Before you even read Benedict Cumberbatch’s Out Magazine interview, I’m going to need all of the ride-or-die Cumberbitches to check out Out Mag’s excellent 15-photo slideshow of our lovely otter – go here to see. Aren’t those photos lovely? The close-ups especially. And people are saying that the sad, ripped up sweater is actually from Benedict’s closet. Does this boy own any decent, non-torn casual clothing? I need to take an otter shopping. Anyway, as for the Out profile… it’s a whole lotta Bendy. Since it’s Out Mag, there’s a lot of discussion about Alan Turing’s sexuality and about Bendy’s all-boys’ boarding school days. You can read the piece here. Some highlights:

Alan Turing’s posthumous royal pardon: “It’s an insult for anybody of authority or standing to sign off on him with their approval and say, ‘Oh, he’s forgiven.’ The only person who should be [doing the] forgiving is Turing, and he can’t because we killed him. And it makes me really angry. It makes me very angry.”

The Imitation Game as a parable for intolerance: “It’s not a history lesson — it’s a warning that this could very easily happen again. People are being beheaded in countries right now because of their beliefs or sexual orientations. It’s terrifying. It’s medieval — a beheading! I’d take up arms against someone who was telling me I had to believe in what they believed or they would kill me. I would fight them. I would fight them to the death. And, I believe, the older you get, you have to have an idea of what’s right or wrong. You can’t have unilateral tolerance. You have to have a point where you go, ‘Well, religious fundamentalism is wrong.’ ”

Sherlock and slash/fan fiction: “People keep coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, he’s so sexy, do you think [Sherlock would be] interested in me?’ Do you not think he’d just look at you twice and tell you everything you hate about yourself and crumple you up like a little bit of paper and flick you away? He’s a machine and brutal and ruthless and has no time for the distractions of your fawning. Because, you know, they either want to make John [Watson] into a sort of cute little toy, or me into a cute toy, or we’re f–king in space on a bed, chained together.”

He loved boarding school: “Because you have that complete experience of being a child. You are not going to and from a place all the time, and I was very, very hungry for company. My mom and dad, poor them — I used to ask every Christmas and birthday for a brother or sister. That’s all I really wanted when I was growing up, because I was an only child.”

Same-sex experimentation: “While there was experimentation [at Brambletye], it had never occurred to me as ‘Oh, this is that.’ It was just boys and their penises, the same way with girls and vaginas and boobs. It wasn’t out of a desire.”

Fame: “The work motivates me most, not the byproducts. By and large, I ignore them.”

[From Out Magazine]

There’s so much more. He tells a story about how Harrow (his posh boarding school) was not very gay-friendly and when two boys were “outed,” they were bullied by other students and the young Bendy told off the bullies. He also talks about how he hates being surrounded by guards because “then it just becomes an extension of you” and you get blamed for guards getting aggressive with innocent fans. It’s a good piece!

Oh, and I know you guys want the Flaunt stuff, but I’m still waiting for Flaunt to officially release their cover story and stuff. We’ll probably have it later this week.

Photos courtesy of Out Magazine.