Special for the Crackerdaughter, plus the man’s other fans here. Jada Yuan, at NYMag, on “What fame looks like from inside a meme“:
The ones nearest the front have been camped out for hours, bodies wedged against barricades—a scrum of people ten rows deep, jockeying for position, climbing lampposts for better views, and rendering blocks of King Street, Toronto’s main downtown drag, impassable. “Denzel must be coming,” a middle-aged male passerby surmises, since this is a Toronto International Film Festival premiere. But no, it’s Benedict Cumberbatch, a movie star without a hit movie to his name and a made-for-meme, extreme-Brit sex symbol who plays his most notable roles (Sherlock Holmes, Julian Assange, Star Trek Into Darkness’s Khan) with a powerful whiff of sexlessness.
But neither logic nor common sense seems to apply to the seismic force of female hysteria that follows Cumberbatch wherever he goes. It happened at TIFF last year, too, when he was promoting his Assange movie, The Fifth Estate, which went on to become the biggest wide-release flop of 2013. And it’s certainly happening now, at the Toronto premiere of The Imitation Game, which is very much not a blockbuster but a World War II period piece about the antisocial British cryptographer (and gay martyr) Alan Turing. By festival’s end, it will have won TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, which has previously gone to The King’s Speech and 12 Years a Slave—a strong predictor that the math movie and its hot-nerd lead actor stand a good chance at the Oscars.
A black SUV approaches, and the shrieking begins. The crowd jostles forward, hundreds of arms with cell phones raised aloft, pointing through the cloud of homemade collages of Cumberbatch’s face. “He’s so dishy!” titters one frazzled redhead carrying crude drawings of Cumberbatch in the BBC’s Sherlock, with long curls and a trench coat, collar turned up. “I love his squinty eyes and just his face. My grandmother is in love with him, too, and she’s 75!” gasps a 20-something in a peacoat. Without warning, a tiny Japanese girl hurdles, impressively, from the back of the pack to the front, kicking a few heads on the way. The car door opens. The shrieking grows deafening. “Ben-e-dict! Ben-e-dict! Ben-e-dict!”…
“The Internet’s Boyfriend” is both an accurate descriptor of Cumberbatch’s current place in popular culture and the name of one of many Tumblrs dedicated to him, another of which is a name generator spitting out even more hilarious British-sounding names, like Tiddleywomp Vegemite and Wellington Comblyclomp. Members of his rabid thinking-women’s fan base call themselves the Cumberbitches, though some prefer Cumberbunnies or Benaddicts or Cumbercookies. (The object of their affection has said he thinks “Cumberbabes” is more feminist, or “the Cumbercollective.”) A survey of audience members at Cumberbatch’s Graham Norton Show appearance last year revealed fans who’d flown in from Japan or Hong Kong (he’s just as huge in Asia) or took a 20-hour bus ride from Germany. Since April 2013, an Indonesian baker named Vereen Tjoeng has been making elaborate Cumbercupcakes in his likeness. There’s also the hashtag #cumberwatch, which tracks his physical whereabouts; at The Imitation Game’s premiere, I overheard a group of girls who used it to locate the after-party and were planning to stalk him there…
Much more (including memes and a video clip) at the link. The Spousal Unit and I are quite enjoying Sherlock on disc, and I’m looking forward to The Imitation Game. But (as someone whose first literary crush was Sherlock Holmes, and whose teenage celebrity crush was Leonard Nimoy), it makes me a little sad that I entirely fail to grok Cumberbatch’s attractiveness. To me, it’s not so much that he looks like an alien, as that he looks like a human replica built by aliens with excellent spec sheets that had never actually seen a human being…
Trentrunner
But that voice! It’s like a jaguar growling inside a cello.
FlyingToaster
It’s analogous to the appeal that Nimoy as Spock held (holds) for so many women, and not a few men.
The first time I remember seeing this guy was in a PBS rebroadcast of The Last Enemy, and from then on every time I saw him he had a different hair color.
He’s definitely my kind of actor. More, please :)
Emerald
He says he thinks he looks like an otter. I think that’s pretty close to right, actually.
Nevertheless, although I’m not at the level of a Cumberbitch, he’s my absolutely fave actor for now. He simply absorbs entirely different characters each time, and you have to strain to see any hint of any other character he’s played. Nailed Assange, although the movie itself was pretty bad.
The Next Great British Actor, oh yeah!
lamh36
I’ve loved Sherlock Holmes since I read my first anthology (I’ve literally bought the paperback version about 2x and the first book I got on my very first Kindle was the Sherlock anthology).
