Eight or nine years ago, these photos would have been our biggest story of the day! That was back in the heyday of our collective Benedict Cumberbatch obsession, as well as the heyday of Benedict wanting that kind of attention. He had fun with it, being an internet boyfriend and then promoting his relationship with Sophie Hunter. Bendy and Sophie married in 2015 when she was pregnant with their first child. They are now the parents to three sons: Christopher (Kit), Hal and Finn. Fatherhood really made Bendy chill out and the internet-boyfriend thing subsided hard. It helped that the Sherlock series went away – there hasn’t been anything since January 2017, more than seven years ago.
All of which to say, Bendy and Sophie Hunter(batch) were out and about this week. They attended the Serpentine Gallery’s summer party, which is sort of a famous event during London’s summer social scene. Sophie’s dress is very trendy, but I absolutely HATE those shoes. My God. I think those are probably back in style too, but they should not be. Benedict looks nice, although his look feels very American, right? He looks like he’s about to pull up to the VMAs.
Meanwhile, Benedict recently confirmed that his Doctor Strange will appear in Avengers 5: “It’s been a very lovely relationship with that company. I’m very much looking forward to Avengers [5] next year.” Apparently, “more than 60” MCU characters are supposed to be in the fifth Avengers film. Whenever I consider Benedict’s career, I’m like “he could have been a much bigger actor” and then I remember that he’s part of one of the biggest franchises in history. While he’s associated closely with Doctor Strange, it does feel like his career beyond the MCU has suffered from the “Marvel actor’s curse,” right?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife, Sophie Hunter, turned heads with their stylish appearance at the Serpentine Summer Party Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch BACKGRID USA 25 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: Bob Grey / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife, Sophie Hunter, turned heads with their stylish appearance at the Serpentine Summer Party Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch BACKGRID USA 25 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: Bob Grey / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife, Sophie Hunter, turned heads with their stylish appearance at the Serpentine Summer Party Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch BACKGRID USA 25 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: Bob Grey / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Cracking up- his outfit looks like Travis Kelce dress code lol!
THANK YOU! I couldn’t put my finger on it.
On him I dislike this more than her shoes (and I hate those shoes).
Haha.. consider the comment.. would you have ever thought you’d ever have that thought a year ago?
lol –
Delightful
I love her whole look (although the shoes are maybe too heavy for the dress?). His outfit does not look like something he would choose on his own — idk who made him wear that but it was a bad choice.
Agreed, she looks fantastic! But even though those shoes are clear, they’re too heavy (and maybe just too modern/industrial with such a romantic dress). A strappy sandal, a flat since she has enough height to pull it off, would look great.
She has the most beautiful skin. She is always glowing.
Her dress looks comfortable and cute. The shoes are just an absolute no.
I remember when Kim K wore those ugly plastic shoes when she was pregnant with North and her poor feet were so swollen. Sophie’s dress is lovely, I wish she’d have gone with some strappy black sandals. I’m not even sure what to say about Benedict. lol
I was just going to say the same. The dress is nice. The shoes aren’t. They look really naff and detract.
What Marvel curse? Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) recently won an Oscar for his role in Oppenheimer.
Right?
Aside from being in a couple Marvel films that were part of the downward trend in narrative/special effects MCU quality post Endgame, he seems to be doing fine.
BC seems to be working steadily in a range of projects, producing stuff (even if he may not star in them), supporting up and coming creative talent at LAMDA, elsewhere, and vacationing hither and yon as he pleases.
While there are some Marvel projects that have been less successful than others, I can’t think of a single actor whose career was hurt by being in a Marvel project.
He works constantly and has been nominated for a couple of Oscars. I’m sure there are many out of work actors who would love to be cursed in this way.
I don’t know that Benedict Cumberbatch’s career has suffered from The Marvel curse. You could say that Eddie Redmayne’s career has suffered from the JK Rowling/Harry Potter Universe fatigue. He was nominated for Best Actor in 2022 for that movie with Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemmons. He has a TV series right now on Netflix. My personal feeling is that he should stop playing Americans because he does a terrible American accent.
