Merry Christmas!! Here is your early Christmas present… Benedict Cumberbatch on the cover of GQ UK’s January 2014 issue. He’s promoting Sherlock Season 3, mostly, although it probably helps that he’s also got The Desolation of Smaug and August: Osage County coming out around Christmas too. Sigh… all I want for Christmas is to get Benedict out of this TWEED. And out of that girlish turtleneck. Who styled this poor sex god for GQ UK? Was it the same person who put Tommy Hiddleston into that pimp coat? Seriously, that tweed photo is making my biscuit sad. Of course I would still hit it, but it’s only because I can close my eyes and think of the Sex Gloves.
As for the GQ UK interview, it’s actually the triumphant return of ol’ Bitchy Batch. Remember when he used to complain about everyone seeing him as so terribly posh? He toned it down while promoting Star Trek and The Fifth Estate, but here it is again. Lovely. And he talks about how hard it is to find a girlfriend. Benedict, STOP. You know where I am.
Benedict Cumberbatch may be the world’s sexiest actor but that doesn’t mean that the actor has it easy when it comes to finding love. Opening up about his love life (or lack of) to GQ Magazine, the actor who will soon be returning to our screens as Sherlock, admitted:
“It is harder [meeting women], because people think they know more about you than they actually do. And you can’t control that… You can’t control perceptions of you.”
Recalling his run-in with the Madonna, 55, the Star Trek actor quipped: ‘She said, “You’re the one with the strange name”. I said, “Yes, I am, Madonna…”
But he said he had little time for people who only see his oddities.
‘All the posh-baiting that goes on… it’s so predictable, so domestic, so dumb. I’m an upper middle-class kid. I know that’s counted as posh, but then I know people who I would call posh, and I don’t talk like them,’ he told GQ magazine.
Meanwhile, Benedict’s romance troubles aside, the 37 year-old also wanted to make clear that he can play various roles other than Sherlock.
Understanding that he will forever be linked to the role of the iconic Baker Street detective, Benedict said: “I know that everything I do now will have flavours of ‘Sherlock’. Everyone wants those dark, complicated anti-heroes and, of course, I play them. But I also plays Charles in August: Osage Country, an everyman; he’s not super-sleuthing or cracking code or breaking algorithms. I play Ford in 12 Years A Slave and Alexander in Stuart: A Life Backwards – he’s a pretty open book; smart man though he is, the complexity is all about Stuart.”
He added: “I mix it up.”
[From Metro & Entertainmentwise]
“It is harder [meeting women], because people think they know more about you than they actually do.” Like Katia? It’s difficult because we know about Katia and the Summer of Sadness when we realized Benedict had been taken in by a Russian famewhore who parlayed their relationship/friendship/whatever into more media coverage for herself? Is he saying he got burned by that experience? I hope that’s what he’s saying because I’m not sure I can go through that again. As for the “posh-baiting”… I guess you have to be British to really understand the subtle class warfare he’s discussing. I hope he threatens to move to America again!
Photos courtesy of WENN, PR Photos, GQ UK.
Ironically, the only thing missing from the tweed picture is a flat cap.
No. No cap.
I wanna run my finger through his hair and mess it up. Caps are just one more obstacle (as is distance and the fact I don’t know him).
It sounds like recycled quotes.
*yawn*
Although the Madonna exchange was funny. Hehe
I thought that, especially the “its so domestic, so dumb” I could have sworn that’s exactly what he said a few years ago (and why it gave people who already didn’t like him, an excuse to hate him and call him a whingy snob).
Let us never mention Famewhore K again. Urgh!
I thought the same thing.
Also totally agree about the Russian model — I don’t think there was anything there. So we should just stopping adding fuel to her fame seeking fire.
Just call her by her code name–Fashion Bitch!
And Kaiser, I ADORE turtlenecks! He looks sexy on the cover. So if you don’t like them fine but some of us do!
😉
I called the t-neck “girlish” because I’m pretty sure I owned one just like that back in the 1990s. It was from J.Crew, I’m pretty sure.
Didn’t we all??? Lol Boys and girls???
(Come to think of it, that turtleneck kinda looks like the one I got my senior pics taken in….)
I’m pretty sure the suit is from J.Crew in the 1880s.
It’s vintage Sherlock Holmes!!
(Good eye Fanty!)
How utterly depressing.
The only thing missing is a deerstalker.