I’ve so far loved all the version of him on film and tv and including those versions that were “inspired” by him (House anyone?). So I was taylor-made to love the current BBC Sherlock series anyway.
But I am amazed at how much I loved it. I binge watched the first 2 series so that I was up to date before watching the 3rd series when it aired on Materpiece.
I admit, Cumberbatch is def the epitome of the “intellectual” hearthrob type. To see him in regular clothes, he tends to look like a “professor dad” type, but in formal wear, he’s becomes very attractive. But when he wears his “dad” clothes, not so much.
I would not consider myself a “Cumberbitch”, but I can see how he’d set certain female hearts aflutter.
But if I’m gonna go for a cute “dad” type, I prefer Colin Firth to BCum.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell ya’ll again, which British actor I currently prefer over all…lol
ETA: @Trentrunner: ooh that voice!
Violet
@lamh36: Apparently your guy Idris Elba was on the shortlist for People’s Sexiest Man Alive this year. Saw a few minutes of the Today Show fluffpiece on it today and they had a few clips of him. You might want to find the issue!
lamh36
Speaking of my fav British actor…
Wahoo!
@Violet: Oh yeah, I know. PEOPLE should have gone with Idris, or hell Chris Pratt or hell even Cumberbatch, or hell I’d have been happy with George Clooney. But I’m not surprised that Idris wasn’t picked, it’s a PR game sure, but PEOPLE is also NOT really known for diversity when it comes to their “sexiest men” pics anyway.
Mnemosyne
I like Cumberbatch okay but, yeah, not my type. Which is odd, because I usually go for the weird-looking brunettes (David Duchovny, anyone?) but … meh.
Tree With Water
@FlyingToaster: Aside from his bravura performance as Sherlock Holmes, the only other role I’ve seen him play was in that commercial he filmed with Leonard Nimoy. He has that Jack Nicholson-type rubber face thing going for him. He looked superbly weird as Holmes, and then looked entirely different (normal) in the commercial..Or so it seemed to me. It’s a strange talent to possess, much less exploit all the way to the bank.
dance around in your bones
I love Bernard Cumberwhatever, but won’t call myself a Cumberbitch.
I saw a movie promo the other day that had him shorn of all his tousled locks and I didn’t like it.
Anyway, I watched ALL the new Sherlock Holmes episodes and loved them immensely, but my best girlfriend fell asleep during the 1st episode.
However – I DID get her to watch Nurse Jackie, and after some initial resistance, she was fucking hooked! (She was resistant because she had a brother with a pretty bad addiction).
Ya never know WHAT you’re gonna like!!!
I’ll put in one more plug for St. Vincent with the most excellent Bill Murray..
Really, watch it.
Omnes Omnibus
I did NOT like his portrayal of Peter Guillam in Tinker, Tailor. I like his Sherlock Holmes.
FlyingToaster
@Tree With Water: If you get a chance to see him in Parade’s End, take it. And seeing his Peter Guillam in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy caused a spit-take.
Violet
@dance around in your bones: I want to see that movie, but will wait for it to show up on my TV. I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie.
I think Bill Murray was robbed of an Oscar for his performance in “Lost in Translation.”
redshirt
He’s no Khan.
FlyingToaster
@Omnes Omnibus: You preferred Michael Jayston? or Michael Byrne? I couldn’t even remember who played Guillam in the miniseries’, and he’s an integral part of the first one.
Clearly, my mileage varies.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlyingToaster: I am an inveterate re-reader of the Karla series. My image of Guillam is the Guillam of the books and Cumberbatch’s take on the character definitely does not fit with it at all.
ETA: I all saw in the character was stiffness – none of the guy who is pushing 40 and desperately trying to trying to hold on to his illusions that the book depicts. He was very jarring IMO.
CaseyL
@Omnes Omnibus: Have you ever seen the BBC miniseries based on Tinker Tailor, with Alec Guiness as George Smiley? It’s excellent – and, hopefully, available on DVD – I hadn’t read LeCarre before seeing the TV series, and afterwards read everything the man had written.
(LeCarre said afterwards he couldn’t picture Smiley as anyone but Guiness.)
Betty Cracker
I adore Benedryl Pumpkinpatch in Sherlock — he’s just mesmerizing. I thought he did well as Khan too because he plays a sociopath brilliantly, but I would have cast someone else in that role. Maybe the guy who played Sayid in “Lost” — he had a tortured menace about him that would have been a better fit than BC’s aloof evil genius.
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL: Yes, I have. It is and will remain, I think, the definitive screen version.
dance around in your bones
@Violet: Well, I think he wuz robbed too ” Lost in Translation” was fab.
But really – go see St. Vincent at a midday show or whatever (one of the cool things about getting older is that movies cost less!!!”)
I cried, I laughed, I came out shaking from that movie. My girlfriend thought I was stroking out or something, but I’d had a terrible week, plus – well, no spoilers, but Bill talking about the ashes of his love had just kinda shrunk into the box……
Well, I still have 2 Zip-loc baggies of my husband’s ashes stuffed into some hand-knit socks I made for him ages ago. So it kinda killed me.
Benedryl Pumpkinpatch – OK, Betty, that just went into my my BEST Band Names EVAH list …..thanks Dave :)
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Aloofness has been a hallmark of just about every perfomance of Cumberbatch that I have seen. That might well be the problem that I have with his portrayal of Guillam; what is described as stiffness was probably better described as aloofness. Guillam wasn’t aloof and should not have been portrayed that way.
srv
You would never see men acting this way.
What’s up with that?
@lamh36:
I might line up to cheer Luther. But I like Idris way back, when he was Stringer.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv: Given the number of pr0n conventions you attend, you should know that isn’t true.
maeve
The Last Enemy – available on Amazon Prime – must watch
He’s an actor that’s mesmerizing in the right role – if I break it down feature by feature he’s not “my type” but I lerve him in the right role – and his voice as Smaug etc. – plus he always is great in the personal appearance clips I’ve seen him in.
srv
@Omnes Omnibus: There are conventions? Not that there’s a problem with that.
Fucking A!
Luther & Longmire, 2015, biotches! Great day for the original tubes.
Comrade Mary
One very important point that no none has mentioned yet: King St. is NOT Toronto’s “main downtown drag”. The TIFFian stretch has streetcars, angry drivers, Masters of the Universe, shitloads of wee restaurants, chain feeding abominations, access points to the PATH underground damnation system, and a few cultural institutions. East and west ends are various flavours of shabby to gentrifying.
Yonge St. or Queen St. are much better candidates for “main downtown drag” because people actually stroll and talk and shop and fight there.
That is all.
ruemara
I find him ok as an actor and mystifying as a sex symbol. That obscure object of desire indeed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Mary: And people say Canadians are polite. Jebus.
dance around in your bones
@srv: Luther!! Yes!! Luther!!
@Comrade Mary: I have a couple of girlfriends who had a shop on Queen’s Street. Ab Fab girls.
Omnes Omnibus
FWIW the definitive Holmes was Basil Rathbone. The definitive Doctor (can’t use his name because FYWP) is Martin Freeman; he is really the first where you can see why Holmes wants him as helper and you see why he is drawn to be apart of the investigations at the price of neglecting his practice.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: He does seem to be picking up primarily intellectual/aloof-heavy roles recently, but aloof he wasn’t in fortysomething (to go way back — Hugh Laurie and a bit of Capaldi bonus).
And what about Clive Merrison as Holmes? He’s my radio favorite. eta. agree on HewhoannoysWP.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: I am unfamiliar with Clive Merrison’s Holmes.
maeve
@Omnes Omnibus:
Loved in the current Sherlock when they transpose the literary scene where Dr. Watson’s brother (Harry)’s watch to the cell phone of Dr. Watson’s sister (Harriet’s) cell phone.
Am I a complete nerd for actually remembering that the literary Holmes deduced that Dr. Watson’s brother was an alcoholic based on the fact that he fumbled and that there was scratched on the key winding of his pocket watch – transposed to the current Dr. Watson’s sibling’s cell phone had scratches on the receiver – and then squeeing when it was his sister instead?
I lerve the updating of Study in Scarlet etc in the new Sherlock!
Tehanu
Big fan of the Froom here (that’s our nickname for him, short for Frumious Bandersnatch) and especially of his Sherlock; can’t wait to see The Imitation Game. I also liked Parade’s End although there wasn’t much to it, really. The thing about Tinker, Tailor was that the original miniseries with Alec Guinness and the great Ian Richardson (and Michael Jayston as Peter Guillam) was so much better than the movie, which never really explained who the suspects were, so you didn’t care when you found out who the mole was. So B.C. in it wasn’t bad, but the whole thing was sort of meh.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: they roll through every so often on BBC Radio 4e: they’re a complete set, another plus for me. Here’s a clip. I almost rather like him as his can be an unusual take — keeps the laugh and moody accross the spectrum.
NotMax
If they insist on coming up with quasi-cutesy-poo names rather than call themselves dedicated fans, one segment ought to have thought of Benedicteens by now.
Someplace in an alternate universe, Slartibartfast is feeling less dubious about his name.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tehanu:
Yeah, the key to the story is that Bill was so charismatic, accomplished, and loveable that while many people knew at some level that here was a mole and that it was Bill, they just stuffed it down deep inside. Smiley was the only one who wouldn’t so Karla had Bill neutralize him by using Ann.
ETA: Spoiler alert.
lahke
@Tree With Water:
Wasn’t that Zachary Quinto?
maeve
Okay – ignore Sherlock – although I fan squeeded as a Sherlock Holmes fan when they substituted Watson’s brothers pocket watch (which in the original LITERATURE Holmes deduced from the scraches around the winding key that the brother was an alcoholic – but in the new one it was a cell phone with the scratches on the re-charger – with the twist it was the sister Harriet = Harry)
Am I a nerd for remembering what happened in the orginal short story?
Leaving along the twist – loved the study in Pink vs. Scarlett – am still in doubt of the supposed return of Moriarty (seems to much of the return of the Master in Doctor Who – although loving the current return of the Mistress and also a big fan of Doctor Who)
But what was I talking about – lost track.
Oh yes – everyone should watch The Last Enemy – fable of security theater and security oversight on us –
Plus Benedict Cumberbatch can buy me a drink any day – know what I mean?
dance around in your bones
@Tehanu: Haha! The Froom!
I memorized all of Jabberwocky as a kid……
“Jabberwocky”
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
( I still say O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay! – though most ‘Muricans don’t get it :(
Omnes Omnibus
@lahke: Yes, it was.
skerry
OT: I just got an email from Jim Webb asking for donations for an Exploratory Committee for a 2016 Presidential run.
Gian
@skerry:
So Hillary will have a challenger from the right, I presume?
Where can I get a script for the Soma Huxley wrote about?
Petedownunder
I got the same email as Skerry. I replied:
Sen Webb – There is an answer to your question: “Is it possible that our next President could actually lay out a vision for the country, and create an environment where leaders from both parties and from all philosophies would feel compelled to work together for the good of the country, despite all of the money and political pressure that now demands they disagree?”
The answer is: Of course not. Are you completely delusional? Have you paid no attention whatever to the last six years? Have you actually observed what the Republican party has become? Clearly you have not. The next Democratic candidate for President should be a liberal fighter like Sen Warren (who insists she will not run) not a white Barack Obama who continues to believe he can work with the Republicans despite 6 years of evidence that they have no interest whatever in doing anything but opposing whatever he is for, even to the detriment of the citizens they represent.
If this is really going to be your campaign position then I think you will find virtually no support from the Democratic base. You certainly will not have mine. Don’t waste our time and yours.
wasabi gasp
Dennis Quaid in a rock tumbler.
dance around in your bones
@wasabi gasp: For some reason I thought you were saying Dennis Quaid in a kilt, and thought “I’d like to examine that!”
Specially if he’s not wearing underwear :)
? Martin
Stay safe, Florida.
NotMax
@dance around in your bones
If he’s wearing undies it’s not a kilt, it’s a skirt.
dance around in your bones
@NotMax: heh heh.
Gawd I love you guys.
@? Martin: And OMG, not a-fucking again,
wasabi gasp
@dance around in your bones: I don’t know enough about kilts to make any sense of that. But I’ve read enough of your recent exploits for that to not matter.
Warren Terra
I like Cumberbatch OK, but one thing about him is that he’s been blessed with great writers/creators. For Sherlock, there’s Mark Gatiss (I’m a big fan of the League Of Gentlemen and it’s amazing the way all four members have had successful careers with a similar gothic-absurd sensibility). Another thing that you’re less likely to have encountered is the radio sitcom Cabin Pressure, written by John Finnemore and featuring Cumberbatch in possibly the least important, least dramatic main role (his part grows over the years). Seriously, if you haven’t heard it you should check it out; it’s pretty much perfect. Sadly, it’s hard to find for free these days (the copyright defenders have really cracked down), or I’d link to a source.
Viva BrisVegas
@Tehanu: The Tinker TV series was 315mins and the movie was 127mins. That, and the absence of Guinness and Richardson was what made the difference. BC did the best with what he had, which wasn’t much.
Try “To the Ends of the Earth” for a more spirited outing.
To complete the picture, his full name is Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch and he attended Brambletye School and Harrow. How he wasn’t a shoo-in for Harry Potter I don’t know. They could have just movie miniaturised him like they do for hobbits.
Warren Terra
@Viva BrisVegas:
He was ~24 when they shot the first one (and ten years older for the last one). He was the wrong age to play a child or a teacher, except maybe towards the end of the series, and the only interesting CGI/makeup-heavy role is Voldemort, as I recall.