“My personal feeling is that he should stop playing Americans because he does a terrible American accent.”
THIS! It feels like he’s working at 10% of his full capacity as an actor when he’s playing Americans. Like he’s too distracted with trying to make the accent work and his acting suffers for it.
I think the “posh genius with a mean streak” typecast early on in his career pissed him off and he’s still not over it. Hey, not having a range isn’t the worst thing that can happen to an actor. There’s no need for him to play working class or American roles. He’s woefully unprepared for those.
So it’s official that they have a third child? Last I heard there was some secrecy about the existence of #3.
Hmmmm I’d say he’s in the group of Marvel actors that’s escaped any curse. He makes good money as a legacy character and then has multiple wins/nominations for prestige movie and TV work. A lot of range/variety. He didn’t get stuck (looking in Hemsworth’s direction).
Agreed and I honestly think it’s mostly because he was already a thriving actor before he was cast as Doctor Strange. Then again, Tom Hiddleston wasn’t well known when Thor 1 came out yet he’s done well for himself outside of Loki (we just know he loves the character). I think that’s Benedict’s view, I believe he just loves the character.
She looks fine, (though I personally hate plastic shoes due to stickiness) i am not a fan of his outfit. But not particularly bothered.
Isn’t he in a Netflix miniseries right now? His career hasn’t suffered at all.
Netflix’s Eric you mean? God, that show was awful. I wish I got those hours of my life back. It was so self-serious it almost became a parody of itself. With no acumen for the complex topics it tried to approach.
Also, the Cumberbatch side of the story is just a rip off of the show Happy! with Christopher Meloni.
Ah, the days of cumbycurls. *sighs*
His outfit is actually horrific. He looks like a white rapper lol.
I think she likely threw those shoes on when really some simple elegant black slingbacks would have worked better.
………..
UGH.
Oh god…the return of Jellies shoes. I never wore them, just thinking about it makes my feet sweat. Bendy looks ridiculous.
Yep. It’s hot in the UK today and my feet are sweating as they are, the thought of sticking them in plastic, UGH.
If this was last night then they were sweaty, I was in London for work yesterday and it was hot.
Agree. It’s boiling here in the UK, by our standards. Those shoes look vacuum packed on with the glue that is foot sweat.
Sophie always looks so elegant and distinguished to me. I think I’d be hugely intimidated by her in real life. She’s like the old fashioned ideal of an ‘accomplished woman’. I imagine her to be spectacularly mannered, aloof and calm. Where has this Sophie analysis even come from? I have no idea. Will see myself out.
Back in 2022, they came to Buenos Aires because Sophie was presenting a play in a very important theatre here. Several people got to meet them (at her event and out and about) and they all pretty much said the same thing: that he was kind and polite but kept mostly a low profile not to distract the attention from her, and that she was lovely and spoke Spanish to everyone who greeted her.
Hiiii another BA celebitchy!!!
Completely unrelated to the real-life Ben and Sophie but I became a Bridgerton fan later than everyone else (at the beginning of the year) and I’ve realized they, too, have their own Benedict and Sophie! Lol.
His outfit reminds me of the days where he was desperate for media attention where he was everywhere. I can’t forget the cringe for his Oscar campaigning.
I like her style – she can pull off those types of dresses, esp Erdem.
“I can’t forget the cringe for his Oscar campaigning.”
Oof, yes. I remember. Both of his Oscar campaigns have been so cringe. He’s so thirsty for an Oscar it’s getting closer to embarrassing Leo levels.
It’s odd how he came out unscathed from the Weinstein scandal even though he and Ewan McGregor were Weinstein boys. Meaning that they nonsexually cozied up to Weinstein for awards and roles.
As a creative person who has a 20 year gap between books because I had to make a living — maybe the dude’s just doing work he doesn’t hate, on a schedule that works with having little kids, while piling up some $$ so he can go back to art movies, or theater, or whatever he wants to do later?
Lives and careers are long …
We are truly living in the End Times. The return of clear shoes is The Final Sign.
Ah, I remember all the good times talking about relationship conspiracy theories and Sophie’s long dresses because they all had POCKETSSESS. I haven’t seen a pic of her in years but it looks like she’s sticking with that look, and I have to admit she looks fantastic in billowy dresses because she’s so slender.
She looks lovely (though I do not like the shoes) and he looks like he’s going to a completely different event. LOL.
I don’t think his career is suffering at all, other things he does obviously don’t receive the same mainstream attention as his Marvel movies. Although, I am very excited for Avengers 5, Doctor Strange has been placed as a center point for the upcoming stories.
I think Benedict got a good career going. He is working in smaller projects that I think he prefers and also doing big MCU stuffs. His letter lives project is doing great. I think workwise and family wise he is comfortable. Some Cumberbitches were really out there. It was just too much. Glad Bennie is settled and doing his things.
I always thought they look so much alike, like sister and brother.
Your feet get so dirty and sweaty in those shoes. I love the dress but take a flame thrower to those shoes.
I bear him no ill-will, but he’s doing way better than I thought he would be.
The kind of career I imagined for him back in his Sherlock days was more or less the kind of career Tom Hiddleston has now. I thought he’d be tied to Sherlock forever, like Hiddleston is to Loki, with few prospects outside of that character. I thought he’d get in an embarrassing PR relationship with a famous woman. And I thought he’d keep his passionate fanbase but be slowly forgotten by both the GA and the serious cinema circles.
For a man of such limited talents, Cumberbatch is doing great. He escaped the Hiddleston and Redmayne curse.
He really needs to stop dyeing his hair. His hairline is a mess and he no longer has the full head of hair he had in his cumbercurls days. Just be a ginger, hun! Better ginger than bald.
He’s looking rough these days, but I’m glad he’s aging naturally at least. Afaik he’s one of the few celebrities that never had anything done.
You probably ruffled some feathers, but you’re right.
I don’t hate him or anything, but sorry for being blunt when I say… he’s white. For a posh cishet white man that was EVERYWHERE in the 2010s and who was sold as the new IT man and a heartthrob, his current career is not what it could have been. It is aimless, floundering.
Ben has always been in an awkward place as an actor, because he is not a classic Hollywood leading man, but he is not a character actor type either. He’s almost always playing the same part with minor variations, can’t do a proper American accent, and doesn’t pick projects (except maybe The Power of the Dog) that challenge him as an actor. He’s hit his ceiling, I think. This is as much as we’re going to get from him.
I am sure that he’ll keep getting work and probably get an honorary Oscar in 30 or so years, because he’s posh and white, but his career has come to a halt. He’s already done the “I played a Gay™ awards pls 😔” gimmick at least twice. He’s also losing his good looks.
Despite all that, I don’t think he’s unhappy at all. In the early years of his career all he talked about was fatherhood and how all he wanted to be was a dad, and he’s now a dad. I bet he’s happy with his lot in life and I wish him the best, but as an actor he was never great. If he retired now, nothing of value would be lost.
Does anyone know what’s up with the rumour that says Cumberbatch is member of a exclusive club that’s super posh and super Tory?
I thought he was a liberal, but he wouldn’t be the first public figure to be liberal on the streets and Tory when the doors are closed.
That outfit is giving middle-age crisis. What’s next? A Ferrari or a tattoo? lol
I will never forgive him for playing a transphobic caricature in Zoolander 2. That is all.
There’s something so icky about him. I don’t mean his looks. When styled correctly he can be very handsome. I mean there’s something about him and his privilege. He comes from a pretty posh and privileged background. He literally went to Harrow and his family paid out of pocket bc his scholarship only covered 5%. His lineage can be traced back to Richard the Third. His family’s fortune comes from the transatlantic slave trade. There’s something so off-putting about the way privilege just oozes out of him.
And I haven’t forgotten the comments he made on an interview where he was promoting Parade End’s and he went on a tangent about how the Edwardian era was great because “everyone knew their place.” Ew. Just ew. I used to be a big fan of his, but his interviews put me off until I could no longer support his career.