Ben Whishaw in Cloud Atlas

 Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor. He is known for his stage role as Hamlet, as well as his roles in the television series Nathan Barley, Criminal Justice and The Hour and film roles including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, I'm Not There, Bright Star, Brideshead Revisited, and Cloud Atlas. He played the role of Q in the James Bond film Skyfall

 Whishaw prefers not to discuss his personal life, saying: "For me, it’s important to keep a level of anonymity. As an actor, your job is to persuade people that you’re someone else. So if you’re constantly telling people about yourself, I think you’re shooting yourself in the foot." In 2011 he told Out magazine, "As an actor you have total rights to privacy and mystery, whatever your sexuality, whatever you do. I don't see why that has to be something you discuss openly because you do something in the public eye. I have no understanding of why we turn actors into celebrities." However, in August 2013 a representative for Whishaw confirmed that he entered into a civil partnership with Australian composer Mark Bradshaw in August 2012.

 Cloud Atlas is a 2012 German drama and science fiction film written, produced and directed by The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. Adapted from the 2004 novel by David Mitchell, the film features multiple plotlines set across six different eras. The official synopsis for Cloud Atlas describes the film as: "An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution."

 The film consists of six interrelated and interwoven stories spanning different time periods. The film is structured, according to novelist David Mitchell, "as a sort of pointillist mosaic."


Cambridge, 1936
Robert Frobisher (Ben Whishaw) , a bisexual English composer, finds work as an amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher the time and inspiration to compose his own masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet." While working for Ayrs, Frobisher begins reading the published chronicle of Adam Ewing's journal which he has found among the many books at Ayrs's mansion. He never finishes reading the journal and notes in a letter that "A half-finished book is, after all, a half-finished love affair." When "The Cloud Atlas Sextet" is revealed to Ayrs, he wishes to take credit for Frobisher's work, claiming it is the result of their collaboration and threatens to expose his scandalous background if he resists. Frobisher shoots and wounds Ayrs and flees to a hotel. Perhaps spurred by his inability to complete Ewing's book, he finishes "The Cloud Atlas Sextet", then commits suicide, just before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.