Don’t knock J Crew that’s my favourite store… too pricey though in the UK
I had a turtleneck sweater in the late 90s or early 00s that was hugely thick. I loved it, but stopped wearing it after my friends called it my neck brace.
It looks like a weird German add from the 80s.
We call a turtleneck a dolčevita ( dolce vita). God knows why.
Lol, dolce vita.
That tweed suit photo isn’t my favorite. That’s the nicest thing I can say about it. He looks like a middle-aged guy with a pot belly.
I see a pot belly too. It isn’t that I care if he has one (he doesn’t), it’s that I don’t know how they can dress & photograph a guy who’s as thin as he is to look like he does have one. Very weird picture.
When I first saw it last night, I pretty much went into shock at him looking so bloodless & corpse-like. I think I’m getting over it now. :-]
Agreed. It seemed designed to make him look as weird as possible.
Your wording is so much better than mine – I couldn’t believe that they made a thin guy look like he has a belly – for a fashion shoot! If I was a designer, I’d want my clothes to make people look good, and that’s not what’s happening in this shot at all!
He always looks like a middle aged guy to me.
I never understood the whole class thing until I met my current bf, who’s a Brit, and he explained it to me. Mind you, he was definitely not raised in an upper class household so he sort of put forth the exact opposite POV as Benny here, lol. Still, I suppose it’s annoying no matter where you happen to fall on the “social scale.”
It is mind boggling to most Americans, isn’t it?
He is a harrow boy. Harrow and Eton are hugely expensive schools where the british establishment send their kids to mingle with other rich peoples kids and groom them for Oxford, Cambridge and leading positions within government, finance and arts.
I am American and I live in London and it is weird.
There is totally a class system in America too. I went to private school and anyone who hears that who went to public school automatically assumes certain things about me. I have had an obscene amount of jealousy throughout my adult life because of it. In my early twenties, I bought my friends a lot of gifts to try to get them to like me (pitiful practice). Its now at the point where I feel the divide and have a hard time associating with people struggling financially. The catty comments get old when I am not a braggart but because I never whine about money or lack thereof and debt, I am not the “norm”. I also have a higher vocabulary than most people and I get a lot of comments to ‘speak normally”. I refuse to “dumb it down” for everyone else, especially when my vocabulary is what comes naturally to me, not in a show-offy way. I am in Canada now where I don’t feel the class system as much.
Hum, is it though? I’m baffled whenever Americans claim that they don’t understand the British class system and “oh it’s weird over there”. Like, class doesn’t exist in the US. Please.
It exists, just in slightly different ways (there’s the Ivy League thing, the private schools vs the public schools). Class is a universal thing that exists in all societies. It may be more overt in the UK but that’s it.
@Myrto: There’s certainly a class system in the US. I think what seems confusing is that we’re far less likely to talk about it. If anything, I think that Americans are prone to labeling themselves middle class, whether they grew up very privileged or in very difficult circumstances. It seems odd to see such open discussion of it.
“I also have a higher vocabulary than most people and I get a lot of comments to ‘speak normally”.
I too have a “higher” vocabulary, after I smoke a huge bowl of weed….
Anyway, that sounds like a bummer of a story…not sure what kind of people you surround yourself with but an extensive vocabulary is very much supported by my group of friends. Myself, I’ve never experienced any real “class system” in the US, but then again, I went to (the horrors!) public school.
I also think it also depends on where in the US you live. In NYC very competitive tests given to 4 year olds to make sure they get Iinto the right pre-school then elementary Etc. Most of my NY friends do private whereas those in Washington state don’t . Also some can’t afford it they sacrifice oh you can get loans they say yeah at $40k a year.
For me at the end if the day that doesn’t necessarily determine how your life will be.
In the US, particularly in the NE, there is definitely a push for anyone with a bit of money to send their kids to private school. My parents in particular sent me to private because they didn’t want me going to a public school that only had a 55% graduation rate, whereas my private school had a 98% graduation rate; huge difference! They also and let’s be honest here, wanted me sheltered. I never drank or did drugs in high school, nor had a boyfriend. Maybe that was me being a goody goody or maybe that was partly the private schools doing (my friends all never drank or did drugs or had sex in high school either). Clearly this doesn’t happen in all private schools but when I hear stories from my public school friends about smoking weed, drinking, and/or having sex at 12 years old, I am beyond horrified, even at my age (early 30’s). Honestly, Benedict’s comments make me like him and I didn’t think twice about him before. I think we’d get along smashingly!