Viva BrisVegas
@Warren Terra: It’s better if you read all the way to the end of the post.
Karen in GA
Never saw the appeal of Winglebert Humptyback myself — I once Googled to find out what was wrong with his face, because I was convinced it was the result of either some kind of genetic disorder or extensive reconstruction surgery — but yeah, the voice is very nice to listen to. ETA: fine actor, though.
OTOH, moar Lars Mikkelsen, please. Hearing he was cast as Charles Augustus Magnussen is what made me start watching Sherlock.
And I can’t quite like Martin Freeman. He almost always seems to have this undercurrent of “Christ, I can’t believe the stupidity I have to put up with from everyone who isn’t me,” no matter whether the scene calls for it.
Anne Laurie
@Karen in GA:
I think that’s what attracts me to Mr. Freeman — he suggests a fellow cynic!
Karen in GA
@Anne Laurie: Yeah, that what what I first liked about him in The Office — he played “this is beneath me, but I’m trapped” so well. Trouble is, it only works when it doesn’t come across as insulting. Granted, the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie was a misfire in a number of ways, but the worst was the sheer nasty dickishness of his Arthur Dent. Once I picked up on that, I realized he does it a lot.
dance around in your bones
Ok.I think Bernard Pumpernickel is quite attractive in that odd not quite normal way.
Shit – I’d do him in a minute if he was hot for older ladies. Plus.I love the curly locks in the Sherlock series. Reminds me of my husband, back in the day.
YMMV.
Aimai
@FlyingToaster: good point. He represents a challenge that warm blooded actors/characters dont. Everyone is convinced that if you could get his passionate attachment he’d never stray.
Emma
@maeve: I am an utter Sherlock nerd. I have most of the radio series through Audible, and I just stumbled on a 1950s British black and white series on YouTube. I think the “best” Sherlock is Jeremy Brett. So no, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with knowing the literature. At least for me, since I’m using Sherlock in translation to practice Italian and Portuguese.
Having said that, to the matter at hand. Cumberbatch is fantastic in the role. I wasn’t sure at first, but he grew on me. The strangely muted manic energy he projects is just right for my idea of Sherlock.
(added later) and Freeman is exactly as I visualize Watson. Honestly, even though I adore Hardwicke, Watson was just out of medical school and a year of so of the Army when he meets Sherlock!
gogol's wife
@maeve:
You absolutely have to be reading Conan Doyle while you’re watching Sherlock to get all the references and squee. I love “The Geek Translator.” But there are lots more.
Somebody said to me the other day, “Oh, I thought it was so cheesy when they had Watson get married.” I said, “IT’S IN THE STORIES!”
Emma
ok, I added a little bit to that last message and I tagged as Spam. what gives?
FlipYrWhig
I think Cumberbatch is from the same species as Kif Kroker.
Biscuits
@Violet:
Meow! Purr! Purrr. Isis Elba yummy.
Biscuits
@Biscuits:
Spell check! Ugh! Idris Elba!
Sondra
To answer your question. First there is the voice: a deep dark baritone. Second, he is elegant. Even when he does stunts he looks suave and we haven’t had a male star like that to love for a long time.
Third, he delivers his lines beautifully in Sherlock which is how most people know him and he sounds smart – we like that in our heros: even if they are slightly sociopathic as his particular Sherlock is portrayed.
schrodinger's cat
Test
becca
Cumberbatch is good, but Sherlock is not Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective.
Only four episodes were made. Tragic.
The creator of the character is the same guy who wrote the Hitchhiker books.
Available on Amazon Prime or Acorn TV, I forget, but def worth watching.
Mnemosyne
@Warren Terra:
I knew someone was going to bring up Cabin Pressure! There doesn’t seem to be a way to stream it right now, but you can buy episodes on iTunes for $1.99.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
The day I discovered there were Spiner-femmes (females who were infatuated with Brent Spiner – aka Data from Star Trek Next Generation) was the day I realized I’ll never understand what women find attractive. Not that I think Benedict Cumberbatch is ugly, and in fact he has a lot of charisma so I kind of get the infatuation, but you never can tell who some women will go for.
Tehanu
@dance around in your bones:
Glad you liked the joke. It came about because my husband was trying to remember BC’s name and said, “You know, that guy, that actor who played Sherlock — Frumious Bandersnatch.” But some of the other joke names on this thread are pretty good too.
@Viva BrisVegas:
Well, of course you’re right in that the TV series had a lot more room to expound the details; movies have to be concise. Like I said, the movie wasn’t bad — just not very good.