These are some new photos of Benedict Cumberbatch. They’re not his best. They never are. The man does not photograph all that well. You really do have to see this insanely tall, posh bastard in motion, and hear him speak. Because once you hear his rich voice, it really does take you to another level. Which is exactly why Benedict is now getting into the voiceover game! Apparently, he was tapped to do voiceover work for Jaguar’s new ad campaign several months ago, and now he’s even starring in a new ad too. Here are the commercials. HIS VOICE.
(Is it weird that I hate the way the Brits say “aluminum”? They add extra syllables.)
In addition to doing this oh-so-posh shill for Jaguar (I love Jags!), Benedict also appears in something called “Jaguar Magazine”. For real. There’s an interview and everything, and the “magazine” did this photo shoot with him. Cumby talks a lot about his voice and how happy he is to do voice work and such, and I’m just going to do some highlights from the piece. I do want to point out that Cumby is denying (or “re-imagining”) his early comments on being typecast as posh, asexual, intellectual sociopaths – we covered that interview months ago! Anyway, the highlights:
His voice: “I’ve grown up around people who know how to speak beautifully, but I was relatively old when my voice broke. I was about 15, and went from playing female roles in plays at an all-boys school to playing old men! It wasn’t until later that I began to develop a richer voice… I used to smoke quite a bit and it deepened my voice!”
On being typecast as posh Englishmen: “Something got taken completely out of context in the newspapers recently – they were claiming I was moaning about the parts I get, which isn’t true. It’s wonderful work and it’s very varied. I made a casual point about the fact that we’re still quite class-oriented in the UK, and that sometimes limits what you’re seen to be able to do as an actor. I wasn’t moaning. Because I’m posh, I do get cast in posh roles.”
He really knows how to sell Jaguars: “I have a [Jaguar] XKR and every time I step out of it, I look forward to getting back in – and that’s a rare thing to say these days about any journey. I love pressing the start button and hearing that Jaguar sound – it’s like a beast being gently awakened in a cage.”
[Via Jaguar Magazine, print edition]
“Like a beast being gently awakened in a cage…” Amazing imagery, Cumby. He must have learned something from Michael Fassbender: talking about BEASTS will always bring the ladies in. God, I love a posh bastard. And he walks a careful line between smugness and a sort of magnanimous noblesse oblige. I love him. He is everything Gwyneth Paltrow WISHES she was.
Photos courtesy of Jaguar Magazine.
I’m sold. I’ll take one Jaguar and one Benedict Cumberbatch.
Me too. I’ll have one in every available color, please.
Its not just British people that pronounce it that way, I think it’s every English speaker that isn’t American.
And I really like the photos! He looks better blonde I think 🙂
Correct. In scientific use, even Americans are required to write and say it properly.
I think he looks much better blonde as well. Also: the technical non-American spelling worldwide is: Aluminium, so they’re not just tossing in some uncalled-for syllable – it’s actually spelled that way. The Americans are the ones who changed it.
Isn’t his natural color much closer to blonde? It drives me nuts how they don’t dye his eyebrows to match in Sherlock! Sticks out like a sore thumb to me, but most people probably don’t even notice.
Yes, it’s at least very light brown. I’ve seen him in a zillion movies and suddenly all I can remember is he definitely does not have dark hair. Makes him look pasty.
I’m British and used to wonder what on earth aloominum was.
The actual English spelling has another bonus syllable: alumin-i-um.
I say tomahtows.
You say tomaytows.
Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say – that only Americans say alooooominum. I’m Australian and we say aluminium too.
Katren, English pronunciation is actually the correct…and original way of speech. Although I am very pleased to be an honorary Yank for most of my adulthood, I treasure the fact that my pronunciation and spelling still reflect my roots; which originated thousands of years ago. As a former “Sloane Ranger”, I will always hold our pronunciation dear.
Nothing against you Yanks, of course. Love you all, truly. But I will continue to say “apothecary” for drug store and spell “colour” and “grey” in the British way of my formative years.
Kaiser, sorry for the ulcer :-x. And I’ll take a Benedict Cumberbatch in every colour available. His voice, dialect and syntax are INFINITELY more bearable to me than listening to the Liverpudlian/ Manchester whinings of, say, David Beckham. Dear God, that’s like listening to a cat in heat screech 🙁
We say “aluminium” in Australia. I think maybe Canada might spell it the American way? I’ve always found it strange that the last “i” is taken out, because usually American spelling takes out the “u”.
The word is ‘AluminIum’ – Americans say it wrong.
yup, that’s what i thought.
beat me to it 😀
You bitches are giving me an ulcer.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm
Awesome Kaiser.
LOL! Kaiser, I was going to chime in but I see you have been piled on by those who are in the know or have google.
Don’t feel bad. I’m pretty old and I only learned this in the past decade or so.
We really are lazy Yanks aren’t we? What’s with skipping whole syllables, y’all?
And, yes, Cumberbatch is rather a delicious thing isn’t he? As you say, he must be seen in action. First caught my eye as William Pitt in Amazing Grace.
ha ha sadly, I would agree. I peddle the stuff daily,and the pronunciation from person to person is wildly different.
