playing Sherlock in the BBC drama and Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.
Keir has appeared as a shepherd in Cadbury’s 2015 Christmas advert and as a flight attendant in a Vodafone commercial. In The Courier, he plays Andrew, son of Greville Wynne, a real-life businessman who was recruited by MI6 as a spy. The film is out now.
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