Hmmm I don’t know if it is annoying to everyone as I only really ever hear posh people getting defensive about their social standing… which is irritating, because they are rebelling against the very label that has afforded them huge privileges ! Most people in the working and lower middle classes on the other hand tend to be really proud of their background. Go figure!
I guess the elites just don’t like the implicit suggestion that they didn’t work for their social standing and had everything handed to them. I kind of understand that, but at the same time, let’s list it under “first-world grievances” .
That said, Cumberbatch IS posh and I wish he would just own it. He went to Harrow (and not on a scholarship as far as I am aware) and has direct ancestors who were decorated by the royal family for christ sake. There is just no way around that poshness!
He *was* on a scholarship. And his Gran paid for most of it with his parents picking up the rest. He also worked during the summer and such for his own money.
He went to Harrow with an arts scholarship. But scholarships there just take off 5% from a 30K pound tuition.
His dad’s side of the family has old money. His parents maybe working actors but they have money and the cultural capital to be POSH. Cumby grew up in a top-floor flat in Kensington which they still own, his parents have a country home in Cotswolds, they have a vacation house in Greece (I’ve read from Wanda’s interview that they have a vacation house in Spain too) and he’s being paid thousands, even millions now. I think he is learning to own it, just look at what he said.
Poor little rich boy.
Thank God I live in a country where only the not so bright go to private schools. Something good to come out of communism.
He also went to Univeristy and then afterwards to dramaschool so obviously the family had a lot of money. Same as Hiddleston. Really anyone who can afford Eton then followed by 3 years at Cambridge followed by 3 years at Rada obviously has the means.
Did Hiddles ever complain about posh bashing?
He went to Manchester not to either Oxford or Cambridge — and had to work during his summers. So it’s not like he was rolling in the dough. I think it’s the expectation that he’s super rich when he (and his family) did have to work for the many things that others had handed to them. It’s that fact that seems to upset him.
He’s not posh because he had to work during summer? Poor little thing.
Just because his parents had to work for it doesn’t make them any less rich. And he said he went to Manchester because he wanted a normal expe.rience or something like that.
Just like we were bashing Lily Collins for not admitting being Phil’s daughter opened some doors, we should acknowledge that Cumby is posh and that it did help him quite a lot.
Hiddles did actually, in reference to his Eton education. There was a large interview in the DM about it..in which he posed with a hawk and looked every bit the posh-boy so it was quite odd.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2125013/The-Avengers-Tom-Hiddleston-People-think-Eton-arrogant-braying-toffs-It-just-isnt-true.html
Bubbles I think the point LS was trying to make was that he didn’t sit back and let mummy and daddy pay for everything. He may not and most likely didn’t need to work but he did, how anyone can find fault in that is a little strange to me.
I’m not saying he deserves a medal for doing it but I find it hard to criticise anyone for working…
@Spooks where are you from?
Croatia. Why?
I was just curious about your point of view! Not in a bad way. It’s just the opposite of my view on private schooling but I think it’s down to the education system available to people and my only choice was private schooling. Interesting. That’s all! 🙂
Oh, okay 🙂
I went to state schools and, personally, I think I got an amazing education. I’m in med-school now ( for free, of course). Private schools and universities are just not respected round here.
There was this model recently who won some kind of a competition and she had an interview in a magazine where it said that she was a straight A student. But she went to a private school so all the comments were like: “Yeah, but it’s not like she was a REAL straight A student, she didn’t go to a proper school.”
We do have a bit of reverse snobbism going on in our society.
Mummy & Daddy didn’t have the money to pay for everything.
I’m not saying he was poor he just wasn’t born with silver spoon in his mouth.
I am with LadySlippers. I think his upbringing is somewhere in the middle, but people see that he went to Harrow and think “Oh, his family must be loaded!”
On a similar note, it can be difficult for many families to come up with $30k/year to send their kid to private school, even if they have money. Not everyone has liquid assets to cover that bill. And while his parents may have vacation homes, I doubt they’re extravagant. (Where I’m from, people will brag about having a second home, but the reality is it’s most likely a bare-bones home that’s quite small.)
This pictures are a welcomed eyeball cleanser after reading about Spelling, Lohan, and Cyrus this morning.
Good point!
This line just made me spit my tea out:
““You’re the one with the strange name”. I said, “Yes, I am, Madonna…”
Every time I’m ready to put Benedict on the shelf (until the next season of “Sherlock,” of course), he reels me back in.
