Well, I finally had time to hunt around for the video clip of Benedict Cumberbatch on Live with Kelly and Michael yesterday. And beyond the headline, I have no idea why this interview was some kind of OMG Cumberdealbreaker for some of you. The headline I kept seeing was “Benedict Cumberbatch tells fans: your ovaries still have use.” Which sounds rude and patronizing, for sure. But did you know what came before that? It was actually important and in context.
Kelly and Michael and grilling Benedict about the engagement and engagement announcement. Kelly says girls were “devastated” by the news and Benedict replies, “One girl wasn’t!…I’m very happy. I’m a very happy man. I have a great population of fans as well — they’re smart, they’ll get around to the idea that there’s someone in my life.” Then Michael says, “I read some of things that they were saying, like, ‘My ovaries have no use anymore.’ I mean, they really…” And Benedict looks into the camera and says: “Your ovaries do still have use, let me tell you!” Here’s the video.
So, what’s the big deal? Benedict wasn’t talking about ovaries out of the clear blue – Michael brought it up and Benedict reacted. I really do think Benedict is trying to actively encourage his fans to dial it down a few notches.
A few more things – Benedict did some kind of discussion with The Hollywood Reporter and it’s about gay rights and technology and stuff. I thought the quotes were kind of meh, but I’m sure there’s stuff in there that could potentially be taken out of context and blown out of proportion. There’s also a lengthy video panel discussion thing which you can see here.
Benedict was also on The Tonight Show last night – here are some videos:
Last thing – there’s some kind of Cumberprofile in the print edition of New York Magazine this week. You can see some scans here. I’m going to wait until Nymag.com publishes it online before I cover it.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
They look exactly alike! Especially in that last picture.
Bahahaha, I didn’t see your comment before I posted mine. This is a Milhouse’s parents situation. I don’t even look at these articles because they have hundreds of comments that make no sense to me, but I skimmed this and all I took away from it was they could be related.
Ha ha! I am the same way. I feel like I’m in some alternate CB universe in these posts but I thought I’d read this one. All I took away from it is that these two look strikingly similar from the nose down. Nose, lips, chin….brother and sister!!!
lol!
They don’t have the same lips or nose. Completely different actually.
They look very similar, there is no denying that.
I think they look like a great couple. They do look like they are from the same planet.
They look like brother and sister!
I find the “I have a great population of fans as well — they’re smart, they’ll get around to the idea that there’s someone in my life.” comment completely patronizing.
Yes, Ben, some fans have blown this out of proportion, but most don’t need to get around anything. I really believe he never had proper media training. Saying harmless, PC stuff shouldn’t be this hard for him.
Does he not sound like the kind of guy who tries so hard to make what he says coherent, but ends up sounding just the opposite? Wouldn’t ‘I believe in my fans’, ‘Nay, I’m sure they would be happy for me’ be so much better?
ITA. I feel as if he has misread the big picture. If fans are truly upset he is engaged, I believe they’re the minority. The vast majority? I don’t think they care in the sense “OMG how could he do this?!” he (or his team) and so intent in projecting to the media (or the media to him).
I, for one, am not shocked at his choice of wife and think it’s a great one. She has the career that allows for her to follow him around when he works abroad and raise the kids, keeping a family unit in close contact throughout his career. I never believed, not even for one second, that he would end up with a career-oriented woman.
God, Grace….it would have been 100 times better than what he said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it as an insult, and that it sounded way better in his head…
@ Cee
I am with you on that one, actually. His life, his wife, his choice. Even if it doesn’t work out, and I am not saying to jinx his decision in any way, it’s still his decision. But the way it’s been handled is just far from sophistication, to say the least. It seems they are acting on out-of-date stereotypes about fans in general, or they only see the vapid side of fandom and decide to treat all his fans in the same way. Whatever their game is, I hope they adapt fast.
@ aly
I still think he means well. He’s just… a sensitive boy. Takes too much to his heart…
@cee: I agree. Honestly the only thing that has rubbed me the wrong way so far is the photoshoot from ny magazine, but I got over it, and the manips made with those pictures are hilarious:)
@Cee
I totally agree she is exactly who I pictured him with right down to what she looks like. She is attractive but not that over the top sort of way understated. She reminds me of women from my son’s primary school. I do think he has to not talk so much and it will be hard now as that film is out, lower profile but I figure he will be EVERYWHERE for the next few months.
