As he hits the awards trail for his blistering performance in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, there’s one piece of prep for the role that Benedict Cumberbatch just can’t stop bringing up. Sure, he didn’t bathe for a week, developed nicotine poisoning from smoking too many cigarettes and learned to whittle, but that’s not balls. Sorry, Freudian slip. That’s not all. He also went (very) deep into character on the New Zealand set, learning how to actually castrate a bull.

That’s right: Just as his character does on-screen, the Oscar nominee had to know how to neuter a fully grown male cow. And for some reason, the subject just keeps coming up. On Jimmy Kimmel, Cumberbatch dodged the question elegantly. “Everything you see in the film, I learned,” he told Variety, adding, “‘Learned’ is a big word.” In the mark of a true cultural flashpoint, PETA even got on his case about it. (We should note that for the purposes of the film, Cumberbatch used a prosthetic bull scrotum, not unlike Mark Wahlberg’s in Boogie Nights). Even his director is bragging about him: “He had to do castrating, and learn how to do everything,” Campion said in an interview with IndieWire. “It’s such a big step for him.” It’s an even bigger step for the bull!

All of this got us wondering: Just how much did Cumberbatch learn? How hard is it to castrate a bull? Is his scalpel technique, dare we say it, Oscar-worthy? We reached out to Patti Russ, co-owner of Montana’s 4-R Ranch, to find out. Warning: The real deal may be a little graphic. 

“The scene is pretty accurate especially for the time depicted,” Russ tells Tudum. “Today there would be disinfectant and bio-gloves involved, but back then this is close to how it would have been done.” The fact that Phil doesn’t wear gloves in the scene is a pivotal character detail directly from Thomas Savage’s novel, but it also has a practical purpose. “One probably would not wear gloves in this situation anyway because you need to feel what you are doing,” Russ explains.

Of course, castration methods have changed since the early 1900s; a modern-day Phil Burbank might not get so down and dirty with his livestock. “We use a process called banding,” Russ says. “And we do it when they’re really little, so you’re not castrating a giant bull, which would be dangerous and difficult.” In the banding process, a rubber band is placed around a calf’s testicles when it’s born and they fall off on their own. 

But other ranchers still carry out the Phil Burbank tradition. “If you’re doing it old-school like the guys did in the early 1900s, you’re roping and branding and stretching the calf out,” Russ says. “And you do a little slice, cut the testicles off and put them in a pot for Rocky Mountain oysters.” (Rocky Mountain oysters, described in the book but absent in the film, are a deep-fried delicacy made from bull testicles; Russ describes them as a flavorful cousin to calamari.)

Perhaps the least realistic part of the scene is its tone: “The procedure wouldn’t have been so dramatic for the cowboys,” Russ notes. “According to the book, they were taking 1,000 head to market. The cowboys would have been working in teams, roping, branding and castrating the steers.” For Phil himself to do the cutting is a bit of a surprise and a reflection of his domineering nature. “What would have been unique and perhaps intimidating would be their boss, the ranch owner, jumping in and doing the job,” Russ says. 

Speaking of jumping in and doing the job: Just how likely is it that Oscar nominee Cumberbatch was properly neuter-tutored in time to perform this stunt on-screen? How difficult is the process? “Not too hard,” according to Russ’ husband, Tom. “You cut the sheath; you pull the testicle out. You have to scrape the testicles out. You have to scrape the tube down rather than just cutting it off, because you can get a lot of bleeding if you just cut it off.” This is the level of detail that Cumberbatch should be able to provide in any possible acceptance speech he might give. Awards pundits, take note! 

“He could probably learn it if he had a mentor who knew what they were doing,” Russ says. (A careful parsing of The Power of the Dog’s credits finds this mysterious Castration Mentor nowhere to be found.) “[An] actor could probably castrate a bull and learn that fairly quickly,” Russ continues. “But to head or heel a steer, drag him to the fire to be branded, castrated, vaccinated — all of those things that happen at that time, he’s got to put the time in and he’s got to practice.” So don’t get cocky, Mr. Cumberbatch: Drama school doesn’t teach you everything.

Phil Burbank Character Breakdown | The Power of the Dog