I liked that too
LOL…that have me a great chuckle too. Excellent comeback, Cumby!
I grew up in the South, and I never saw a man wearing a turtleneck until my early 20s, so it still looks a little feminine and odd to me. But his face is lovely in the top pic. And I loved the Madonna story.
I find men in turtlenecks the hottest thing ever. Regardless of the man.
Were I to hit that, I might make him keep the sweater on. In exchange, he will be permitted to retain his socks.
Hmmm…..what a visual that’s conjuring up! Please tell me he can keep his flat cap on.
That would certainly come in handy. If you liked a man but didn’t really find him sexy, you could just buy him a turtleneck and boom!
Thats the one thing i don’t like about him: his constant whining about how unfair it is that people label him as posh. The UK is a still a classist society with far less social mobility than in the US so these things matter. Fantastic actor but unlike say a Gary oldman who really came from nothing and made it based on pure talent .Benedict had the good fortune of elite schooling and connections. He should just count his blessings and take it on the chin.
Hey, we don’t know what was said or how this interview went. The interviewer can cherry pick anything they want and people obviously like to see this in regards to him.
Editors may even be asking for this angle — we just don’t know if it’s him honestly bitching OR the editor/interviewer going for the same info.
Good point, LadySlippers. That’s the issue I have with all print interviews…it can be very easy to take things out of context.
Really good point LadySlippers. It sometimes removes the context and makes the comment infuriate or sympathise with people when it’s not necessarily deserved. I’m thinking quite recently, in England there is this show called Great British Bake Off where the daily mail flew with a comment by one of the contestants. She said “women are silly” but it was taken out of context from a much larger passage.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/20/great-british-bake-off-ruby-tandoh-daily-mail
The point is, people need to think for themselves before believing what is written.
I suspect you’re right, LadySlippers. I wouldn’t be surprised if interviewers ask those questions because they’ve resulted in attention-getting quotes in the past.
That being said, Benedict might do well to learn how to deflect that particular question or play it off with a joke. I think it’s one of those subjects where he’s just not going to be able to win by giving a straight, sincere answer.
True LadySlippers! The Metro “article” is just a rehash of old quotes and apparently the GQ article is considered to be one of his best interviews according to his friend Helen.
So I am going to wait until I read it before forming any opinions.
I just read the whole GQ article and it’s a GEM!
Hardly fair.
I’m not saying he’s Danny Dyer or anything. Yes he attended Harrow and yes he is posh, he’s never really tried to deny it. I get the impression that he’s more bored with people’s fascination with his poshness and the constant and quite frankly lazy journalism checklist of things to ask him:
-funny name
-posh boy
-unusual looks
-Sherlock
-token mention of his ex even though they split up nearly 3 years ago
He went to a fairly normal Uni in Manchester and has worked his way up as a jobbing actor, he rarely got lead roles in anything and if he did it was an ensemble piece. You only have to look at his stuff pre-Sherlock, it’s bit parts in tv and movies (with the exception of Frankenstein), so his connections must have been a bit shitty or I’d have expected him to be a lot more famous than he is at 37.
Not really. If yuu dont have money you wouldnt be able to go to a 30k school then years at Uni and then years at drama school. There simply would be no money to fund that kind of wonderful education. Benedicts relatively late rise to fame and is say relative because he was doing good tv jobs like the stephen hawkins series almost 10 years ago probably has more to do with the fact that he has a character actors face as opposed to a leading man face. But make no mistake he was working within the best british theatres a long time ago. He was never a poor jobbing actor.
I agree Lindy.
@Sarah, he has stated his Gran paid some for Harrow and his parents worked a lot of odd jobs to keep him there. And when he could start working — he did. He worked during the summers (even during uni) and even had to pay his own way for his gap year. His family might have the cultural credit to be posh but that didn’t come with the monetary expectations.
@Spooks, yes Tom has complained a bit about being posh but Tom hasn’t been asked to the extent Benedict has.
I don’t think any actor/actress likes the posh chat.
@Sarah ” If yuu dont have money you wouldnt be able to go to a 30k school then years at Uni”
I’m sorry. I’m not from a ridiculously moneyed family, but my dad did work non stop to make sure he could give me the best education he could afford- which is why I was able to have a private education which I value. Money is not the only way to excel. It’s about time people realise that, stop believing the government owes them something and take their lives into their own hands. I’m not directing this at you in particular. I was raised in Africa, I have seen where there is NO opportunity and in Britain it isn’t a lack of opportunity its an excess of expectation. I await the floodgates to open from this comment.