No actually we don’t. It was originally alumium by a Brit than changed to aluminum than to aluminium for scientific reasons. Aluminum is still used by Canadians and Americans. Google it.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aluminum
swedes say aluminium, just fyi 🙂
it’s not adding extra syllables when it’s spelt Aluminium!!
It’s spelled and pronounced “aluminium” in countries that use British English, and it’s spelled and pronounced “aluminum” in countries that use American English. (And for the record, Sir Humphrey Davy, the English chemist who named it, called it “aluminum” first.) Neither is right, and neither is wrong, just as gaol/jail, tyre/tire, and storey/story are dependent on location. And honestly, most things are easily deciphered via context clues. If my friend can’t figure out what I mean when I ask her to “bring the aluminum foil up in the elevator to my apartment on the eleventh floor,” then she’s a fool. Likewise, if I don’t have the sense to go to the first gas station after the traffic circle when my friend asks me to buy some “aluminium foil at the first petrol station over the roundabout,” I’m equally an idiot.
I agree with you, in terms of neither is right or wrong. My comment was just in response to the ‘adding extra syllables’ statement, which implies that we add an extra syllable to aluminum when in fact we are pronouncing aluminium as we spell it.
I honestly didn’t believe some of you guys about seeing him in motion to fully appreciate, so I watched some Sherlock Holmes, and I get it now, fantastic voice..
“He walks a careful line between smugness and a sort of magnanimous noblesse oblige. I love him. He is everything Gwyneth Paltrow WISHES she was.”
This! A thousands times, this!
“He walks a careful line between smugness and a sort of magnanimous noblesse oblige”? Wow! That is beautiful. That is poetry. With that, & his line about the purring Jaguar being awakened from its cage, I shall throw my Yeats & Keats across the room & read gossip the rest of the day.
Yeats and Keats are overrated. 🙂
Isn’t that the greatest! It sums him up beautifully.
His name sounds like a gourmet egg salad dish. Like his quirky lil self. Not enought quirky- sexy men
He is a fantastic actor with a lovely voice. Still have to sat Alan Rickman has all time loveliest actor voice.
I was just going to say how Cumberbatch reminds me of a younger, blonder Rickman. Not only by the way they talk, but there is something about their eyes and cheeks I think.
Agree on both counts. I watch “Sense and Sensibility” sometimes just to hear the way Rickman says he must away in one of the final scenes. I would want his voice inside my fantasy Jag telling me where to turn. Ha.
You have to hear his Rickman impression then! Seriously it is uncanny and hilarious. You can find it on YouTube I believe. I love this guy.
Oh my God, Mia–that just made my heart beat a little faster …
Yes he reminds me of Rickman too, also similar in that they are very attractive but not classically handsome. Another fantastic voice: Patrick Stewart
I totally agree–I love Rickman’s voice, too. And hearing Benedict Cumberbatch speak… yummy. That said, Rickman is truly brilliant–I mean, he could have been a scholar or professor if you read some of his in-depth interviews. Not totally sure that’s the case with BC. We’ll see…
Talking about actors’ voices: Don’t forget Clive Owen. I feel like doing very, very bad things to him every single time I hear him talk. And by ‘bad’ I mean ‘dirty’. And by ‘dirty’ I mean ‘all night long’.
He could be the love child of (Duran Duran’s) Nick Rhodes and Princess Charlene of Monaco.
These pictures are terrible, but that will never dampen the love I have for this beautiful man. Just watch Sherlock and try not to love him. You will fail.
His voice is so sexy. Love him so much.
I am started to get a bit irritated with him-as last month he was in a British tabloid complaining about the roles he gets(again)because if his looks-like i think it was pointed out on here, if he were a woman he wouldnt even get any roles so he needs to STFU and be greatful for what hes getting!
I first saw him in Atonement & was repulsed. Next, I saw still photos & thought he looked smart. Then I heard his voice & completely lost my mind. Was then pushed thoroughly off the rails after watching Sherlock. You really do have to see him in motion. Now, I have been Cumberbatched–deeply, hopelessly, & those bitches in the the photos had better get their long elegant fingers off my man.
Well hello, friend! You read my mind. That is, step by step, exactly how I transformed into a Cumberbitch. And theres no looking back! Also, yes. Get those skanky hands off my man! You grab one bitch and I’ll grab the other =)
Hello Tasha! I just saw your reply & am smiling ear-to-ear. Isn’t he lovely? I seem to be possessed. Since seeing him as Sherlock, I have been walking into walls. And now….to remove him from the hand models!
Something about him reminds me of Perez Hilton after his weight loss…
Yeah, it’s been said, but it’s spelled differently abroad, so everyone can be right.
What kills me is the mispronunciation of “mischievous.” Where, exactly, is that “i” after the “v” coming from?
I am getting Dennis Quaid in these pics…a la Jerry Lee Lewis.