@Grace – ITA. You can’t call your fans “Smart” and proceed to tell them “to get around the idea”. I don’t see their game adapting anytime soon.
@Aly – The spread in NY Magazine is the last drop in a very full glass of water. He has been rubbing people the wrong way, thus this spread being badly received. I thought the manips were hilarious too haha
@AG-UK – Indeed, he will be everywhere in the coming months, and I am already exhausted by his narrative. Acknowledge the engagement, give out some PC-comments to engage middle-america, put on your poker face and deal with it. His private life has sh@t on TIG.
I really think that the way he worded his response is the way most celebrities actually think of their fans – like nice little puppies you acknowledge because they need your attention, the occasional pat on the head, a vague feeling of responsibility for them, etc. Of course every actor needs those little puppies for his success and I think they generally appreciate and like their fans but I really doubt they see the fans they meet as equals. They see most of the time super nervous, starstruck people (with a high percentage of teenage girls) who waited for hours at some venue to get 2 seconds of attention while the celebrity writes his name on a piece of paper or takes a selfie with them. Or they see some internet stuff like pictures or memes and can see that they are indeed smart but they still don’t know the person behind it. They don’t realize that their fans might be professionals in their own right, that they might have fans themselves (if they are artists, for examples), etc.
I miss Anne Hathaway.
Best. Comment. Ever.
Even Anne Hathaway “I will co-host the Oscars” was better than this PR mess that has become BC.
Lol
LOL never thought that would come the day I would think the same
I was almost missing Puddletom. Then there was a post on him. Be careful what you wish for, missy!
LOL! Yes!
I spit out my drink! Hilarious.
What will his catch phrase be?
“That’s Benedict with a T!”
(the assumption being that most will replace the ‘t’ with a ‘k’ instead of omitting it)
“Cumberbatch with a M!”
HA! I miss Anne Hathaway too. At least she owned her campaigning.
I don’t care about the ovaries comment, it was handled well, but the Batch’s blatant grumpy shilling has made him incredibly unlikeable. I’ve always thought he was at times, incredibly condescending as well. There’s a difference between being a snark and being a wanker. He always seemed to just dance on the edge if that. I just want to sleep until all this BS is over.
“wake me up when BC’s campaign finally ends and Sherlock Series 4 begins”
Sherlock Series 3 wasn’t all that amazing to be truthful. I’m just going poke my head out of ‘awards hibernation’ for the UK release of Birdman before burrowing back in. I’m dying to see Michael Keaton and Edward Norton on screen together.
Allons-y! I miss you! Hope you’re well!
T.Fanty. I miss you too! I’ve been well. How about you? Very busy. Guess who moved to the UK last month? 😀 😀
Exactly, context is everything with this comment and I think he did really well answering to that comment that Michael brought up. I’m still in disbelief at the level of crazy going on around this.
Aw he’s adorable!
Butt hurt fan girls are butt hurt.
“Don’t you DARE mention my sex organs, you bastard! You lost all right to them when you hooked up with that cheap whore! We might have met one day, we may have had a connection, you may have found my obsessive need to get you to sign everything and collect your hair and nail clippings delightful. BUT WE’LL NEVER KNOW NOW!!!”
#jawseyes
NGL, this made me laugh. I was confused yesterday by the comment, because it was without context, it looked so…random coming from him. But yeah, it was tongue in cheek and way better than I originally thought.
Ha ha! This is an awesome comment!!
You win. Totally. 🙂
😀 Perfect!
The comment was fine and a perfect response, but you’re looking for logic and measured reaction from the twitter/tumblr/livejournal set. Never going to happen.
+100
To infinity.
Yeah, you’d have to try *hard* to stretch that comment into something sinister.
The audience laughed, he brought levity to something that’s disturbingly intense, and he addressed his crazier fans directly without cursing or sounding ungrateful. That takes some serious skill, in my opinion.
*cough*
*passes cough drop*
Feel better soon, Sooth.
I saw that interview and I thought he was boring. Especially since he had such an interesting topic (Alan Turing). Kelly and Michael looked like they were ready for a nap.
The comment was fine. He should’ve known it’d be turned into a soundbite, though. I thought it was funny.
We aren’t all crazy.
‘Sup.
Karon must be pulling her hair out.
Key word(s): should’ve known.
BC needs a crash course in PC-media-talking.