I’m with Sarah. It isn’t as simple as “work hard, earn privilege” and it’s naive to think that is the way the world works. Both of my parents worked (my father, two jobs) and that paid the mortgage when the recession hit and my dad’s small business tanked. We went without a lot. I made the most of my comprehensive school education, but private school was never an option for me, nor would university have been had the government been then as reticent as they are now to fund higher education. Cumberbatch, not only through his parents/grandparents money, but through his family connections, got into Harrow. That gave him a jump-start that someone like me would never have had. I turned down post-graduate study at a prestigious drama school because there was no feasible way I could have even paid the deposit. Nobody is making loans, or giving grants for drama school, and had I taken the time off to earn the money, I would have lost the spot. Nor was a gap year an option. I have no rancour, and god bless those lucky enough to access such opportunities. But to pretend that it would have been available to me if I had simply worked a little more is preposterous.
I believe that if it wants to be a responsible and create an evolving and world-class society, the government owes its citizens two things: healthcare and education.
Hi T.Fanty, I completely agree with the last thing you said- healthcare and education. I have my fair share of problems with both in Britain, however, when I look to places where neither one of these basic needs are in place, Britain is in a very good position.
My comment comes from experiencing people around where I live expecting things to be handed to them from the government and blaming some of the problems in their life to people who are apparently in a luckier position as being the reason. I just don’t like the blame culture or the attitude “They are only there because…” There are jump starts for some but I still can’t understand what’s wrong with that? Maybe it’s just me.
I get that. I have family members like that, and I do think that we’re immersed in a blame culture, as well as a culture that celebrates ignorance. The problem is that there is probably as many scroungers as there are hardworking people trying to get a foot up. There has to be a middle ground that avoids demonizing all of the poor.
I educate my children privately, because I want to give them every advantage I can, and I certainly don’t blame anyone for doing so. However, I have friends who teach in the public school system, and since having kids, I am horrified by how many children have the socio-economics of their lives determined for them before they have a chance to decide for themselves what kind of person they want to be. I’m a little optimistic, and this probably sounds very naive, but I don’t believe we can expect change if we don’t give children the tools to want more. And the best (and possibly only) way for that to happen is to give schools money to educate, inspire, and occasionally even feed these kids. If that’s all we can do, then maybe that’s good enough, and I don’t mind paying my taxes for that.
I think the topic is lazy, too, but to be fair, it could be the editor who tells the journalist “Ooooh, make him talk about his background!”
That whole posh family/background/education thing is just getting old. It comes up time and again with a handful of UK actors and I am beginning to find it tiresome. I really don’t care where someone came from and whether their family had money or not. If I like their work, that’s all that matters to me. I understand that that class thing is a bigger issue in the UK than it is in the US but there are only so many ways you can rehash it.
No one should ever have to apologize for or explain their background, whether it’s wealth or poverty. And endlessly being asked about it would make anyone uncomfortable.
I was posh-bashed! I don’t mean by nasty keyboard warriors. I mean punched in the nose by glue-sniffing female skinheads. And I lived in the one owner-occupied street on a post-war council estate – are they called projects in the US? It’s all relative. I was posh-bashed because I wore a posh school uniform. And I guess I was posh to those ladeez. Even if they did live three houses up from me. Perhaps uppity is a better British word for it; you might get away with being posh but you can never be uppity.
Benny the Bitch is being disingenuously bitchy. To the 99%, he’s POSH.
In the US,”uppity” has race connotations. Which makes sense, because that is how a lot of class lines are drawn here. IMO.
That makes complete sense, achilly. White People’s Problems = Posh People’s Problems. I’m inclined to see the perceived disparity in social mobility between the UK and the US as largely illusory, but perceptions count for a lot.
It is pretty much illusory. We in the US like to pretend we have no issues whatsoever especially since we’re this ‘utopia’ of well being. Issues are what other countries have (assuming we acknowledge others countries even exist).
I dont agree that it illusory. I say that as someone who has lived both in the UK and the US. That said Benny should just own his poshness, he is a harrow boy for crying out loud. Just make fun of yourself and move on Benny!
MEH. Metro doesn’t have the interview. Those quotes were rehashed, they were like a year old! GQ even posted a differently colored cover.
Her friend Helen (@kite311) has read it though and she said it’s one of the best interviews he has done. And even posted a quote from it
“Interviewing Cumberbatch is a bit like being a matador, but one trying to influence the direction of a train”.
Where did you see the full interview?
Helen, his friend on Twitter read it already. She posted that quote and said the interview is great. Here’s the final cover from GQ http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2013-12/02/benedict-cumberbatch-gq-cover-sherlock.
Woops. I should have said HIS friend on my OP. :b
Acting is just like elsewhere in the british society, money and connection rules. Most british actors are posh ( Hiddleston, Redmayne and damian lewis for instance) and went to public schools, most working class and lower middle class kids could never afford Rada or any of those drama schools or universities.
The current artistic director at shakespeares globe has spoken about how the thinning of the social spectrum is a real threat to british theatre.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10011301/Dominance-of-public-school-actors-is-a-real-worry-says-artistic-director-of-Shakespeares-Globe.html
Its not likely to get any better since the cameron government butchered the funding for college students.
“I hope he threatens to move to America again!” Kaiser, you’re too much. <3
Blabla. Cumby-stuff. Who cares? I’m more intrigued by that headline “Silicon Valley Sex God! Google’s Eric Schmidt’s virtual sex life”. Whaaaat?
Poor little rich boy!
yeah, poor posh lizard
His quip about Madonna was hysterical. Love him! He’s so witty.
And if he needs a gf… honey, I’m in Washington, DC. Just a plane ride away!
That’s rather a nice cover shot of him!
I’m going to be in the audience at Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday and I CANNOT WAIT. Will report back on everything Cumby!
Oh enjoy!!
We should think of a random word that you shout out so we can hear you! haha
Huzzah!
The Jimmy Kimmel show is great and he is so funny. It should be a great interview. Really looking forward to it.
The cover foto is gorgeous, tho’ how anyone can get past the eyes to fuss about a turtleneck sweater is beyond me. As for the whole ‘port out, starboard home’ discussion, it’s simply tiresome. Money & influence play a role no matter which country is involved. Let’s rather celebrate BC for his tremendous talent & those heart-stopping eyes & try to forget/forgive his inferiority complex about having attended only #2 Harrow (instead of #1 Eton) & Birmingham (instead of Oxbridge). As for me, all’s right with the world & I’m back to backsides.
I dont think anyone is saying he isnt talented. He is. But for my money its a bit lame of him to go on about posh baiting like its a human rights issue lol. Its only being brought up because he talks about it.
Yes, he does talk about it, & I feel sure he’d love to stop. I recall this started within the context of the kind of roles he was getting, & this goes back a couple of years when people first began to notice him. That was when he said things in interviews like this: (when asked about the parts he had had & I’m paraphrasing) “I tend to get cast as sort of pale, wan asexual posh intellectuals….”
Since then, it’s been a steady stream of `posh posh posh Harrow he’s posh no he’s not posh Harrow posh….’ I think perhaps I hear the word “posh” attached to his name more often than Posh Beckham.
I agree with the poster upthread who remarked that he must be tired by now of the same formulaic topics that he is constantly asked about. Anyone would be fed up with those subjects by now. Because he tends to talk without much of a filter (something I believe is changing for him) he painted himself into a corner with the posh subject & now no one will shut up about it.
More British actors are posh than not, aren’t they? I think we should give the Cumby a break. Tom Hiddleston’s pinkie toes are posher than Cumby’s entire magnificent body & you hear very little about that. Tommy is really posh—his parents had tons of money & I’ll bet he never had to work if he didn’t want to.
I went on far too long about this ‘-}
So basically he brought it on himself by complaining about his casting? Sounds like his own fault then. Everyone has a casting type. Only the very best actors can play whoever they want so whats he complaining about? He has a great career.
For anybody in the UK (permanently or around Christmas) BBC Radio 4 are doing an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere starring Benedict and James McAvoy, it starts on Christmas Night at 11pm and then continues over the next week, might be worth a listen for his speaking voice alone (even if he is posh) and then there’s James McAvoy….(sigh – this is what British actors do in their spare time, literary adaptations on the Radio…)
Just to be baity…
So, we’re not going to talk about the pictures of him and the brunette with the sexay lipstick, then?
Is this one of the women from the Royal shindig last week?
