Here are some catching-up stories of our Celebatchy mascot Benedict Cumberbatch. He hasn’t given any new interviews this week, just FYI. Apparently, he went to Scotland for the Christmas holiday so he could spend time with Sophie Hunter and her family. The Cumberbitches have been freaking out about this Scottish holiday, I guess. I don’t know? I don’t get why it’s a thing. Bendy and Sophie are engaged, of course he’s going to spend time with her family and I assume she’ll spend lots of time with his parents as well.

So, what else? Hilariously, even though Bendy did major voice work for The Penguins of Madagascar, he STILL cannot pronounce “penguins” in the traditional/correct way. Someone Vine’d a clip of TPOM with Benedict’s Agent Classified wolf saying “pen-wings” – go here to see. Amazing.

And finally, Vulture released MOAR BENDY QUOTES from their New York Magazine profile of him several months ago. We covered the interview at the time, and as I said then, Bendy likes to talk. He talked so much they couldn’t even include all of the good quotes. You can read the new Vulture piece here, and here are some highlights:

Why he can’t do soundbytes: “I love talking about The Imitation Game, and three-minute slots is a really ugly way to do it. I’m sh-t at that. I would never be good at Twitter. When there’s actually somebody going like [wrap-it-up gesture], I’m fearing that, so I just keep talking and keep talking, keep answering, to give the journalist as much as possible, even if only 20 seconds gets used. But it’s exhausting and frustrating. Why the f–k can’t we syndicate interviews? I don’t mind the slog. I want as many people to get it and hear about [the movie], and for me to promote it. I just wish there was a more inventive or unique way of doing it sometimes.”

His dance-off with Michael Fassbender: “Everyone’s called that a dance-off. We were dancing together, as grown men should. There’s no ‘off’ about it. We were dancing ‘on.’ We were together, in perfect male harmony. We were grooving around and dancing back-to-back. It wasn’t like, ‘You go,’ ‘No, you go,’ ‘You throw your sh-t down, I throw my sh-t down’ — there was no competitive streak to it at all.”

His sex symbol status: “I never take that for granted. It’s kind of an amazing thing. There’s lots of theories about it. It’s kind of extraordinary — the majority of the [fans] are really intelligent, sweet, supportive, funny … you know, it’s a tease. The thing of being public property is slightly odd. Nice people respect my privacy. It’s a really weird contradiction in terms of, we require an audience for a professional life and we require some kind of privacy or, you know, lack of attention in our private life.”

His sexiest role: “As Agent Classified [in Penguins of Madagascar]. I had a really good scene, though I think it’s been cut, where I danced with some animal and seduced them. No, that’s not true. I know that would make good copy, but it’s not true. He really fancies himself, which is deeply unsexy, in my opinion. But Richard III is incredibly sexy. And also Hamlet, to an extent. [Cumberbatch will play the latter role onstage in London in 2015.] He’s sort of pitched as squarely foul by the circumstances of the play, but something started I think maybe to happen with Ophelia. How far did that go?”

The other career path: “I didn’t necessarily want to be an actor. I toyed for a while with being a criminal barrister, until I realized that sort of at the point of no return that people were saying, ‘Go back now, because it was just as competitive, just as peripatetic, just as unpredictable, as a lifestyle, as a career choice, as career satisfaction.’ I would’ve loved the performance of court, the idea of persuading people, storytelling and all that. It parallels beautifully with acting, lots of frustrated, amateur dramatics going on in court all the time. I think lots of barristers literally perform in amateur dramatic societies and are very good actors. It’s a massive crossover.”

Why Sherlock doesn’t get laid: “He’s asexual. He doesn’t want any, and it’s very purposeful on his part. I think he’s been burnt in the past. I think he also realizes he can’t beat female intuition; he can’t. So to embroil himself where he might be enslaved through adoration or sexual desire or any kind of power or chemistry to do with love is too big a risk for him. That doesn’t make him gay, and it doesn’t make him asexual. It means he’s purposely abstaining for the sake of his craft. Not something I do.”

[From Vulture]

There’s a ton of stuff at the link that I couldn’t fit in. He loves to ski, and he’s been trying out some American slopes. He loves Shakespeare. He has funny moments with the paparazzi. Blah. As for his explanation of why Sherlock is asexual… I disagree. I don’t think Sherlock believes that he “can’t beat female intuition.” That doesn’t sound like Sherlock, that sounds like Bendy. Sherlock would think female intuition is a crock. Bendy probably has a goddess circle.

Photos courtesy of WENN.