Steven Moffat on Sherlock’s gay rumors: ‘He’s not gay. He’s not straight.’

wenn3860989

Late last week, Entertainment Weekly published a lengthy interview with Steven Moffat, the writer/director/producer who currently helms Doctor Who and Sherlock (Moffat co-created Sherlock with Mark Gatiss). You can read the piece here – Moffat throws some shade at Elementary (which is totally unnecessary because Elementary is really good and a different beast altogether), he previews the four season/series of Sherlock and he talks a lot about fan-fiction and how brilliant a lot of it is. Moffat says the fourth series – which they haven’t even filmed yet, for the love of God – will be “more of an emotional upheaval.” He also seems to be saying that the fans have “missed” some big question that will be answered. Anyway, the piece is like nerd p0rn for Sherlock-loonies. As is this, Moffat’s discussion about whether Sherlock really is gay.

A few months ago, the rumors started again: Did Benedict Cumberbatch just out Sherlock as gay?! At issue was a comment the Sherlock star made on Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist podcast when comparing the great detective and another iconic British character, Doctor Who. “They’ve got different dress senses, different taste in the sex of their partners…,” the actor said.

Now, most would probably interpret that as a reference to Sherlock and The Doctor’s procedural partners on their respective shows: Dr. Watson is a man, while The Doctor’s companion is a woman. But some thought that Cumberbatch was hinting that Sherlock is gay, a misconception that’s the focus of plenty of online fanfiction, and that the show occasionally itself plays with. (See, for example, the season 3 fantasy scene above between Sherlock and Moriarty.)

Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat wants to set the record straight, so to speak, once and for all.

“We walk into that one all the time,” Moffat tells EW. “It’s a funny thing when a character for over 100 years has been saying, ‘I don’t do that at all.’ He’s been saying it over 100 years! He’s not interested in [sex]. He’s willfully staying away from that to keep his brain pure—a Victorian belief, that. But everyone wants to believe he’s gay. He’s not gay. He’s not straight. And Doctor Watson is very clear that he prefers women. People want to fantasize about it. It’s fine. But it’s not in the show.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

In the Doyle canon, doesn’t Sherlock show SOME interest in women though? There’s Irene, of course, but I’m pretty sure he had some kind of interest in a few other women. I would err on the side of saying the original Sherlock character self-identified as straight but chose to live an asexual life. But I like that Moffat puts it into the “Victorian” context. That really was the idea back then – the Victorians were notorious prudes. You could be in love with someone and never want or need to touch them.

wenn22152029

wenn22152008

Photos courtesy of WENN.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

10 Responses to “Steven Moffat on Sherlock’s gay rumors: ‘He’s not gay. He’s not straight.’”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Hudson Girl says:

    I JUST saw the Oscars on Tivo.
    BC’s charisma and poise was evident even in his short presenting time.
    Most especially, when compared to all of the other (trained) actors that should have been much better than they were.
    I finally get why he has such fanatical fans. 🙂

  2. Virgilia Coriolanus says:

    Lol, I like the idea of his love for Irene, that even that they’re not together, etc, they still love each other, care for each other. I guess I haven’t really seen that a lot in film/tv. People who are in love, and it not be JUST about sex (although there was a teasing element)…..

    And when I saw Season 3 I thought it was the biggest waste EVER. I just didn’t like it. I watched it a few more times, lol, and I like it a lot more, but I don’t see it as anymore than great filler for the next season. I liked the character of Magnussen (can’t believe he’s the older brother of Mads Mikkelson), but WTF about just killing him off?

  3. Pri says:

    I really hated the third season. Like BC hates on Downton Abbey’s season 2, but the 3rd season was really…self-indulgent??

  4. OSTONE says:

    I shipped Sherlock and Molly in the series.

  5. **sighs** says:

    In Doyle’s cannon he’s (I’m pretty sure) straight, though he chooses to live celibately, not asexually, which is something different. He doesn’t care for emotional entanglements. He thinks it lessens his objectivity.

  6. Elly says:

    Moffat is right.
    The original Sherlock had no love life. Irene Adler was just a minor character, but she was different from other victorian females. Sherlock was fascinated with her intellect (same goes for other characters) because they were so different and interesting.
    The lack of a love interest for Holmes is why movies and tv shows always create the lovestory between Irene and Sherlock so he doesn´t look gay or asexuell.

  7. Honey says:

    Sometimes he reminds me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. Sorry, but I do. Regardless, I love the show and the character.

  8. MAC says:

    So glad Moffat had to educate us. Sherlock fan, the original Sherlock just to be clear. As for Victorian times I do not agree with him. There were and its documented houses of sexual preference (no offense to anyone in 2015) they weren’t all prudes. They also were not open about things like we are today and they were huge on keeping up appearances for social place in society. They were far from prudes though.

  9. raincoaster says:

    No, Sherlock Holmes did not really ever demonstrate a sexual interest in either women or men. I have every original Holmes story and just read them back to back and not once, nope. Not even when Watson was gaping and going “That one, though! She’s a hottie!” or the Victorian equivalent. The whole question of sex just never registered with Holmes, ever.

    Lots of writers in the intervening years have taken liberties and changed that but the series is clearly based on the original Arthur Conan Doyle works, not some Solar Pons crap.

  10. Amanda says:

    I always thought he was asexual. I don’t know if Moffat has ever used that term, though, for some reason.