He looks like a giant Quaid
I’m disturbed by the way some say aluminum. mostly the ‘wiggles’ & the blokes from Top Gear But mostly the ‘wiggles’
The “aluminum” thing makes me tired. I’m a Brit and I naturally add an ‘i’ at the end, but Davy originally spelt it without, so technically that is the correct way. It was only later changed by most English-speaking countries to match all the other elements that had an -ium suffix.
Gawd knows it irritates me when ‘Murkins can’t pronounce things correctly, but in this case they have the right of it.
Oh dear. I am truly in love with this man and am addicted to Sherlock, but I don’t understand the blonde. It looks like he does it on purpose. Why? It cheapens him somehow–and God knows this man would NOT come cheap! What I wouldn’t sell …
he looks like Dennis Quaid w/the blonde added.
no thank you, more for you ladies.
just want my Fassbender and Gandy and I’ll be a happy lil lady.
Tru-er words were never spoken.
THAT’S who he looks like! A young Dennis Quaid. Thank you.
Nice try, Cumby, but I’ll keep my E63 AMG, thankyouverymuch. 😉
I love the way Jags look but I’ve always heard they’re pieces of shit. Can anyone verify/dispute?
Who is this guy? He looks vaguely familiar. I wish I wasn’t at work because I’d love to hear the voice. I am 100% a *voice girl* (one of the reasons I love Fassy).
I became a CumberBitch after watching Tinker/Tailor. Now one of ya’ll put Alan Rickman & BC in the same sentence and (*swoon)off I go to fantasy island…:)
Oh good grief that man is sexy. Fell a little in love after “Tinker Tailor”… totally in love after one episode of “Sherlock,”… and now I think I want a Jaguar too, lol.
Always great to see a Cumberbatch post. Those lucky hand models.
He could read the phone book and I would listen *sigh*
I love him. He walks the line between posh prick and humility quite well. THOROUGH Euro-bred.
I want to eat him like a Cumberbiscuit with some Earl Grey to wash it all down.
I want to have his weird looking babies and I would demand that he talk dirty all day every day with that voice. Le fucking sigh!
“I want to have his weird looking babies and I would demand that he talk dirty all day every day with that voice. Le f’ing sigh!”
LMFAO! Omg that KILLED me!
His cheekbones can cut a bitch.
I have a load of Brit cousins whom I love dearly but sometimes how they talk makes me batty: I hate how they say oregano, advertisement, process, and how they squeeze “sort of” into almost every sentence. I also hate how they say “brillant” for things that really aren’t. Now about Cumbersnatch, I do love him and I think the last sentence of your post, Kaiser, sort of summed things up brilliantly.
You forgot garidge (for garage) but yes to bloody oregano! And I don’t know whether I should love or be offended by the way they say jag-u-are. It’s always bothered me. Thank you Kaiser for pin pointing their over enunciation of every damn syllable (I never realized THAT is what bothers me). Though I still love an English accent (although I just can’t with a Geordie accent. Nails on a chalkboard, Give me Estuary any day).
I don’t remember his voice being that great. I saw him recently in Tinker Tailor and being a voice girl that would have stood out to me. Perhaps this a bit more put on because it’s a voiceover?
Nobody talked very much at all in “Tinker Tailor…”. Everything was very subdued. That’s probably why his voice didn’t stand out.
It’s our language, how can you be annoyed at how we speak? Do Mexicans get annoyed at how Spanish people speak? You’re ridiculous! If anyone should be complaining, it should be us about you butchering our language.
I wish people would stop the slagging on his looks. The man is beautiful. I love the pictures. I find them quite adorable. I thought the interview was fantastic.
IDK why but I really need to go buy a Jaguar now.
This man is sex on legs when in motion (the voice is a tremendous help as well), but in pictures I wanna kill it with fire. It’s so odd for an actor not to be photogenic. His Alan Rickman impression is spot on. He gets major points in my book merely for that, never mind everything else.
co-sign!
His voice reminds me of that of Jack Davenport’s. AND I HAVE DIED RIGHT NOW.
I’m cumberbatched too. The man is gorgeous. Sherlock is extraordinary. I adore him. Please sell me a jag.
here’s a link to the when he was impersonating alan rickman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yebhPXh58cw
viv – thank you for posting the link – it was hilarious!
Ha, you guys should listen to him read out loud! His voice, omg. Just look up Benedict Cumberbatch reading, and lots of entries will pop up. He reads Keats and even some Sherlock Holmes stories!! So lovely, also look up some interviews, he’s quite intelligent. Here’s one of him reading Keats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8NJneIVXJA
Such a lovely lovely voice. He’s just so freaking adorable!
Love Sean Bean’s voice too.
I usually gravitate toward unconventionally attractive men, but due to his character in Atonement he looks like a predatory sexual deviant. That’s of course when he doesn’t look like something the spaceship dragged in.
He doesn’t photograph badly. He was just as weird and plastic looking in War Horse.
I’m all for him doing VO, I don’t have to see his face.
His voice seemed generic Brit to me. I hate to break it to the UK-philes but globalization has made the UK accent less exotic to us “stupid” yanks. Well except maybe Gwynnie.
I don’t get it. He looks like a posh Dennis Quaid to me.