Here are some photos from this week’s New York premiere of The Roses, a remake (not really) of The War of the Roses, the 1989 film starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. The two films are based on the same source material (a book by Warren Adler). This new film stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as a British-transplant couple living in Malibu and having an extremely contentious divorce. Olivia and Bendy have been paired together for all of the film’s promotion, and they have an easy chemistry together – a chemistry of old friends, nothing more, really. I enjoyed this piece in the Guardian, where Olivia and Bendy talk about love, marriage and the difference between American humor and British humor. Some highlights:
Benedict is a bigger fan of America: “You don’t have to stay in your lane over there. You can keep evolving.” He talks about how “history speaks to a more nefarious version” of the idea that Britons are refined and Yanks brutes. He also questions the charge levelled by the film: that Americans don’t get irony. “It taps into that cliche: that Brits say to each other things that are really quite cruel, cold and barbed – and Americans just think it’s funny. But maybe that’s changed. Look at the roasting thing … Barbarically cruel. Not at all epigrammatic.”
Olivia on swearing: “Oh I go much worse [internationally]. My first time in America, my lovely team went: [nervous American accent] ‘Um, I know you like the c-word. We can’t do the c-word here.’ And then the LA Times asked me about David Tennant and I said: ‘Oh, total c–t!’ and you could see everyone’s colour just draining. It’s because I was told not to.”
Benedict on romanticizing love: “By its very nature, yes. And I think that’s fine. Classicism has given us this sort of romantic ideal of love, which is impossible to live up to. Those two things wrestle: it’s great to fall in love, but eventually one of you will be dog-tired and doing the bins….There has to be this cool thing beyond the idealism of vows.” He talks mistily about his wedding. “It’s such a powerful thing to express love and then have it reflected back with your friends and family. But to find something beyond that heightened moment, you have to think a bit more deeply than just the party of love.”
His character confesses to feeling “great waves of dizzying hatred” for his wife. Is that incompatible with love? Cumberbatch gulps. “God, this is like a Trojan horse to our [private] lives. When you’re living closely with someone, you go through all the extremes of life. That’s really what love is: getting through them.” A pause. “I’m not sure I’ve felt massive hatred,” says Colman. “I didn’t mean that,” he says, quickly. “But moments when you’re not massively in love.”
For the record, I don’t think Benedict is confessing that there’s trouble in Hunterbatch paradise – whenever we see Sophie and Benedict out together, they seem happy enough, and she IS the mother of his three kids. I think he’s just being realistic, that you’re not achingly and romantically in love with your spouse 24-7. As for the differences between British humor and American humor…I think that, more than any other two nationalities, Americans and Brits understand each other and “get” each other’s humor. If that makes sense? I also think British humor relies too heavily on irony.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- NYC Premiere of “The Roses” held at the Hudson Theater,Image: 1031419549, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch, Credit line: Udo Salters/Wenn/Avalon
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- NYC Premiere of “The Roses” held at the Hudson Theater,Image: 1031419666, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch,Olivia Colman, Credit line: Udo Salters/Wenn/Avalon
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- NYC Premiere of “The Roses” held at the Hudson Theater,Image: 1031419676, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch,Kathleen Turner,Olivia Colman, Credit line: Udo Salters/Wenn/Avalon
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- NYC Premiere of “The Roses” held at the Hudson Theater,Image: 1031419710, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Olivia Colman, Credit line: Udo Salters/Wenn/Avalon
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- NYC Premiere of “The Roses” held at the Hudson Theater,Image: 1031419718, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Benedict Cumberbatch, Credit line: Udo Salters/Wenn/Avalon
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- Red carpet for the New York premiere of ‘The Roses’ at the Hudson theatre Featuring: Benedict Cumberbatch Where: New York, New York, United States When: 25 Aug 2025 Credit: Barbara Hine/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
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- Red carpet for the New York premiere of ‘The Roses’ at the Hudson theatre Featuring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman Where: New York, New York, United States When: 25 Aug 2025 Credit: Barbara Hine/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
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- Red carpet for the New York premiere of ‘The Roses’ at the Hudson theatre Featuring: Kate McKinnon, Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andy Samberg Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 25 Aug 2025 Credit: mpi099/MediaPunch/INSTARimages
I don’t know about Americans getting Brits – far too many times I have had to explain things that I think are perfectly clear to American friends. I certainly think New Zealanders and Australians who have a lot of British input, whether through family or British programmes, get Brits better.
I do agree with his stay in your lane comment – it is very British, particularly in the media, to put people in a box or label them and expect them to always be that.
I actually think of the idea of American individualism a lot, because we’ve seen it reach really toxic levels in the last couple of decades. There is a degree of ‘exceptionalism’ to it — it encourages ambition and hard work and defining yourself through effort — but these days it’s so often paired with “at the expense of everyone else.” That’s what we’ve seen with Trump populism and MAGA: I’ll fight for what’s good for me and eff everyone else.
Awww, Kathleen Turner!
Poor thing, she’s got severe rheumatoid arthritis. People tend to say really ugly things about her — she’s fat, she’s an alcoholic — when in fact she’s struggling with terrible pain and debilitating side-effects from various medications.
What he says about “staying in your lane” is true. We have classism here and an increasingly problematic and self-perpetuating wealth gap, but it’s not the same as in the UK or even Australia. There’s not nearly as great a sense that you are who your grandparents were, or that you shouldn’t or can’t try to reach your goals or make your own fortune, or that Old Money is better than New Money.
What I’ve always thought is the true American spirit is the ability to reinvent oneself. Not that it’s easy, but you can return to school at 50 or move thousands of miles and still be in the US. You can be a farmer in Nebraska one year and a barista in Manhattan the next. This was for a few decades between segregation and fascism a nation that had potential to live up to its promise of being a land of opportunity. Far from perfect but the potential existed.
For whites anyway…
Yes, the post-WWII Golden Age is over. And what Constance said is true. There was an expression “You’re Free, White, and 21” meaning “What’s stopping you?” They should have added “and male.” I still hold that the US is less class constricted that the UK is. People there care who your parents were, where you grew up, what your accent is, where you went to school, more than they do here. But the gap is narrowing.
Think of how the upper ranks of the military were staffed in WWI and WWII, for example. In Britain “gentlemen” were made officers automatically regardless of military background and training. That was true to some degree in the US, because to become an officer you had to do well on a written test. But it was easier to make a career in the military, to rise through the ranks, even if you can from a humble background. And they didn’t care who your parents were or whether you came from the upper classes so long as you could ace that test.
And that’s one reason England fumbled the war so badly in the beginning. And frankly Churchill, for all of his merits as a wartime leader, fumbled things badly in BOTH wars too at the beginning.
I specifically said “post segregation,” which does not include the world wars.
Bendy gave us pinglings. And for that I will be forever grateful. But I find him very tiresome. Not at all epigrammatic. And yes I had to look that up.
people forget that the C word is a term of endearment in parts of the UK (Scotland, mostly). so Olivia saying that about David makes sense. I love them together in Broadchurch
He’s a rich white male…he can do whatever he wants in America and probably everywhere else
Isn’t that clear by now?
I’ve always liked Benedict. Talented actor and humble guy.