When CB sent me this link early this morning, I knew it was too early to sit down and really digest all of these Benedict Cumberbatch quotes. So I waited until I was ready, until I had prepared myself for The Batching. I would suggest you do the same. The Sun has declared Benedict to be their “Sexiest British Man of 2013” – it’s a title he won last year too, which only goes to show you that Cumberbitches are the new Twihards. We are fastidious. We are Sherlocked. We are legion. WE WILL BE HEARD. Cumby provided The Sun with an interview as well, and even though some of these quotes sound old, I do think it’s a new interview and Cumby just talks about the same stuff over and over. You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:

On his “Sexy” title: “I’m still processing this strange misperception. I suppose I’ll have to find a way to deal with the strain. I enjoy being considered handsome, even though I think it’s hysterical. Work-wise, it builds a momentum, which means I’ve got the most fantastic opportunities — or at least, doors open to prove myself at the next level, and that attention has been a huge help. As long as it helps me find good roles, my response is, ‘Bring it on!’”

Staying grounded: “You need to treat it as a great adventure. It can get quite overwhelming if you start really believing in your own press, good or bad, and you could go a little bit insane. As long as you’ve got those around you who are travelling with you spiritually or physically, whether it’s your other half or your friends and family, you’ve just got that base that’s making sure you are checking in with who you are and that they know you’re all right.”

Being recognized on the street: “It’s a very strange thing. You feel recognized, you feel people looking at you, there’s that whole aspect of it. Sort of being on display when you’re not professionally being asked to is very odd. Although it is part of the job so you kind of have to find a way of doing it.”

He has a period-piece look: “My look suits a period drama… although some have likened the shape of my head to that of Sid the sloth from Ice Age.”

He was going to be a lawyer: “My parents worked incredibly hard to give me a very privileged education so I could do anything but be as stupid as them and become an actor. Unfortunately I didn’t pay any attention, like a lot of children, to my parents’ wise words. I was learning to be a barrister, choosing my A-levels around potentially doing Oxbridge and all the rest of it. But then I encountered loads of other people on the same course who said it’s so much down to chance and luck. And I thought, ‘Well, why am I giving up on my primary dream of being an actor to work doubly hard to do something as an alternative to what I really still want to do?’”

Playing Sherlock: “When people stop you in the street and want to congratulate you on your work and express their joy at having seen you in the show you feel great. His appeal is universal. He’s the ultimate outsider hero. He’s a very difficult, odd entity. He’s got a God complex — he suspects he’s not human and therefore everyone else is just a letdown to him.”

Sherlock’s repressed sexuality: “He’s repressed his sexual drive and a lot of other things in his life, simply because he doesn’t want to waste his time. The man’s too busy to have sex — that’s really what it is. Not every man has a sex drive that needs to be attended to. Like a lot of things in his life where he’s purposely dehumanised himself, it’s to do with not wanting the stuff that is time-wasting, that’s messy. That goes for certain relationships as well as sexual intimacy. To the Victorian eye he’s an eccentric, but I think he has purposely repressed those things.”

How Sherlock changes in the third season: “It’s about him coming to terms with the fact that he can do a better job if he has a little bit of morality, feeling and emotion and to be able to play with those things without necessarily being taken over by them. What’s most interesting about him is that it’s all about the game. It’s very apparent in the books that his glee and his joy comes at the beginning of the case and when he’s solved it. The game is on, the hunt is on. He’s an animal on the scent.”

[From The Sun]

God, did anyone else get turned on when he talks about how repressed Sherlock is and how he’s like “an animal on the scent”? Sherlock is so sexy. But if Irene Adler couldn’t get into his pants, who could? Molly? I don’t think he would have sex with Molly. But they might make out at some point, which would be interesting. Also: “Not every man has a sex drive that needs to be attended to.” Mmm… I need to tend to HIS drive.

Photos courtesy of Twitter, Fame/Flynet.