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/karin_woywod/11451123/3759154/3759154_original.jpg
The one on his left is Jonathan Ross’ wife Jane. Not sure who the other lady is but it’s not the one with the gorge red lipstick in the thumbnails above. It’s possible they were just walking in at the same time as he doesn’t really pay attention to her and isn’t sitting with her or photographed with her apart from that.
(I can but hope)
They’re up in the thumbnail pics. I’ve got Kaiser’s number – I know what she’s up to.
The Lady to his left is Brooke Barzun, wife of Matthew Barzun.
Well, we know they’re not “together,” otherwise the Fail would’ve run that as front page news under “SHERLOCK’S NEW LOVE? BENNY GOES FOR BRUNETTES AFTER BLONDE RUSSIAN HEARTBREAK!”
“has unlucky-in-love Benedict finally found happiness?”
I’m actually surprised they haven’t run that anyway. I’d also like to go on the record as wanting sexay brunette’s hair.
@T.Fanty : “IT’S TRUE LOVE, SOURCES CLAIM!” Because of course it always is.
LOL Same here re the hair. And I want to know the name of the lipstick. I can never find a good red.
Really dude? come ON stop complaining about being called posh. Its hardly an insult. *rolls eyes*
The average yearly income in the UK is something like 25K. So the idea that someone who sends their child to a 30k school isnt posh is pretty ridiculous.
I believe that the brunette with lipstick is a girlfriend of Allen Leech. There were several pics of Ben, Allen and the girl plus Michelle Dockery and her bf from that gala.
Whoops, nothing to see here, sorry!
The arts grant from Harrow is whatever percent (they list 5 as ‘average’ and don’t disclose a set figure) + the gateway into bursaries if you need more aid. Truth is, we don’t know how much they paid.
I always thought it was odd he went to LAMDA and only did a one-year certificate at the time. Normally, you do the three year to be competitive. It’s not like he had enough work on, he was waiting tables.
Anyways, the source here is the Daily Mail’s free tabloid rag paper and that cover is off-tint. Probably should wait for the genuine article.
I would like to say thank you to all the people who contribute to this blog. For whatever reason it has been clear from my first awareness of this site (less than one year) that the commenters are from different parts of the world. I really enjoy the various viewpoints and the efforts made to clarify posts and the efforts made to NOT be mean. This discussion of private vs public school education I find fascinating because the type of education received can be vastly different. For example @Spooks from Croatia I only recently learned that while a private school education here in the US is looked on highly where as in some countries it is not a place where you receive a quality education.
Also I really like the loose knitted turtleneck look on Curly Fu. It works very well with his long neck and face. A fitted one would accentuate his features badly.
I agree with you that this blog is fun, informative, sometimes wonderfully silly and other times full of thought and meaning. In my mid 60’s so call me cumberhag I guess. Not since Jeremy Irons has an actor been more fascinating to me (Frankenstein) and he has the goods on every level. Thank you all!
Is no one going to talk about the fact he’s probably wearing at least five layers in the tweed pic? (I’m assuming he’s wearing an undershirt.)
I suspect that’s how they talked him into such f*ckery. When he wavered, on the grounds that dressing up in tweed didn’t help his “upper middle isn’t posh” argument, they bribed him with an extra capey layer.
He looks like he’s on his way to a strip poker game with a group of obsessive Cumberbitches, and is wearing as much clothing as possible in hopes of avoiding complete nudity.
My money’s still on the Cumberbitches, though.
The smart money always is.
LOL, true! I can also practically hear him say “More layers, please!” And now I’m picturing him looking like Randy in “A Christmas Story” after too many scarves, sweaters, etc.: http://www.ae.com/blog/how-to-wear-it-aerie-cold-weather-accessories/christmas-story-2/
I answered my own question, lol. According to one of TIFF print roundtable interviews, he only did one year at LAMDA because the three-year was too expensive. He did two years at Manchester and one at LAMDA. Grandmother paid for 2/3 of his Harrow tuition.
Thanks for that. I knew his Gran paid a lot and what she didn’t/couldn’t cover meant his family had to come up with the rest. They all worked hard for his top notch education. He is often quoted about how he appreciates what his family did to allow him his public school education.
I knew in one of his interviews he spoke about needing to pay his way through LAMDA and did the certificate rather than the MA that many of his peers received.
A grand mother who can pay £20,000 a year for school fees must be pretty well off-sounds as if he came from posh roots even if his parents were just jobbing actors. But its all labels and relativity. One mans posh is another mans trailer trash. It would probably help if he did not come over as superior on occasions.
