He Makes For An Awfully Good American

It's hard to find someone more British than Benedict Cumberbatch (after all, his name is Benedict Cumberbatch), but the Sherlock star can get all American on you when the time calls for it. Case in point: Cumberbatch channeled both American rock icon Iggy Pop and American literary icon Kurt Vonnegut at the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in Wales over the weekend. Cumberbatch took part in an event in which various letters from various kinds of people were read, and in his case, performed. (Come on, if you're gonna pretend to be Iggy Pop, you have to do all the Iggy Pop movements.)

Now, never you mind that Cumberbatch's Iggy Pop voice sometimes ventures over into Jack Nicholson territory, because it doesn't matter, the actor still captures the spirit of the rocker while reading an incredible, profanity-laced letter that the "Lust For Life" singer wrote to a fan. (Is it too late to put Cumberbatch —whose previous awesome impressions have included Chewbacca — in the running for that in-the-works Iggy Pop biopic? Because he's officially got our vote.)

The 37-year-old actor got a little more serious when he read a letter that Kurt Vonnegut wrote in 1973 to a North Dakota school board member who had 36 copies of the author's classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five burned. Cumberbatch gives an intensity to the important letter and brought Vonnegut's passionate words back to life. Watch both clips here and marvel at the wonder of the 'Batch: