Behead & I have split up W Magazine’s “Great Performances” covers. There are seven covers featuring actors who will presumably be nominated for major awards, or maybe just actors who have had a good year. You can see all of the W covers in a slideshow here. Obviously, the most important cover ever is Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. I couldn’t even see Keira because there was so much NO with Benedict. That hairline! He should never slick back his hair. And he should never do that creepy Clockwork Orange styling. Lord Otter had something to say too:
Benedict Cumberbatch: “Both my parents are actors, and they discouraged me from the profession. But I thought their lives were so romantic. I did loads of plays when I was at school. It was all boys, so I got to play girls. It’s scary how epicene I was. I got the female thing down. My parents were a little worried at that point—they thought they’d lost me to the other side of the board.”
Okay, I had to look up “epicene” because I guess I’m stupid with a bad vocabulary. “Epicene” means androgynous, or “of indeterminate sex.” He was trying to say that no one could tell if he was a boy or a girl. Which makes sense. I imagine Lord Otter was a pretty androgynous youth.
I’m including one more Tim Walker photo of Bendy, plus some of the W covers. You can see the full Great Performances slideshow here – there are other celebrities featured, like David Oyelowo, JK Simmons and more. As for the covers… I like Julianne Moore and Emma Stone’s covers. Reese’s is boring.
Photos courtesy of Tim Walker/W Magazine.
And just when I thought Cooper had creepy on lock…
Long live the Lizard King.
I’m So sorry but this guy looks So creepy. I don’t get the hype about him..
And yes long live the lizard king!
+1000000000000. Creepy and VERY lizardy.
LOL…they could have a creepy-off (a creepy showdown?)
I just can’t get over how horrible the Lizard King looks with his hair slicked back, it really shows off a receding hairline. Lucky for him he has that voice because otherwise, eeeee.
Cooper is a conventionally beautiful man unlike bendy . It took a lot to make him look THAT creepy
Tell me about it! That cucumber face with those beady little eyes… I’m gonna have nightmares.
Me too! So much fug.
Replicants circa 1970…BC could also pass as Vincent Cassel’s younger brother. They both have Easter Island heads and monocular vision. As for ‘epicene’ he should just SAY he’s Bi, SH is his beard and get it over with already.
The Bendy cover is the most boring out of the series. They look like people at a high end make-up counter.
I nearly fell asleep, but I was afraid you would throw a bucket of Comet Sophie on me to wake me up.
lol, Kahlua-Jane.
That would be very sticky.
and COLD
and toolish
Bendy looks as if he’s giving Keira CPR…
Yes, totally! Keira, look out! There’s a predatory otter with narcissistic personality disorder behind you, and he’s about to – um- start chest compressions?
I thought Shailene’s looked the worst, Emma’s the best. Others were meh.
Cumberbatch and Knightly look like a British New Wave band from the 80’s. Benedict would play the synthesizer keytar in the group.
Keira looks like she escaped from a Robert Palmer music video.
British New wave band fronted by aliens who are trying to assimilate and failing miserably.
LOL
I was so disappointed after I saw the cover shot and then learned that is not an announcement of the Human League reforming.
Don’t you want me, baby!
Right, except Cumberbatch would have it “I am not completely understanding if you have a desire for my person or if your interest has waned, which is preposterous because I have been told the world as a whole covets my presence. This mendacity fills me with Fascination that I feel I shall continue to sense for some time.”
W always thinks ugly=fashionable.
Every time I see the word epicene, I read epicurean. It’s very annoying. Makes me want chocolate.
He’s just gone into plain bonkers territory now, hasn’t he? I think he has read of Kiddo’s and mimif’s slang-come-non-sequitur games and is trying to join in. He’ll never beat them. #epicfail
I think he has had three or four too many Comet Sophies.
“Epicene” brought up the whole “Life of Pi” sequence about the boy named Piscine and how the kids at school changed it to P*$$ing.
And I think he comes across very “equine” in those pictures.
I read it as epicentre which is fitting as Comet Sophie is the epicentre of EVERYTHING.
She orbits us.
And we orbit her. Lots of spinning happening.
She is the CENTER lindy. how could u forget ?? 😛
she is the revolving tool to which we are all adjoined to complete our spiritual journey .
Is epicene a fancy word for metrosexual? Or as Super Junior has put it, ubersexual?
I’m not seeing sexual at all. Test tubes with Miraculous Anti-aging Face Serum, applied with a teeny tiny palette knife on rich trophy wives, I could see.
No point in setting up CSI fashion crime scene tape. The whole thing has been washed down with bleach.
no it is just a PC way of saying he looked gay
@Lindy, Lilac
Ha! Oh dear. He’s just going completely, completely, wrong, isn’t he? Even word choice fails him!
Completely, completely. I’m going to spend the day at work trying to use “epicene”, “epicenter”, “epicure”, and “equine” in as many epistles as I can. Along with any other “e” words I can think of. The letter of the day is “e”
Well, we can say that for him, at least! Plenty of snigger mileage in this boy.
his epicene ethereal epistles evolve eclectically & endlessly, entirely exuding empty explanations
Such a fail. Kahlua has chocolate in it.
I read it as episiotomy. 👀
Ouch! And now I fear he will give us all the gory details if the rumored impeding comet otter birth comes to that.
I think episiotomy is the best one yet!
He has become an Alien Epicene Epicure. How will he evolve/devolve by Oscar night?
He and the Comet will become epizoa, the eponymous epitomes of epilogues to an Oscar season. And we will write epigrams about them.
Possibly with him resembling equine hindquarters
I will evaluate my epigram efforts now, because I want them to be excellent.
I may have to quote e.e. cummings.
Interesting pictures I suppose. But still boring. I guess they are trying to make everyone interesting.
These are better than the last batch, slightly.
Bendy – NO and foreverrrrrr NO!
I could see how he was seen as “epicene”. He still kind of is IMO.
Keira has great bone structure, girl never looks bad.
Love Emma’s cover the most. So. Far.
He looks like a less pretty version of Jonathan Rys Myers, circa major crazy/alcoholic days.
True that.
VERY Less Pretty
This is Legit Like that show Manimal only never turning into a Tiger or a Lion, or a wolf… Just an otter or a bug *shudders*
Lol!!! A Manimal reference. And yes to the VERY less pretty. JRM is beautiful. Cumberbatch is…erm…inexplicably admired?
When I first saw this I thought, “are they trying to JRM him?”. You can’t pull that off, bendy.
Well, I like how he is looking at me. I’m into it. *runs away*
I think the man is cute but that cover scared me. Like I was going to be eaten
Or sucked into an alien vortex. They’re coming for us. And starting with the non-believers.
I just have to read the daily cumberbatch threads to learn a new word a day.
Who needs the new word toilets rolls when you can have Cumberbatch?
Love Emma’s cover! It’s Little House on the Prairie meets 60s mod.
Bendy looks very um, otherworldly. Kind of boring, though.
It’s the HELP!!!!!! Issue
The camera lens gave BC and KK huge foreheads while they were ripping off a white stripes album cover.
Sprockets…Sprockets…Sprockets
Nows zee time on Sprockets vere we dance!!!!!
“Good heavens Miss Sakamoto – you’re beautiful!”
I –
I don’t believe it!
There she goes again!
She’s tidied up, and I can’t find anything!
All my tubes and wires
And careful notes
And antiquated notions
But we’re homo sapiens too!
I love you for the Pete Shelley reference!! MWAH!
Glad somebody got it!
I wondered if anyone else was seeing Sprockets. Now I, Dieter, am as happy as a little girl.
The proportion is off. He looks like someone got his head stuck onto a wooden puppet behind Keira.
He looks like Nicholas Hoult. If Nicholas Hoult was from otter space and had a collection of taxidermied reptiles stashed in a crawl space somewhere.
OMG otter space, you’re brilliant.
I saw Jonathan Rhys Meyers from otter space. But now that you’ve mentioned the lanky, pretty Hoult, that’s all I can see.
androgynous? he has to be kidding me, David Bowie, Tilda Swinton and Jonathon Rhys Meyers are androgynous. show me a picture at School and I may reconsider but no way.
oh – glad to see he covers his receding hair line – slicked bad hair -bad.
“oh – glad to see he covers his receding hair line – slicked bad hair -bad. ”
he has that in common with Hiddles
actually his hairline has always been like that, that’s why he often kept his hair forward with a longer front when he was younger. five-head lol
hes lucky I guess, ain’t balding at this point, probably isn’t going to
this is such a weird shoot for everyone involved
Epicene can mean having characteristics of both sexes, but it can also mean unmanly or effeminate. Maybe he was going more for that?
in his case it was PC for gay.I can just see him sitting there saying “I cannot use gay but epicene will sound so educated nobody will understand what I mean”
*snort*
As always, the comments on the Bendy threads give me life.
I think he looks hot and his and Keira’s cover is interesting.
All of the actors’ expressions seem to be saying “get me out of here” or “come on, take the picture.” Or maybe it’s just me. lol
I hope they cover the Tommy Lee Jones photo! He did not sanction the buffoonery of the shoot.
Tommy Lee Jones comes off the best.
His face says, ‘What is this shite? I am not here for it!’ Except that he is, physically I mean, which is what makes it funny.
Okay, I’ll see myself out.
I would have run screaming from any of those shoots.
talk about residing hairlines…
I m opening a fortune telling business. all my predictions are coming true. 😀
Maybe Harvey could offer us all jobs?
Would you really want to work for him? I think I’d rather work for the competition.
yeah. for the smear campaign!!
Hmmm. I wonder if the photographer is a fan of Cabin Pressure? All I can think of after seeing the yellow sweater shot is the “travelling lemon” game.
These photos are the worst thing I’ve ever seen. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Totally or kinda OT did anyone else see how the USA has butchered the dvd cover of ‘Pride’ (a movie about gay rights), removing all references to anything gay and instead the synopsis now calls them ‘london activists’?
Shocking, scary and another glimpse into how badly ‘gay movies’ are still received there. I’d bet a lot of money that Harvey’s cuts to TIG possibly included anything deemed ‘too gay’. If the straight washing claims are true, I’d say he was definitely behind it.
The claims aren’t true.
Kat, that’s appalling, I think. Pride is such a great movie, with fantastic portrayals of lgbt community (and miners, too!).
VoR, let’s hope it not true, though I’ve seen pictures up online of the US DVD, on the guardian site. I’ve also read that Pride got an R rating in the states, which is surprising and I think a great pity.
Hopefully lots of people will see the film, regardless.
Love how Keira’s jaw is more masculine than his. No shade. She’s gorgeous. Even so, Benedict is deluded if he thinks he was ever an Erika Linder or Andrej Pejic.
Keira has a strong personality, ppl with strong jawline have strong personality!!
A magician named GOB
OMG, perfect!
He has just killed my love for him. I’m talking straight up Amy Dunne murdered it. “Epicene”. EPICENE??! Ohmygawd….WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. #MuzzleTheOtter.
This should be a thing.
#muzzletheotter
@KRI “He has just killed my love for him.”
Me too.
Oh Khan Singh sir!! Must you say such hard stuff all the time so we have to refer to dictionary? Although I must say “Squidgy” was so fun. Seriously, how massive is your vocab, dude?!
Did they want Cumborebatch to looks like an alien on the cover? If so, mission accomplished.
I really like the Cumberbatch Knightley photos. The one not posted on here is even better. He looks quite sinister – which I like.
“My parents were a little worried at that point—they thought they’d lost me to the other side of the board.” Nice crypto-homophobic subtext. “Lost me” because he might be gay? I know he’s an ally and he’d fight to the death for gay rights or whatever, but this is another case of his deeply socialized unpleasant attitudes showing themselves. Much like when he proved his feminist credentials by enlightening his female fans as to how anti-feminist “b*tch” is, or when he schooled his Harrow classmates hailing from across the former Empire on their homophobia.
The’ little worried’ irked me too, very much so. I mean, I know it just him telling an anecdote. But maybe he should’ve left that anecdote behind closed doors. It’s just not a great thing to say, but it’s Benedict. Foot in mouth quite permanently.
@cate- chronic and pertetual diarrhea of the mouth 😬
Yourfaveisproblematic just got another notch in their Cumberbelt. That blog has actually spoken out and said that they won’t stop anyone from liking the celebs listed and that those celebs have done good things as well. They just want to show that they can be flawed so they shouldn’t be worshipped. Too bad Social Justice Warriors don’t see it like that. Either way, I’m sure they will update his page with that.
I would not hold this against Cumberbatch. But he is more or less directly quoting his parents who said this in that past when homophobia wasn’t seen as severe as it is nowadays.
That doesn’t mean HE is slightly homophobic. He just quoted what other people said. It just means his parents apparently in the past regarded “the other side” as the inferior side. It doesn’t even mean his parents still think that.
I don’t see that as a quote in any way. It’s not even an indirect quote.
@ Lu
He is describing his parents thoughts back then. It is not his thinking nor his comment but his parents thoughts.
I actually think he looks rather good, but maybe they should have done the side sweep instead of slick back.
@ Lu–I may not agree w/your every concept, but I’m definitely with you on this quote being problematic at best. Especially when you include the lead in:
“It’s scary how epicene I was. I got the female thing down. My parents were a little worried at that point—they thought they’d lost me to the other side of the board.”
How is that not implying homo/trans phobia? NOT saying HE is homophobic (or his parents) but that his language use betrays some programming. Sometimes I wish I could sit down with him and say “what EXACTLY did you mean here? Do you see how this actually comes across?”
And am I the only one who finds this particularly weird concerning his championing of Turing as a gay icon?
He says things without thinking. It honestly shows his privilege more than anything. He doesn’t mean harm but he has no one to sit him down and explain what he says. Or, maybe he does and he doesn’t listen well.
he can be trained very well with proper manipulation 😉
Yes, exactly, Felice.
I agree, and his background/firm belief in who he is is why he won’t ever become a malleable/p.c. autobot. Look, in 80’s Britain his level of posh-ness was highly unlikely to have any level of subtlety in “acceptable” homophobic language use, though his parents were actors so if anything there was probably a certain level of “in the club” attitude….they probably had more openly gay friends in their work lives than the average Briton, but it’s all a bit different here. Gay people largely control the joke and there is a very open door of humor on the subject that is virtually a free for all compared to the U.S. It’s why Americans go on Graham Norton and Alan Carr and either overstep the gay flirting and look bullyish/ignorant (Tatum and Foxx on Carr) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfkWVhmugqE , or it freaks them out and they end up looking homophobic/ like they’re not in on the joke. Mark Wahlberg sitting on Graham Norton’s lap (scroll to 8:25) is how he thinks it’s ok to behave here (plus he’s drunk off his a**), he doesn’t get that there is a line because he’s never been taught it. He thinks he’s being adorable but it makes everyone cringe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsAqrrW3ZJc . It’s something a guy like Benedict had mastered in grade school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-lAI_lpnEY ….So in my opinion, it’s not a real indicator of ANY kind of homophobia on Benedict’s part to use language people wouldn’t use in America. I mean, watch those videos and tell me which man is more comfortable with the subject.
It’s a much different culture in terms of the level of kid gloves compared to America. Of course this can open the door to people who are not au fait thinking they can get away with it too. There have been flamboyantly (though largely closeted) gay successful men in film and television here for decades in a way that didn’t exist in America until the 90’s. It’s unspoken, and joked about at the same time – read Rupert Everett’s books, Stephen Fry’s books, it’s simply not in the culture here to self censor and smooth out any un-p.c. edges. In a weird way I find it more relaxed, in other ways I definitely hear more homophobic remarks so I don’t know, it’s a mixed bag.
I thought the same too TB.