I really hope this is a real engagement and he is in love with this woman. He doesn’t have to show it. I just want him to have someone in his life. That is what we all want. She’s very pretty.
I feel like Andrew Lincoln
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJe7LmPbvU
Don’t hate me, but I actually like him and Sophie together.
I won’t hate on you. I like that last pic of them. I think they both look, y’know, actually pleased to be standing next to each other.
I really wish the ovaries thing would stop. It’s always been just…dumb. It came up around season 1 of Sherlock and someone gif’d the whole explosion scene and added “BOOM! there go my ovaries” or something like that and here we are, years later, dumb soundbites.
It’s not just in his fandom any more. Don’t know where it started but it’s become the catch phrase everywhere. The worst place is actually YT. Can’t even get through comment section without seeing the O word. The Internet brought down boundaries. /sigh
Definitely started before Sherlock, haha. It’s way over played and actually borderline annoying now.
I am reserving my exploding ovaries for Tom Hiddleston and baby elephants. Not in that order.
Did this really warrant a whole new thread?
And why feel the need to ‘vindicate’ him over this anyway. In the grand scheme of things it just doesn’t matter but the ovaries thing is so childish and infuriating and lo and behold him repeating it just gives another handy tacky headline to the press, which is what a lot of his weird comments this week have been doing.
Considering BC articles/posts get so many comments, then yes LOL.
Well, @sooth seems to be commenting repeatedly in every last one and since the engagement announcement the BC posts have been averaging 600 comments I’d say hell yeah.
Wow, nice to know I have someone watching and monitoring me in the background.
Y’know what really gets to me about posts like that? The snide holier than thou attitude. Breezing in now and again to drop an eyeroll and insinuate how pathetic else everyone is to be discussing celebrities on a celebrity gossip blog. But your method of celebrity gossip is far superior is it?
I haven’t been ‘commenting repeatedly’, I’ve been engaging in chat with the other posters here, many of which also post a lot. These threads have become more chat based now anyway, so before the ‘OMG cray cray’ fans BS is thrown around, we’re actually not. Nobody is scratching at their own face or weeping into their lonely food over this, we’re just chatting it all over. Yeah, we could be doing something more productive, I’m sure we’ve all got enough self awareness to realise that, but it’s kind of..not cool to try and shame people for it.
Oh and btw, I think my comment about this particular subject needing a thread and article of its own, was actually valid.
At this point, I’m not even going to read the comments on Benedict posts anymore. It was amusing at first, but now it’s kind of sad.
So far I’ve been accused of (a) working for him and (b) being Sophie. I’ve been reading and commenting on this site for six or seven years, and I’ve NEVER seen this level of obsession and paranoia. Life is way too short for this.
“I’m sure there’s stuff in there that could potentially be taken out of context and blown out of proportion”
Hahaha… perfect. And true.
In a weird way, Kaiser, you and Benedict are both trying to walk a fine line between hanging onto your target demographic and bringing them back down to Earth. Hang in there!! You’re doing great.
Word to the wise, Brittney B..
Tone it down. PR needs to be more subtle than that..
Wow, the delusion is even worse than I thought.
Delusion? Sure, love. Try reading comments before you pass judgement and make your own rather sycophantic statements.
So you *weren’t* implying that I’m part of some big conspiracy, because my comment could only come from someone who worked for Benedict or a movie studio?
What part of your comment did I miss, exactly?
I really love her dress.
Maybe it was about another video and I’m getting this wrong, but I thought people were talking about how he wouldn’t look at the interviewers in the eye when he talked about her and how much he loved her, not about the ovaries comment.
On another note, I think I need a vacation from the Batch, so many posts about him are making me dislike him.
I am experiencing the same thing. Too much Batch for me.
Join the club. I’m already there.
Me too. He’s always been snarky, and he’s always had those little digs here and there at the fans. I think this press blitz and wave of interviews has made those thinly veiled insults/ backhanded compliments come one after the other, and I just need to step back before I start disliking him outright.
The problem with all this bs is that BC actually believes it. No one knows who SH is. In the absence of any other info, the tabloids need something to write about, so they go along with the whole “His fans are heart broken” line. I think he hears this stuff and takes it far more seriously than anyone with a brain should. Stop believing your own press, Ben. Wise-up! People are joking when they say these things. People say “Oh look Ben’s getting married, didn’t see that one coming.” and then immediately move on to talking about any number of other celebrity crushes. We’ll all get along just fine without you, so stop worrying your pretty little lizard-head.