Icerose, I think some of that ‘superiority’ isn’t actually coming from him though. I think it’s something the UK press likes to inflate for sales…
The GQ article is truly wonderful.
It makes no difference to the outcome of this, his family clearly has money. I am british, like someone posted upthread the average annual income in our country doesn’t even touch the annual tuition fees at Harrow. Needless to say the vast majority of people would not be able to send their kids to such a school and this is why it remains an elitist school.
Also the post graduate acting course he did at LAMDA is a course where you are not entitled to funding so he would have had to pay the full tuition fees something like 20K out of his own pocket. This is unlike the 3 year course were you can receive local government grants, loans and bursaries and as such makes it more affordable to people from all walks of life. He most likely did that particular course because he had already spend years at University.
I made a comment upthread that i dislike this side of him, I don’t mean that it in any way is bad to be posh just that he should own it. Benedict has a tendency to act as if people have done him wrong by labelling him posh when he clearly comes an uber privileged background.
@Han
He should have gotten the 3-year regardless of his 2 years at uni. Almost all his peers have a 3 year, it’s what is competitive. He did say he would have needed loans for it, I’m just surprised he didn’t do it. I realize he got some work after graduating but he was also waiting tables so it wasn’t enough work.
I think he was very privileged in terms of education and definitely should own that but nowhere near as well off as people think (dwindling money family).
He can def handle it better (does seem to be learning) but seems to take it too personally, if that’s the right word? It’s as if he sees it as a dig at his parents, who did definitely sacrifice to send him to school. They both started taking whatever and it damaged their careers, especially his mom’s.
““You’re the one with the strange name”. I said, “Yes, I am, Madonna…” – HA! The snark is strong with this one! Cumberbatch, we would get along so well. You should see me with customers at my work. 😀
I am kind of aware of the class system in the UK. There is a similar, less intense version in Australia, particularly in Sydney ; a lot of suburbs are in a way, “classist”). Who cares if he went to private school or not. What matters is that you make the best of what you have. An education is important – it gives you options. Neither of my parents had the opportunity to go to university. They immigrated to Australia from Uruguay to make sure that my brothers and I had the opportunities that they didn’t. I suppose what I am trying to say is that it’s important to be grateful about the opportunities given to you and to respect where you come from.
There’s a scan of the GQ interview up. It’s long but yes, the posh thing is an old quote they attribute back to Radio Times over a year ago and that’s about the end of any class conversations.
http://toviv.tumblr.com/post/68814093838/benedict-cumberbatch-gq-interview-by-stuart
On the IMDb boards someone scanned the whole thing and it’s readable. 🙂 It’s a very nice interview. Enjoy.
The GQ interview is a wonderful read.
The interviewer gives him space to say what he wants to say and it made me admire Benedict even more. He has such a wonderful attitude to life.
Good article, but lecturing the pub staff about coffee!? How rude!
@Mary
?
‘Grilling’ the guy about what that drink is exactly means he was asking a ton of questions about the ingredients, how it was made, etc. Not lecturing, being curious.
Ha, ups. My understanding of the English language is obviously not as good as I thought. Sorry my bad.
@ Mary
Not a problem! It made me laugh, he’s apparently one of those people who asks a million questions.
The reason why Cumberbatch probably gets fed up is that others actors don’t forever get faced with “you went to such and such a comprehensive school didn’t you” . The Cumberbatches and the Hiddlestons can’t help what their family background is any more than you or I. I judge people by how they behave in general and towards other people in particular.
BTW Hiddleston’s father came from a very working class background and worked his way up through hard work and ability I believe. Can’t blame him for wanting to do he could for the best for his kids.
BTW, there is an awful lot of inverted snobbery in Britain.
@ spiderjoe32
I don’t think people should feel shame for advantages they were born into either. This is not limited to them. Tom Hardy is from a nice middle class background and went to £20,000+ plus a year boarding schools but has played that down for years. Damian Lewis admitted he used to hide that he went to Eton so he could get a better range of parts.
Hiddleston’s father and Cumberbatch’s mother were both working class (that is why BC’s mother constantly played working class characters, background does influence casting).
I agree Hiddleston’s father wanted them to have the best that money could get, that’s a natural desire for any parent. Cumberbatch’s parents thought Harrow was the way to go because his former school said he needed to be in a more rigid environment, lol.
Will someone please post a link to the article?
never mind. i found it. that was lovely, indeed.