We’re not heart-broken. Nobody cares. Seriously, no one in any of the boards I have visited has ever been the tiniest bit upset or depressed. Some may have made sarcastic or joking comments that their lives are over now, but it’s just that – a joke. No one is really freaking out.
No one is actively attacking SH either. There may have been some snide comments about her career (or lack thereof) and the weird artsy-fartsy projects she’s been involved in but I think on the whole it’s been rather tame. No one’s saying “How dare she take away my man!” or making threats against her. Nothing like that.
I think people are much more concerned with his general behavior/mood of the past few weeks than anything else. That’s the issue. That’s what most of the discussions I’ve seen here and elsewhere have been about. Why is he acting so weird? Why has he been looking so blank and dead behind the eyes. Especially for someone who just got engaged and is supposed to be madly in love. I get that he’s tired and overworked. But seriously the man looks like someone just ran over his puppy. That’s why there’s been so much discussion on the boards.
The guy just needs to lighten up and get on with things. Get some professional help if need be. Whatever, married or otherwise, we just want the old Benedict back. Fortunately, he did look a lot better on Fallon. He was smiling and laughing like a normal human being. Here’s hoping the return to normality continues.
That’s just it. He now looks like someone who wants to be at the grown-up table eating steaks with the big boys but can’t handle the heat. Either way, it’s bad form and not fair to the woman he’s going to marry or proposed or whatever the latest abbreviation he’s given us. If he wants us to believe it, all he needs to do is act like it. Although I am not saying he should paste a smile on his face while he’s in complete misery, this is what he signed up for – this is his choice. You’d think it shouldn’t be so hard, given his profession.
@Just me: “We’re not heart-broken. Nobody cares. ”
*Look around cb, seeing 600+, 800+ BC posts
Yeeaah..suuuuree….. ooookaaaaaaay..
@Just me: “Leave him on his lonesome and let his career go find some dark corner to quietly die in peace.”
Lololol
“I think people are much more concerned with his general behavior/mood of the past few weeks than anything else. That’s the issue. ”
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Like they say in my country – the shoes he’s walking in are way too big for him and he’s going to fall.
LOL! I like that saying. Yes, he is full of himself right now.
Why the long faces?
Without reading through the comments (because I am tired…nothing more) and focus on the article title and only the paragraph of the Kelly and Michael show (so, this might have been stated already…)
The Kelly and Michael show is a joke. I tried watching it myself once.It is a cheap show to promote whatever and whoever is the pop culture at the moment…bunch of fluff that rots the brain.
For Michael to bring such a comment up makes him an ass. It was cheap bait to bring it up. Tabloidish. I know…not a real word…like I said, I’m tired.
For Benedict to answer it at all and in the way he did makes him an ass….or, does it make his PR people or whoever screens questions the ass? They are one in the same at this point?
This is not the first time Benedict has answered/addressed such stupidity…has he not learned a thing at all? He should know better by now…
No, it is no secret that there are fan reactions out there that are odd/strange/inappropriate…however one wants to spin it. Doesn’t mean it has to be addressed, especially at this stage of the charade…
There is a charade going on here…what it is all about/the involvement, Oscar promo, mental fatigue, etc..who knows…but none of this is genuine and serious…it is a joke and not at the same time.
Benedict wants to be taken as a serious player..oh, sorry…thespian in industry…then he needs to step up…take control of his fame, himself. whatever shenanigans are going on and just put a stop to it.
One can still be charming, witty, intelligent, precocious, fun loving and successful without looking like a douche bag which this made both him and Michael seem as they are…a couple of douche bags.
Enough already.
Agreed. If he wants to be taken seriously then he can learn to be less of an a$$ and be more gracious and humbly grateful, even if that act is only skin deep.
I used to like him. I’ve followed his career for years. But his attitude towards his fans? (And we’re not just talking today but several interviews he’s done) That’s unbelievable. We’re the reason he is where he is today. I get that some fans are nuts and intrusive. I could see venting to one’s friends or family. But you don’t insult them in public WHERE THEY CAN HEAR YOU!
If he doesn’t get a serious attitude adjustment his fans will leave in droves (as they are already starting to do).
Maybe that’s what he’s after all. He wants us gone? Fine. See how he gets along without the fan girls to pay for movie tickets and fund his vanity projects. Leave him on his lonesome and let his career go find some dark corner to quietly die in peace.